Announcing Safwan Masri, PhD, as Dean of GU-Q

April 27, 2022

Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community:

It is my pleasure to announce that Safwan Masri, Ph.D., has been appointed as Dean of Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q). Dr. Masri will also serve as Distinguished Professor of the Practice at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS). He will join our community on October 1, 2022.

Dr. Masri is currently the Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University. In that role, he oversaw an expanding network of nine Columbia Global Centers around the world, directed a number of Columbia’s global initiatives, and regularly represented the University globally. These include Columbia’s Global Centers in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Mumbai, Nairobi, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, and Tunis, engaging thousands of faculty members and students across Columbia’s 19 schools and affiliated colleges in global programming activities, research projects, coursework, and public events on topics including climate change, the humanities, international affairs, public health, and ongoing refugee crises.

Dr. Masri was a professor in the Decision, Risk, and Operations division at Columbia Business School, where he also served as Vice Dean. Prior to that, Dr. Masri also led the establishment of King’s Academy and Queen Rania Teacher Academy in Jordan. Dr. Masri received his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University and B.S. and M.S. in industrial engineering from Purdue University.

I wish to extend my sincere appreciation to Dr. Clyde Wilcox for his service and leadership as Interim Dean of GU-Q during the last year. Dr. Wilcox will return to his role on the faculty in October. I also want to express my gratitude to Dr. Thomas Banchoff, our Vice President for Global Engagement, for leading the search committee, and to the members of the committee for their service.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Safwan Masri to the Georgetown University community.

You have my very best wishes.

Sincerely,

John J. DeGioia