Kellerman Named to James MacGregor Burns Lectureship12:00AM / Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Cambridge – Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government has announced the establishment of the James MacGregor Burns Lectureship in Public Leadership to honor the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and political scientist.
Barbara Kellerman, former executive director and former research director at the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, will be the first to hold the chair.
“It is a great honor to be named the James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in
Public Leadership. There is no one in contemporary leadership studies who has contributed more to the field than has Professor Burns. And there are few in higher education more generally who have left so indelible a mark on so many areas of intellectual inquiry – and on so many students and scholars who followed in his wake,†said Kellerman.
Burns is considered one of the nation’s eminent presidential historians and a pioneer in the field of leadership studies. He is Woodrow Wilson Professor (emeritus) of Political Science at Williams College, and was the inspiration for the founding of the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park. His book “Leadership†(1978) is considered the seminal volume in contemporary leadership studies. He received a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for his biographies “Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox†(1956), and “Roosevelt: Soldier of Freedom 1940-1945†(1970).
“I have known Barbara Kellerman for more than 20 years and have worked
closely with her on the study of leadership. She, in turn, has helped me enormously to broaden my own study of leadership – from biographies of leaders such as FDR and JFK to the central role of leadership in
transforming change,†said Burns. “She is an outstanding choice as the
inaugural Burns Lecturer.â€
Kellerman has won three Fulbright Fellowships and has held professorships at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, and Uppsala Universities. She also served as dean of graduate studies and research at Fairleigh Dickinson, and as director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland.
Kellerman is author and editor of many books on leadership including “Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters†(2004),
“Reinventing Leadership: Making the Connection Between Politics and
Business†(1999), “The Political Presidency: Practice of Leadershipâ€
(1984), and “Leadership: Multidisciplinary Perspectives†(1983).
Her next book, a co-edited volume on women and leadership, will be published by Jossey-Bass in 2007. In 2008 Harvard Business School Press will publish her newest book titled “Followership.â€
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government maintains an abiding commitment to advancing the public interest by training skilled, enlightened leaders and solving public problems through world-class scholarship and active engagement with practitioners and decision makers. The school offers the depth, reflection, insight, and excellence of ideas and teaching that can shape future leaders, affect public policies, and make an impact on people and their daily lives. |
