McIntosh To Leave Office of Student Life

Joshua G. McIntosh, the associate dean who had been picked to temporarily lead the Office of Student Life after Dean Suzy M. Nelson’s departure in June for a position at Colgate College, will leave Harvard himself in August to become Dean of Academic Services at Johns Hopkins University.

During his six and a half years at Harvard, McIntosh had a hand in developing the College’s gender-neutral housing policy, improving House grilles and other campus social spaces, opening the new Office of BGLTQ Student Life, and coordinating swing space housing for the Quincy House residents who will be displaced by the renovation of Old Quincy in the upcoming school year.

Calling McIntosh’s departure “a huge loss for the College,” Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds announced McIntosh’s new appointment in an email to College staff.

“Josh has been an outstanding leader in Harvard College, and numerous students have benefited from his tireless efforts,” Hammonds wrote.

McIntosh, who recently completed his Ph.D. in higher education administration from Syracuse University, wrote in an email to The Crimson that the job offer from Johns Hopkins represented an opportunity to grow professionally.

“While the decision to leave Harvard was not an easy one, it is the right time to begin a new professional journey,” McIntosh wrote.

The announcement of McIntosh’s departure comes two and a half months after Nelson announced that she would be leaving the College at the end of June.

Nelson’s and McIntosh’s departures leave a void at the helm of the Office of Student Life, where only two of the top four deans will be returning to the College in the fall.

In March, McIntosh was tapped to fill Nelson’s place as interim dean of student life. When McIntosh leaves in August, Associate Dean of Student Life David R. Friedrich will take over the interim dean position until a permanent replacement is named, Hammonds wrote in her email.

Over the past year, Hammonds has seen the departure of two more top administrators, her senior adviser Paul J. McLoughlin and Assistant Dean of Student Life Susan B. Marine.

McIntosh, formerly an administrator at Syracuse, came to Harvard in 2006 as an assistant dean. In 2009, when the Office of Student Life was created as part of the reorganization of the College administrative structure, McIntosh was promoted to associate dean.

McIntosh wrote that during his time at Harvard, he has particularly enjoyed working on initiatives that advance inclusion at the College. When he leaves Harvard, McIntosh wrote, he will miss most “the extraordinary students and the wonderful colleagues who have also become close friends over the years.”

—Staff writer Rebecca D. Robbins can be reached at rrobbins@college.harvard.edu.