Head Ec10 TF To Depart Harvard After Spring Term

UPDATED: Nov. 10, 2014 at 11:31 a.m.

David W. Johnson, longtime senior preceptor and head teaching fellow for Economics 10: “Principles of Economics,” which consistently draws one of the highest enrollments at the College, will depart Harvard at the close of the academic year.

Johnson and his wife, Anne Pringle, an associate professor in the Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department, will be moving to Wisconsin at the end of the academic year.

Economics Department Chair N. Gregory Mankiw, who leads Ec 10, said he regrets the loss of Johnson, who he said is “a fantastic teacher and [has been] very influential and charismatic—he has a lot a lot of energy.”

“The whole class appreciates how much he deeply cares about teaching economics,” Mankiw said. “Sadly, this will be the last year that Harvard students will benefit from that.”

Mankiw said the move was prompted by Pringle’s search for a teaching position, after she was not offered tenure at Harvard.

“[Pringle] didn’t get promoted to a tenured position, so she started looking for jobs, and she got a great job at the University of Wisconsin, and David got a job there as well,” Mankiw said.

Johnson wrote in an email that he will serve as a senior lecturer in the Economics Department and Pringle an associate professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

As senior preceptor and head teaching fellow, Johnson is responsible for staffing Economics 10 sections and training all section leaders, as well as preparing the course materials.

“David’s departure is a huge loss,” Economics Director of Undergraduate Study Jeffrey A. Miron wrote in an email. “He has been an incredible asset to Ec10.”

The Economics Department is currently beginning the search for Johnson’s replacement.

“There have been many people that have had the job over the years, and I am sure that we will find someone who is great,” Mankiw said.

Johnson said he will miss students and the diversity of the undergraduate community at Harvard.

“The admissions office gets it right here—they continue to send us extremely talented young people of every country and creed, each with as much to teach us as we can teach them,” Johnson said.

—Staff writer Carolina I. Portela-Blanco can be reached at cportelablanco@college.harvard.edu.