Leadership Transition at the McCourt School of Public Policy
October 15, 2024
Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community:
On behalf of President DeGioia, I write to share that after nearly six years in her role as Dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy, Maria Cancian will step down from her position on November 1, 2024, to focus on urgent family care responsibilities. She will return to the McCourt School as a Professor of Public Policy in the Fall of 2025.
Over the past six years, with Dean Cancian’s dynamic leadership, McCourt has experienced notable advancement in becoming one of the the most inclusive schools of public policy in the nation, in service to its mission to strengthen the pipeline of future problem solvers, advance solutions to complex policy problems, and deepen Georgetown’s impact for the common good. With Frank McCourt’s unprecedented second $100M investment, including $50M for scholarships, Dr. Cancian has led efforts to make a McCourt education more accessible, to grow and diversify an exceptional faculty and staff, and to launch Georgetown’s first undergraduate public policy program in collaboration with the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Cancian led the McCourt School in relocating to a new building on the Capitol Campus, in the heart of the nation’s capital. The McCourt School’s new home unites the community in one location for the first time, providing space for the multitude of McCourt research centers, including the new Tech and Public Policy program and Better Government Lab.
Dean Cancian will leave a lasting legacy on the McCourt School and a strong foundation for continued growth, with an outstanding faculty and staff, deepened connections to the DC and policy communities, and a diverse and growing set of committed partners.
Please join me in thanking Dean Cancian and sending her family our best wishes. We look forward to her return to our faculty next Fall.
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Thomas DeLeire, McCourt School of Public Policy Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, will serve as Interim Dean, building on his leadership role as McCourt Associate Dean for Faculty, and as the previous Director of the LaFollette School of Public Affairs at University of Wisconsin. I am confident that Dr. DeLeire, together with the outstanding McCourt leadership team and academic and research faculty and staff, will continue the important policy work in which the McCourt School is engaged. A search committee will be appointed shortly, to facilitate a new dean being in place in the Fall of 2025.
I wish to offer a personal word of appreciation to Dr. Cancian for her leadership during six years of tremendous growth and change, and to Dr. DeLeire for stepping in as Interim Dean through this transition.
Sincerely,
Robert M. Groves, Provost