Our Team
Meet the people dedicated to advancing the work of the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative
The Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative Team
Sara Bleich
Vice Provost for Special Projects, Professor of Public Health Policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Advisory Council
Building on the work of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery, the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative’s Advisory Council has been guiding the implementation work for the Initiative since 2024.
Members of the council are experts in areas of scholarship such as U.S. history, African American studies, Native American studies, the history of science and public health, civic engagement, and law.
The council develops strategies for the Initiative’s three strategic priorities — memorializing those who were enslaved by Harvard affiliates, while educating the community on the University’s ties to slavery; strengthening partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities; and identifying direct descendants of those enslaved by Harvard affiliates.
To learn more about the Advisors and their collective vision for the Initiative, click on their bios and interviews below:
Philip Deloria
Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Director, The Hutchins Center for African and African American Studies, Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
Annette Gordon-Reed
Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University
Evelynn Hammonds
Barbara Gutmann Rosenkratz Professor of the History of Science; Professor of African and African American Studies, FAS; professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Martha Minow
300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University
M. Lee Pelton
Former President and CEO, The Boston Foundation
Memorial Project Committee
Tania Bruguera
Senior lecturer in Media & Performance, Theater, Dance & Media affiliate of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Jordan Clark
Executive Director of Harvard’s Native American Program, Tribal Affiliation: Wampanoag Tribe of Aquinnah
Stephen Gray
Associate professor of urban design and director, Master of Architecture in Urban Design Program, Graduate School of Design
Eric Höweler
Director of the Master of Architecture I Program and Professor of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Hannah Marcus
Professor of the History of Science, Faculty Director of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Jerome Offord, Jr.
Associate University Librarian for Community Development, Belonging, and Engagement
Karthik Pandian
Associate professor of Art, Film, and Visual Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
Brenda Tindal
Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) chief campus curator and senior advisor on academic community engagement