Johns Hopkins Selects Lieberman as Provost

Interim Dean Robert C. Lieberman will leave SIPA to become provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at The Johns Hopkins University, President Ronald J. Daniels of Johns Hopkins announced today.

A professor of political science and public affairs, Lieberman has has taught at SIPA and in Columbia's Department of Political Science since 1994. He became interim dean of SIPA in February 2012, after serving previously as vice dean and chairman of the Department of International and Public Affairs.

President Lee C. Bollinger had said before the announcement that he would name a permanent dean of SIPA before the end of this semester. Lieberman will continue to serve as interim dean through June 30, by which time a new dean will be in place.

Lieberman's "scholarship and his skill as a senior administrator have been valued at SIPA for almost 20 years," Bollinger said. "I want to thank Rob for all he has done and, on behalf of Columbia, to wish him every success at Johns Hopkins."

A provost is typically the top academic official at a university, and Lieberman will be SIPA's third consecutive leader to leave the School for such a position. Lieberman's predecessor, John Coatsworth, became Columbia's provost in 2012, and the previous dean, Lisa Anderson, left SIPA in 2008 to become provost of the American University in Cairo, where she now serves as president.

As vice dean and later interim dean, Lieberman focused his work on the reimagining of global public policy education, helping to craft a new category of intellectual endeavor and new styles of policy instruction for the 21st century. In 2011, he convened a conference on the future of global public policy education to consider its core mission as a field, with an emphasis on intellectual foundations, curriculum, and research. Lieberman has been instrumental in the recruitment and appointment of internationally accomplished faculty to SIPA and in 2009 co-chaired the process that restructured SIPA's curriculum.

In a letter to the SIPA community, Lieberman wrote in part:

"While I am looking forward to this new professional challenge, [SIPA] will always be a special home for me. ... I am extremely proud of what we have done together to strengthen the School and set it on a path to even greater excellence and distinction. I am confident that SIPA has a very bright future ahead of it, which I will watch from afar with pleasure and pride."