Michael Harvey Named Interim Provost

08/25/2020

Michael Harvey, the John S. Toll Associate Professor of Business Management, has been named to a three-year term as Interim Provost and Dean of Washington College.

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As the Interim Provost and Dean of the College, Michael Harvey will be working in close partnership with incoming Interim President Wayne Powell in setting the overall academic priorities for Washington College.

"I am well acquainted with the high praise that Michael’s teaching earns from students, alumni, and colleagues," said President Kurt Landgraf. "He has routinely demonstrated in key service positions -- such as department chair and Faculty Council chair -- that he is deeply committed to the support of faculty and students required for great teaching and learning in the liberal arts and the need for strategic growth in our academic programs. “

Harvey holds a bachelor’s degree in English from University of Maryland, master’s and doctoral degrees in government from Cornell University, and a master’s degree in international business from University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He joined the Washington College faculty in the Department of Business Management in 1998. In recent years he has spearheaded the department’s Summer Seminar in International Business. 

An accomplished scholar, Harvey’s work centers on leadership and organizational studies. In addition to authoring The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, a must-read for his students, he is co-editor with Prof. Ronald Riggio of Claremont College of Leadership Studies: The Dialogue of Disciplines (Elgar, 2011), which the International Leadership Association recognized as one of the year’s best books in leadership studies.

In assuming this critical post, he will be building upon the excellent leadership and strong foundation that Patrice DiQuinzio has provided as Provost and Dean since 2017.

“I have worked with Michael Harvey for more than 12 years and I’ve always been impressed by his great ideas, his energy, and his thoughtfulness,” DiQuinzio says. “Michael will make an excellent provost, and I will do everything I can to help him in taking up this office and to smooth his transition as much as possible.”

Harvey is very active within the local community, having served as a member of the Kent County Public Schools Board of Education from 2009 to 2014 and most recently, advocating for the Black Lives Matter street murals that are to be installed in the heart of Chestertown.

On the lighter side, he has a self-professed love of chess and a fascination with the history of the game – so much so that he even published a chess primer. He enjoys sharing this passion with others by serving as a volunteer chess coach in the local schools, churches and the library.

Harvey and his wife, Sabine, have two children.