PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (Feb. 24, 2023) – Prairie View A&M University will host A Conversation with Lawrence S. Bacow, president of Harvard University, on Monday, Feb. 27, in the Ernest Boyd and Floretta Brown Collins Auditorium.
The conversation moderated by PVAMU President Ruth J. Simmons will include a discussion targeted to faculty and staff on:
- the opportunities and challenges facing higher education;
- President Bacow’s reflections on his service at three of the nation’s leading institutions as chancellor and president;
- and his convening of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery, whose recommendations included developing enduring partnerships with Black Colleges and Universities.
President Bacow is widely regarded as one of the nation’s pre-eminent higher education leaders. His tenure at Harvard has been focused on advancing the University’s academic mission, while tackling complex global challenges such as the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a passionate advocate for the free exchange of ideas, for the interests of international students and scholars, and for the promise of a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive University that considers its future in the context of its past. Under his leadership, the Allston campus has changed and grown in important ways, including steps to bring the American Repertory Theater to the neighborhood.
From 2001 to 2011, Bacow served as president of Tufts University following 24 years on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he held the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professorship of Environmental Studies and served as Chair of the Faculty (1995-97) and as Chancellor (1998-2001). He received an S.B. in economics from MIT, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a Ph.D. in public policy from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Prior to his election to the Harvard presidency in February 2018, he served as a member of the Harvard Corporation (2011-18), a Hauser Leader-in-Residence at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (2014-18), and a President-in-Residence at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (2011-14).
Simmons began her academic career with a scholarship to Dillard University, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1967. She then continued to Harvard, earning her Ph.D. in Romance languages and literatures in 1973.
In 1997, she received Harvard University’s Centennial Medal from its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and in 2002, Simmons was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University. Most recently, she delivered the principal address at Harvard’s celebration of the Class of 2021.
-PVAMU-