Debora Spar
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Debora Spar
| image = DeboraSpar03.JPG
| caption = Spar in 2013
| order =
| title = Senior Associate Dean of Harvard Business School Online
| term_start = January 2020
| term_end =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| title2 = President of Lincoln Center
| term_start2 = March 2017
| term_end2 = April 2018
| predecessor2 = Jed Bernstein
| successor2 =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| residence =
| profession = Senior Associate Dean, Former President, Former College President, Professor, Author
| religion =
| salary =
| spouse =
| children =
| signature =
| website = {{URL|1=https://www.deboraspar.com/|2=https://www.deboraspar.com/}}
| footnotes =
| education = Georgetown University (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
}}
Debora L. Spar is the current Senior Associate Dean of Harvard Business School Online and former President of Barnard College, a liberal arts college for women of Columbia University. As President of Barnard, she was also an academic dean within Columbia University. Spar was appointed Barnard's 7th president in July 2008 and replaced Judith Shapiro, Barnard's 6th president,{{cite web|url=http://www.nysun.com/article/70390|title=Barnard Names Harvard Professor as New President|website=The New York Sun|accessdate=13 April 2018}} after a teaching career at Harvard Business School where she was Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development. Spar was appointed the 10th president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, beginning in March 2017,{{cite news|last1=Cooper|first1=Michael|title=Debora L. Spar, Barnard President, to Lead Lincoln Center|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/17/arts/music/debora-spar-lincoln-center-barnard-college.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1|accessdate=16 November 2016|work=New York Times|date=16 November 2016}} but announced her resignation in April 2018 after only about one year in the position.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/arts/lincoln-center-debora-spar.html|title=Lincoln Center's President Quits After a Single, Rocky Year|last1=Pogrebin|first1=Robin|date=2018-04-06|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-04-08|last2=Cooper|first2=Michael|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} She became the new Senior Associate Dean of Harvard Business School Online in January 2020.{{Cite news|url=https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-01-27-new-dean-of-harvard-business-school-online-aims-for-modular-courses-more-diversity|title=New Dean of Harvard Business School Online Aims for Modular Courses, More Diversity|last1=Young|first1=Jeffery|date=2020-01-27|work=EdSurge|access-date=2020-04-01|last2=Bryant|first2=Deja|language=en-US}}
Education
Spar graduated magna cum laude in 1984 from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and completed her Ph.D. at Harvard University in government.
Research and academic interests
Spar has written about the economics of the human fertility industry and the evolution of the Internet.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/education/30barnard.html|title=Professor From Harvard to Be Barnard President|first=Karen W.|last=Arenson|newspaper=The New York Times |date=13 April 2018|publisher=|accessdate=13 April 2018}} Her work on the economics of fertility drew wide attention.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/health/an-economist-examines-the-business-of-fertility.html|title=An Economist Examines the Business of Fertility|first=Claudia|last=Dreifus|newspaper=The New York Times |date=28 February 2006|pages=F5, F8 |publisher=|pmid=16528874 |accessdate=13 April 2018}}
She has appeared on 60 Minutes, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, ABC World News Tonight, and in many newspapers and magazines. Her own articles have appeared in publications ranging from The New England Journal of Medicine to Foreign Affairs to The Review of International Political Economy.{{cite web|url=http://www.barnard.edu/president/search/bio_spar.html|title=Barnard College, Presidential Search|accessdate=13 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530160001/http://www.barnard.edu/president/search/bio_spar.html|archive-date=30 May 2010|url-status=dead}}
In 2001, she wrote an article called "Why the Internet Doesn't Change Everything" which described the distinctive nature of the internet industry. Her book, The Baby Business: How Money, Science and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception, pioneered research about the economy of alternative fertility. Spar was the first academic to mention fertility as a transaction through a business framework. In various interviews online, Spar said that when she picked up the research topic of fertility through an economic lens, her colleagues did not take her seriously and called her soft. She followed up in 2006 with a book named The Hidden Market for Babies. Spar has also written about AIDS, African economics, the global economy, the balance of power, and terrorism.
A leading figure in business academics, Spar also ran Making Markets Work, joint program between Harvard Business School and the University of Pretoria Gordon Institute of Business Science. The course in South Africa teaches about the interconnection of the public and private sectors' effects on economic growth. Spar also spearheaded the initiative in Rwanda, where cabinet members learned about executive education.
Leadership
During her inaugural address on October 23, 2008, Spar cited a number of goals for her term as President of Barnard College. Paramount were her desire to make Barnard a more internationally recognized institution for women, as well as expand and improve the current Barnard Leadership Initiative (BLI). She followed up on this goal by converting BLI into Barnard's Athena Center for Leadership Studies.{{cite web|last=Toure|first=Madina|title=Barnard to launch Athena Center|url=http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/04/20/barnard-launch-athena-center|publisher=columbia spectator|accessdate=2 October 2013}}
Spar also served as a member of the Board of Directors of American investment bank Goldman Sachs from June 2011 to April 2017.{{cite news |last1=Keoun |first1=Bradley |title=The Goldman Sachs Board Remains Old Boys' Club Even as Rivals Promote Women |url=https://www.thestreet.com/investing/as-companies-add-more-women-to-boards-goldman-sachs-keeps-a-pair-14574319 |accessdate=12 October 2018 |work=The Street |date=1 May 2018}}
Works
- The Baby Business, Harvard Business School Press, 2006
- Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet
- The Cooperative Edge: The Internal Politics of International Cartels
- Beyond Globalism: Remaking American Foreign Economic Policy
- Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection, 2013
- Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny, 2020
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://barnard.edu/profiles/debora-spar Debora Spar profile] | Barnard College
- [https://www.columbiaspectator.com/tag/Debora-Spar/ "Debora Spar collected news and commentary"] Columbia Spectator
{{Goldman Sachs}}
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Category:Presidents of Barnard College
Category:Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:Harvard Business School faculty
Category:Academic staff of the University of Pretoria