My Fellow Revs,
I am delighted to announce that Edward J. Balleisen will join the George Washington University on July 1 as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Balleisen currently serves as the Senior Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Programs and Initiatives at Duke University where he has led efforts to build an environment that fosters highly collaborative, boundary-crossing research, education and engagement.
An interdisciplinary scholar himself, Dr. Balleisen has refined and elevated that expertise as he has envisioned, implemented and led large-scale university-wide interdisciplinary research initiatives. He has brought creativity and vision to challenges ranging from institutional reorganization to external engagement to fundraising, while always keeping the student experience center stage, from creating undergraduate experiential learning opportunities to establishing and fine-tuning doctoral programs. The depth and breadth of Dr. Balleisen’s experience will be critical in his new role leading the academic and research enterprises at GW.
Dr. Balleisen is a prolific historian and has served on the Duke faculty for more than 25 years. His areas of scholarly interest include American institutional history, spanning business, law, public policy, and regulatory governance. His research has been funded by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Library of Congress, among other organizations. Among his many administrative achievements, Dr. Balleisen established the award-winning Bass Connections program at Duke, which has taken faculty and student teams across the country and around the world to work on problem-based, interdisciplinary research.
Dr. Balleisen impressed everyone throughout the search process as a strategic thinker and a facilitator of innovation. He puts people first through his collaborative and inclusive problem-solving, award-winning teaching and mentoring, and deep engagement in the community. Dr. Balleisen’s genuine warmth, sense of humor, and ability to connect with people also resonated with the committee.
This is a pivotal moment of change and opportunity for the university as Dr. Balleisen joins the GW leadership team. The Strategic Framework is being activated across all three priority areas, and key work is underway—including the Foundational Excellence Initiative—that will improve GW’s operations, strengthen the student experience, and allow us to invest time, energy, and resources in advancing the framework and our mission.
I want to thank John Lach, who stepped away from his role as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science to serve as interim provost during this period of leadership transition. I’d also like to thank Jason Zara for his service as interim dean of SEAS in John’s absence. Once Dr. Balleisen begins, John and Jason will be returning to their previous leadership roles in SEAS with our deep gratitude for their commitment and service.
I also want to express my thanks to the faculty, staff, students, university leaders, and trustees who participated in the search process. John Simon and his team at Education Executives recruited an exceptional pool of candidates for our consideration. Our outstanding search advisory committee, co-chaired by former Trustee Madeleine Jacobs and Associate Professor Katrin Schultheiss, were thorough, thoughtful, and committed to identifying the very best candidate for this critical GW leadership role, and I’d like to thank them for their time, energy, and service. I particularly want to thank GW trustees Judith Rogers and Richard Jones for serving on the committee.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Balleisen and his family to Foggy Bottom and to GW this summer.
Sincerely,
Ellen M. Granberg
President