Announcing Leadership Transition at Georgetown University in Qatar

Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community:

I write to share an update on our leadership at Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q). After years of dedicated service as the Dean of GU-Q, Safwan Masri, Ph.D., will conclude his service as Dean on July 31, 2027. During the 2026-2027 academic year he will be on leave to focus on his research and writing.

I am deeply grateful to Dean Masri for his service and dedication to Georgetown as Dean of GU-Q, especially for these past weeks during the conflict with Iran as he and the senior leadership team have worked tirelessly to care for our students, faculty and staff. Over the past four years, Dean Masri has significantly expanded GU-Q’s academic offerings, substantially grown its faculty, elevated its profile and standing both in Qatar and on the Hilltop, and deepened Georgetown’s relationships with the Qatar Foundation and other academic institutions in Education City and beyond. Under Dean Masri, more Georgetown faculty from DC have lectured and taught in Doha, bringing diverse perspectives to the curriculum.

Dean Masri expanded executive and professional education and launched a Science, Technology, and International Affairs (STIA) major at GU-Q for undergraduate students there. This year he successfully led the recruitment of GU-Q’s most selective undergraduate class, doubling the number of applications and reducing the admissions rate to below 9 percent.

In 2025, Safwan designed and led a celebration of GU-Q’s 20th anniversary, and helped lead the successful renewal of Georgetown’s partnership with the Qatar Foundation for ten years. In the public domain, the eleven Hiwaraat conferences became gatherings in which important questions facing the world were discussed. GU-Q welcomed Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, diplomats, policymakers, scholars, writers, and artists. 

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Clyde Wilcox, Ph.D., Professor of Government, who will serve as Acting Dean of GU-Q beginning on June 1, 2026. Dr. Wilcox has spent all or part of each academic year at the Doha campus since 2014 and previously served as Interim Dean of GU-Q from 2021 to 2022.

I will consult with incoming President Peñalver as we prepare to launch a search for the next leader of GU-Q.

Please join me in thanking Safwan for his leadership as Dean of GU-Q.

Sincerely,

Robert M. Groves
Interim President