About FD&D

Faculty Development & Diversity (FD&D) serves as Harvard’s central faculty affairs office, coordinating efforts to recruit and retain outstanding scholars and teachers as we make increasing progress in diversifying Harvard’s faculty. We place a special emphasis on tenure-track faculty and on women and other historically marginalized groups at all academic ranks. 

To achieve these goals, FD&D:

  • coordinates efforts to strengthen Harvard’s faculty; 
  • provides University-wide programs that improve faculty life and enhance diversity; 
  • and collects, analyzes, and disseminates data on faculty demographics and appointments. 

The Senior Vice Provost is a key adviser in the ad hoc tenure process, reviews tenure-track and senior non-ladder appointments in selected Schools, reviews School requests to appoint faculty to endowed chairs, and administers central funds that facilitate the appointment of outstanding faculty who simultaneously increase faculty excellence and diversity.

Our History

In May 2005, the Task Force on Women Faculty and the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering jointly recommended that a senior position in Harvard's central administration be created to address and support faculty development and faculty diversity at Harvard. The position is the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity, and it is currently held by Professor Judith D. Singer, who reports directly to the President and the Provost.

In September 2005, Harvard University created the Office of Faculty Development & Diversity. Conclusions and recommendations from the 2005 Women's Task Forces and the 2003 strategic study of organization in the President and Provost Offices indicated that Harvard required greater capacity within the Provost's Office to provide central leadership and oversight for faculty affairs.


Report of the Task Force on Women Faculty

Report of the Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering (WISE)

Senior Vice Provosts

Judith D. Singer
Term: 2008 to Present
James Bryant Conant Professor of Education
Faculty page | Assisted by Roba Khorshid

Evelynn M. Hammonds
Term: 2005 to 2008
Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, and Professor of African and African American Studies
Faculty page | Assisted by Ellen Guarente