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In Review: New Provost Named

Northwestern University Dean Named ProvostWith research expertise and academic leadership that cuts across economics, education, and social policy, David Figlio becomes Rochester’s chief academic officer this summer.By Sara Miller
University of Rochester provost David Figlio, northwestern deanACADEMIC OFFICER: As Rochester’s provost, Figlio will oversee four major academic units as well as several University-wide operations. (Photo: Northwestern University)

A Few Figlio Facts

A very brief introduction of Rochester’s new provost:

1. One of Figlio’s papers was recognized by the George Lucas Educational Foundation’s website Edutopia as among the 10 most significant education studies of 2021.

2. “An affirming, caring, responsive, authentic, and deeply humane leader” who has been particularly effective during the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s how faculty and staff described him in a recent review.

3. He developed and taught undergraduate courses as dean and hopes to teach at Rochester.

4. After a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University, he received a master’s degree and PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

5. Figlio and his wife, podcast producer Anne Ford, and their cats, Alice and Nigel, will live in the historic Patrick Barry House, the University’s official provost’s residence.

An internationally recognized economist and educational leader whose interdisciplinary research spans educational, health, public, and social policy has been named Rochester’s new provost.

David Figlio, currently the Orrington Lunt Professor of Education and Social Policy and dean of Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy and a fellow of the National Academy of Education, will begin his Rochester role on July 1.

As provost, Figlio will serve as Rochester’s chief academic officer, overseeing the academic units of Arts, Sciences & Engineering; Eastman School of Music; Simon Business School; and Warner School of Education.

He will also lead several University-wide operations, including academic affairs, graduate education and postdoctoral affairs, the library system, and information technology.

He succeeds Sarah Peyre, who has served as interim provost since July 2021 and will return to her role as dean of the Warner School.

In making the announcement, President Sarah Mangelsdorf said, “David is widely recognized as a leader of a nationally ranked school, one that has earned accolades throughout higher education for teaching and research excellence, focus on community engagement, and innovative approaches to addressing societal issues.

“He is also a remarkable scholar whose innovative work on the economics of K–12 and higher education has yielded new areas of research. As a dean at Northwestern, he has demonstrated how universities and university communities can positively impact the world around them.”

Figlio, who directed Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research from 2012 to 2017, was named dean at Northwestern in 2017. That same year, he was elected to the National Academy of Education.

Prior to joining the Northwestern faculty, he held faculty appointments at the University of Oregon and the University of Florida, where he was the Knight-Ridder Professor of Economics.

He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research; a research fellow of the IZA Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn, Germany; a member of the CESifo Network on the Economics of Education in Munich, Germany; and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

At Rochester, Figlio will hold a primary appointment in the Department of Economics and a joint professorship at the Warner School, subject to the recommendation of the faculty after a tenure review process.