Date: June 8, 2021
TO: The Gallatin School Community
FROM: NYU President Andrew Hamilton and NYU Provost Katherine Fleming

We are pleased to share with you the names of the members of the Dean Search Committee, which is chaired by Associate Professor Kimberly DaCosta. They were selected for their comprehensive understanding of the Gallatin School and its special culture of engagement and inquiry. They will each bring to the search an understanding of the school — its character, its needs, its aims and aspirations — and a commitment to represent Gallatin as a whole.

We are well aware of the school’s collaborative and consultative culture, so engagement will be a particularly important element of the Committee’s work. You will hear more in the fall from the Committee and its chair about a range of opportunities for engagement. In broad terms, the Committee will establish a process to seek the views and guidance of a wide range of stakeholders on the opportunities and challenges facing the next dean, and on the attributes and experience they should look for in the next dean. Using the input from this process, they will develop and share a position profile and use it as the basis for soliciting the names of potential candidates. Members of the Gallatin community are encouraged to draw upon their own knowledge and experience; nominations can be made to gallatindeansearch@nyu.edu.

The members of the Committee will review all nominees — both those suggested by the search firm that will assist them in their efforts (Heidrick & Struggles) and those submitted by members of the community — whose identities will be treated with discretion in order to avoid any jeopardy to positions the candidates may currently hold. The Committee will then interview a group of semi-finalists and identify for us a small number of finalists whom we will interview.

We want to thank all the Committee members, and especially Kimberly DaCosta. They are taking on this vital and consequential task in addition to all their other responsibilities. We are grateful for their dedication and spirit of service to the school community. We are confident their efforts will yield a great dean for Gallatin.

The members of the Gallatin Dean Search Committee are:

Committee Chair

  • Kimberly DaCosta, Associate Professor - Gallatin

Committee Members

  • Kaitlyn Chen, undergraduate student - Gallatin
  • Michael Dinwiddie, Associate Professor - Gallatin
  • Gregory Erickson, Clinical Associate Professor - Gallatin
  • Rahul Hamid, Director of Student Affairs & Associate Faculty - Gallatin
  • Moya Luckett, Part-time Faculty Member - Gallatin
  • Ritty Lukose, Associate Professor - Gallatin
  • Rachel Plutzer, Senior Director of Events and Special Programs - Gallatin
  • Matthew Stanley, Professor - Gallatin
  • Eugene Vydrin, Clinical Assistant Professor - Gallatin
  • Una Chaudhuri, Divisional Dean for the Humanities & Vice Dean for Interdisciplinary Programs, Collegiate Professor, Professor of English, Drama, and Environmental Studies, and Director of NYU XE: Experimental Humanities & Social Engagement - FAS and TSOA
  • Kristen Day, Vice Provost - Office of the Provost
  • Ellen Schall, Senior Presidential Fellow - Office of the President