Lisa M. Lynch becomes interim university president

She will serve while a search is conducted for the university’s next president

Lisa M. Lynch, a world-renowned economist, has assumed the position of interim president of Brandeis University effective July 1.

“I approach the opportunity of being interim president with great excitement and humility,” Lynch said in a letter to the Brandeis community. “Not a day passes when I am not proud of or humbled by the accomplishments, values, and character of our community.”

Lynch has served as university provost and senior vice president for academic affairs since October 2014, and is the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy. She was dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis from 2008 to 2014.

Lynch succeeds Frederick Lawrence, who served as the eighth president of Brandeis University from 2011 to 2015.

Lynch is one of the country’s best-known labor economists. She previously served as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor from 1995 to 1997, and as director of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston from 2004 to 2009.

Before coming to Brandeis, Lynch held faculty positions at Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Ohio State University and the University of Bristol. She received a B.A. in economics and political science from Wellesley College and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics.

Lynch will serve as interim president while a search is conducted for the university’s next president. Irving Epstein, the Henry F. Fischbach Professor of Chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at Brandeis, will serve as interim provost during Lynch’s presidency. Lynch will return to the role of provost after a permanent president assumes office. 

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