College Announces Three House Master Pairs

A professor studying corporate organization, a pioneer in stem cell research, and an expert in 18th-century French literature may not share much outside of being leaders in their fields, but thanks to Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds, the three will have one title in common—House Master.

Harvard Business School Professor Rakesh Khurana, Natural Sciences Professor Douglas A. Melton, and French and Comparative Literature Professor Christie McDonald and their spouses will lead Cabot, Eliot, and Mather Houses as House Masters next year, Hammonds announced Friday in an e-mail to the College community.

Along with Khurana at the helm of Cabot House will be Tobin Project Acting Executive Director Stephanie Khurana. Educational consultant Gail O’Keefe will join Melton, who also co-directs the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, at Eliot House. McDonald will be put in charge of Mather House, along with her husband, McGill University Associate Professor of Medicine Michael D. Rosengarten.

“Each of the new Masters—Professors Rakesh Khurana, Doug Melton, and Christie McDonald—are leading scholars in their fields,” Hammonds said in a statement. “But more important than their scholarly contributions, they are, alongside their spouses, wonderful, outgoing people who have a passion for working with and mentoring students.”

THE PROCESS

Last semester, Hammonds was left with the task of filling House Master positions in almost a quarter of Harvard’s undergraduate Houses. Within a span of two weeks during the end of 2009, Cabot House Masters Jay M. Harris and Cheryl L. Harris, Eliot House Masters Lino Pertile and Anna Bensted, and Mather House Masters Sandra F. Naddaff ’75 and Leigh G. Hafrey ’73 announced that they will step down from their positions at the end of the academic year, citing a variety of reasons ranging from a heavy workload to a general feeling that this academic year would be an appropriate one to have as their last.

As soon as the Masters announced their departures, Hammonds began the House Master search by canvassing faculty members potentially interested in the opportunity, Dean of Student Life Suzy M. Nelson said in February. Each House subsequently convened advisory groups—comprised of tutors, students, and staff—that met with House Master candidates. These committees provided nput on interested faculty members via questionnaires, but Hammonds ultimately made the final decisions, Nelson added.

THE PICKS

An author of three books and an organizational sociologist by training, Khurana conducts research on corporate leadership and teaches a doctoral seminar on management and corporate governance. Along with his wife Stephanie, a former co-founder and CEO of technology company Surebridge, Khurana will bring his three children—Sonia, Nalini, and Jai, who are 13, 11, and 7 years old, respectively—to Cabot House.

Melton, one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2007 and in 2009, has garnered acclaim as a leader in field of stem cell research. This year, he co-taught the introductory course in the newly-created Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology concentration. O’Keefe, his wife, works to improve high-risk students’ access to quality education as part of the Education Collaborative for Greater Boston.

McDonald, a world-renowned scholar of 18th-century French literature, focuses her research on the relationship between literature and the social sciences and arts. Her husband, a cardiologist, is the associate dean of the Center for Continuing Health Professional Education at McGill.

—Danielle J. Kolin contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.