David R. Harris has been selected to serve as the 19th president of Union College in Schenectady, New York. The liberal arts college, located northwest of Albany, enrolls 2,200 students. According to the latest U.S. Department of Education data, Blacks make up 4 percent of the student body.
Since July 2012, Dr. Harris has served as senior vice president and provost at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Previously, he was senior associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University.
In 2010 Dr. Harris was named by President Obama as deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He returned to Cornell in the summer of 2011 after 16 months in Washington.
Dr. Harris holds a bachelor’s degree in human development and social policy and a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University.
