Former Harvard faculty member, White House official named as new dean of SPEA

John D. Graham, former Harvard faculty member and former top official with the White House Office of Management and Budget, has been chosen as the new dean of the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs.\nThe appointment, which is subject to approval by the board of trustees, will take effect Aug. 1, according to an IU press release.\n“It is an honor for me to assume the deanship of one of our nation’s finest public affairs programs,” Graham said in a press release. “I look forward to working with IU SPEA faculty, students and alumni as we address urgent issues such as health care, energy, environment and the loss of manufacturing employment in Indiana and the nation.”\nSince March 2006, Graham has served as the dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, Calif. Five years before that, he served as an administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, according to a press release.\nThe previous SPEA dean, Astrid Merget, left in 2007 to become provost and executive vice president of Louisiana State University. Professor C. Kurt Zorn has served as interim dean for the past year. \n“I am pleased that John Graham will be leading the School of Public and Environmental Affairs,” Lauren Robel, dean of the IU School of Law and chair of the search committee that selected Graham, said in a press release. “SPEA is an excellent school that deserves an excellent leader, and in Graham, it will be getting energy, vision and integrity.”\nWith a doctorate in urban and public affairs from Carnegie-Mellon University, Graham spent 16 years at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he was a faculty member, deputy chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management and founding director of the Center for Risk Analysis, which he also led from 1989 to 2001, according to a press release. \nWhile working at the Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2006, Graham oversaw federal regulatory policy and statistical policy and information, and directed a staff of 50 career policy analysts. \nGraham is also the author or co-author of seven books. \nCharles Bantz, chancellor of IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis, announced Graham’s appointment. “Dean Graham brings scholarly distinction, national public service and decanal experience to a distinguished school,” Bantz said. “His leadership will enhance SPEA’s research, education and civic engagement and carry on the school’s 35-year history of making vital contributions to Indiana, the nation and the world.”\nSPEA was created in 1972 and has earned national distinction for innovative educational programs that combine administrative, social, economic, financial and environmental disciplines. Last month, the U.S. News and World Report ranked it as the No. 2 school for graduate programs in public affairs, according to a press release.