Harvard, Claudine Gay is the first black president in the history of the University

IS the first black person and the second woman to lead the Ivy League school: Claudine Gay, on July 1, will become the 30th president of theHarvard University.

She will succeed Lawrence Bacow, who stepped down to spend more time with his family, and who says of her: “She is a formidable academic leader with a sharp mind, great leadership, communication and judgment skills, and a restraint and kindness that will do good at Harvard. But perhaps most important is that manages to get respect of all those who know her and have worked with her».

Daughter of Haitian immigrantsClaudine Gay joined Harvard as a professor of African and African-American Studies in 2006 and has since explored a variety of topics, including how different social and economic factors shape political opinion and voting.

Gay is also the founding president of Harvard’s inequality in Americawhich studies the effects of childhood poverty and deprivation on American educational opportunities and inequality from a global perspective.

In his first speech after his appointment, Gay explained how urgent it is for the university to integrate more and more with the outside world and to “bring bold, courageous and pioneering thinking to our greatest challenges. The idea of ​​the “ivory tower” is the past, not the future of academia. We do not exist outside society, but as part of it. This means that Harvard has a duty to be committed and serve the world.”

With his appointment, there will be more women than men among the heads of the eight Ivy League schools. Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania have been chaired by women since earlier this year, and Brown and Cornell were before that. On the other hand, Columbia, Princeton and Yale are headed by male presidents.

Claudine Gay is the only black president of the Ivy League and the second-ever black woman, after Ruth Simmons, who led Brown University from 2001 to 2012.