Public Relations Official to Depart

Harvard’s director of community relations for Cambridge is leaving his post to join a local philanthropic organization—the second high-ranking University public affairs official to depart in the last six months.

Travis McCready—who has worked in the Office of Government, Community and Public Affairs since May 2000—will become the chief of staff and corporate secretary of the Boston Foundation, a $700 million philanthropic organization focused on improving educational and social services in the city through grants and local partnerships.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” McCready said yesterday. “The Boston Foundation does some great things, and this is a chance for me to get my hands in up to my elbows in the work they do.”

McCready leaves the University at a time when relations between Harvard and Cambridge have soured over a series of building projects and perceived political slights.

“To a certain extent…I feel like I’m leaving the game in the third quarter,” McCready said. “[But] I think that even for a short stint, I’ve been able to be involved in years’ worth of work.”

Next month, at the age of 31, McCready will become one the five most senior officials at the Boston Foundation, serving as Foundation President Paul S. Grogan’s chief of staff—a role that includes managing scheduling, handling interoffice communications and coordinating some long-range initiatives.

Grogan himself left Harvard for the Boston Foundation in July, after serving for less than three years as the University’s vice president for government, community and public affairs.

Grogan approached McCready about the new position last month.

Grogan praised McCready’s personal and professional characteristics, saying he has the ideal background and experience for the job.

“He has great poise and maturity,” Grogan said. “He’s imperturbable and can deal with a lot of pressure.”

McCready received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and a law degree from the University of Iowa Law School in Iowa City. He spent two years teaching fifth grade at a public school in the Bronx, and then worked as an attorney in Minneapolis representing several non-profit clients before coming to Harvard to tackle Cambridge community relations.

McCready’s 18 months at Harvard had mixed success, as several key development projects and community initiatives led to tensions between Harvard, city officials and Cambridge residents.

Last spring, city officials responded harshly to the announcement of a $5 million commitment to Boston afterschool programs, questioning why Cambridge did not receive a similar commitment.

And Harvard’s efforts to build the Center for Government and International Affairs, on Cambridge Street continued to face community opposition before receiving initial approval last fall, and still must win backing from the City Council.

And most visibly, Harvard has faced vocal protests from Cambridge’s Riverside neighborhood over the proposed building of a modern art museum along the Charles River, with the City Council passing a development moratorium on the entire neighborhood last October.

McCready has served on a study committee examining development issues in Riverside since April, but little progress has been made. Mary H. Power, Harvard’s senior director of community relations, will now represent the University on the committee.

McCready said the obstacles he has faced involving Cambridge relations are natural, and that he did not expect all Harvard initiatives to go smoothly.

“Community affairs and community relationships are always works in progress,” McCready said. “If one thinks that one can walk into a situation and have the magic fix to it, they’re dead wrong.”

The history of difficult relations between Harvard and Cambridge goes back decades, particularly in the Riverside neighborhood, to the building of Peabody Terrace and Mather House in the 1970s.

“Fighting the institutional history of both Cambridge and Harvard is extremely difficult,” McCready said.

McCready said he wished residents and city officials were more cognizant of the benefits derived from the University and understood the relationship between Harvard and Cambridge is “symbiotic.”

“I think that folks in the community underestimate the amount and the intensity of dialogue and communication that exists between Cambridge and Harvard,” McCready said. “Any individual that lives in Cambridge has to appreciate what tangible and intangible benefits are brought by Harvard.”

But despite the difficulties, McCready said he will miss some aspects of his Harvard position.

“So much of this position and how I approach it is personal,” McCready said. “The people who work at this University are absolutely fantastic, and it’s hard to walk away from that.”

The University will fill McCready’s position after Harvard’s new Vice President of Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan Stone arrives in November from Columbia University.

—Staff writer Imtiyaz H. Delawala can be reached at delawala@fas.harvard.edu.