Tufts provost appointed Cummings Foundation trustee

WOBURN – Tufts provost and senior vice president David R. Harris, Ph.D. was recently named a Cummings Foundation community trustee. He has worked at Tufts University since 2012, and served in President Obama’s administration from 2010 to 2011 as deputy assistant secretary for human services policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Dr. Harris brings with him invaluable leadership experience and significant knowledge about important social issues facing the world today,” said Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation’s executive director. “We expect his advice and counsel to benefit the Foundation greatly.”

Harris joins Tufts president Anthony P. Monaco among the foundation’s 14 other trustees. The list also includes the Honorable Margot G. Botsford, who retired earlier this year from the Massachusetts Supreme Court, and Richard C. Ockerbloom, retired president of The Boston Globe.

“It is an honor to play a role in an organization that addresses so many diverse community needs,” said Harris. “I look forward to working with Cummings Foundation as it continues to support hundreds of local nonprofits.”

Cummings Foundation has awarded more than $170 million in grants to nonprofits based in eastern Massachusetts, according to Swets.

Harris’ work has applied theories from sociology, economics, and psychology to empirical studies of racial and ethnic disparities in socioeconomic status, the fluidity of race, and racial and nonracial determinants of residential mobility.

Prior to joining Tufts, Harris was senior associate dean, deputy provost, vice provost for social sciences, and professor of Sociology at Cornell University from 2003 to 2012. In addition to numerous publications in academic journals, public policy outlets, and major national newspapers, he co-edited “The Colors of Poverty: Why Racial and Ethnic Disparities Persist” and was the lead author of “Eliminating Racial Disparities in College Completion and Achievement: Current Initiatives, New Ideas, and Assessment.”

Harris holds a B.S. in Human Development and Social Policy, and a Ph.D. in Sociology, from Northwestern University.

Cummings Foundation founder Bill Cummings was raised in Medford and is a 1958 graduate of Tufts. He has been a significant supporter of his alma mater. The Foundation’s largest grant to date was a $50 million commitment in 2005 to what is now Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. More recently, the Foundation established the Cummings/Hillel Program for Holocaust and Genocide Education at Tufts University.

About Cummings Foundation

Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings of Winchester. With assets exceeding $1.4 billion, it is one of the largest private foundations in New England. The Foundation’s holdings include a significant commercial real estate portfolio, which is operated on a pro bono basis by Cummings Properties for the sole benefit of Cummings Foundation. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.