Suzanne Glassburn — a former senior administrator at MIT — will become the next secretary of Harvard’s governing bodies, University President Alan M. Garber ’76 announced on Thursday.
In the role, Glassburn will serve as vice president and secretary of Harvard, overseeing the Office of the Governing Bodies, which supports the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, the University’s two governing boards.
Glassburn — who served as vice president and secretary of the MIT Corporation until she resigned in August 2023 — said in a press release that she was excited to take a similar role at Harvard, just a short walk up the Charles River.
“I am deeply grateful to President Garber for the opportunity to serve an institution with such an incredible history of strong governance and respected leadership,” Glassburn said in the release. “I look forward to joining a team committed to maintaining, upholding, and strengthening this essential partnership between administration and governance.”
Her appointment was announced just weeks before Marc L. Goodheart ’81, who has held the role for nearly three decades, prepares to step down at the end of the academic year. Goodheart will remain at Harvard as a senior adviser to Garber and other top officials.
In the press release, Garber celebrated Glassburn’s appointment and said she would be a critical resource at a “moment of grave consequence for Harvard and higher education.”
“A deeply experienced and widely respected senior university administrator, Suzanne is an individual of exceptional demeanor, diplomacy, and intellect,” Garber said.
Glassburn will begin her post at Harvard as it stares down a flurry of threats from the Trump administration, including a $2.2 billion cut in federal funding and a lawsuit between the White House and Harvard that is expected to last well into the first few months of Glassburn’s term.
Some of the scrutiny on Harvard has focused directly on its governing boards. In a letter cutting off future federal grants to Harvard, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon accused Corporation Senior Fellow Penny S. Pritzker ’81 of “disastrous mismanagement.” Pritzker has faced calls for her resignation since the turbulent end to former Harvard President Claudine Gay ‘s tenure.
Glassburn comes to Harvard having overseen the Office of the President at MIT and handled the school’s outreach to lawmakers in Washington for more than five years.
Glassburn will also play an important role in overseeing the search for Garber’s successor — which is expected to commence in 2026 — and helping reform it based on recommendations issued by a subgroup of the Corporation.
During her five-year stint on the MIT Corporation, Glassburn helped the school establish AI research laboratories, launch initiatives on human and machine intelligence, and organize The Engine — a MIT-founded nonprofit providing start-ups with financial and technical resources.
Glassburn also spent more than a decade in MIT’s Office of the General Counsel, where she worked with members of Harvard’s OGC to structure and establish edX, an online education platform launched as a joint venture between MIT and Harvard in 2012.
Before coming to MIT, Glassburn served as a partner at the Boston law firm Nutter, McClennen, and Fish, LLP, where she advised clients in the nonprofit and private sectors on matters including corporate governance and intellectual property.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.
