Alan Garber

Alan Michael Garber (born 1955) is an American academic administrator. He is the Provost of Harvard University.

Early life

Alan Garber was born in 1955. He graduated from Harvard University in 1977.^[1][2] He earned a PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1982, and an MD from Stanford University in 1983.^[1][2]

Career

Garber is the Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, a Professor of Economics in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Public Policy in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Harvard School of Public Health.^[3][4]

Garber succeeded Steven Hyman as the provost of Harvard University on September 1, 2011.^[1][2]

Controversy about Graduate Student Unionization

In July 2016, Harvard University’s Office of the Provost launched a web page in response to its graduate students’ efforts to unionize.^[5] On August 23, 2016 following the Columbia decision which restored union rights to teaching and research assistants, the Provost’s office wrote in an email to students, “we continue to believe that the relationship between students and the University is primarily about education, and that unionization will disrupt academic programs and freedoms, mentoring, and research at Harvard.”^[6] Following a decision by the Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board that the employer was in violation of the Excelsior rule,Garber has defended the university’s appeal to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. in communications to Harvard students.^[7] Garber, defending Harvard’s request that the NLRB revise the Excelsior decision, wrote, “The University believes that the November 2016 election results, which reflect the votes and voices of well-informed students, should stand, and has appealed the Regional Director’s decision to the contrary.”^[8]

Personal life

Garber has a wife, Anne Yahanda, and four children.^[2]

References