Carol Lancaster (SFS ’64), interim dean of the School of Foreign Service, has been appointed by University President John J. DeGioia and University Provost James O’Donnell to head the SFS for the long term.
Lancaster fills the post vacated by former Dean Robert Gallucci, who announced in March 2009 that he would leave the position to become president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The search committee for a new dean was formed in late April of last year, and Lancaster took over as interim dean on July 1.
In an e-mail sent to the university community Thursday afternoon, DeGioia said, “Please join me in extending a warm welcome to Dean Lancaster as she assumes the deanship on a permanent basis. I very much look forward to our continued work together and the dynamic leadership she will bring to the School of Foreign Service.”
Lancaster joined the SFS faculty in 1989 as an assistant professor, and then served as the deputy administrator for USAID from 1993 to 1996. She returned to the university in 1996, serving in positions such as the director of the Masters of Science in Foreign Service program as well as the director of the Mortara Center for International Studies.
Before today’s announcement, Lancaster did not set any expectations that she would do more than oversee the transition process in her role as Gallucci’s temporary replacement.
“An interim dean needs to make sure things run smoothly and begin to develop issues and options for the permanent dean – that is as far as I have gotten in my plans so far,” she said to The Hoya in April 2009 when it was announced that Lancaster would serve as the interim dean beginning in July, following Gallucci’s exit.
Over the course of the academic year, Lancaster has reached out to campus groups and has hosted a series of monthly discussions with the SFS community on relevant issues. By helping to establish a student working group, she also addressed opposition to the SFS Map of the Modern World curriculum changes that occurred during her time as interim dean.
Angela Stent, professor in the government department and director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, led the search committee. In late March, Stent told The Hoya that the committee had interviewed several candidates for the position in the previous month.
At that time, the Office of the President confirmed that the search committee would appoint a new SFS dean by the end of the academic year.
The search committee partnered with SpencerStuart, an executive search consulting firm, to identify eligible candidates. “The most desirable candidate is one who is both a scholar and practitioner in international affairs,” the SpencerStuart position and candidate specification report said. The SFS dean is tasked with bolstering the SFS’ position in the field of international studies, coordinating relationships between the SFS and other Georgetown communities and increasing the SFS’ “visibility and participation in national and international policy discussions,” according to the report.
Other members of the search committee included faculty in the SFS; Marjory Blumenthal, associate provost for academics; Edward Quinn, university secretary; Jane Stromseth, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center; and a representative each of the undergraduate and graduate SFS student bodies.
