Rena Fonseca appointed Director of Executive Education and International Programs
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Rena Fonseca as Director of Executive Education and International Programs, effective 1 August 2011. In this role, Fonseca will lead the effort to expand the open enrollment and custom programs of Executive Education, with an emphasis on greater engagement of GSD faculty. She will also develop new partnerships both in the U.S. and abroad, and will work to expand the distance learning capabilities of Executive Education.
Fonseca joins us from the Harvard University Division of Continuing Education (DCE), where she has served as Associate Dean for Students and Alumni since 2009. In her role at DCE, she created the e-learning series FREETHINK@HARVARD (profiled in the Harvard Gazette article, “Secret History,” 15 March 2011), and contributed to the Division’s international partnership strategy, helping to broaden DCE’s relationships in the Middle East. In 2008–2009, Fonseca was Associate Director for Communications and External Relations for Ideas42, at the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, and from 2003 to 2008, she was chief operating officer at The South Asia Initiative and Lecturer on History and Literature, also at Harvard. From 1997 to 2003, she served as an Assistant Dean and Senior Tutor at Harvard College.
Fonseca has won several awards, including the Harvard Bok Center Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, and she has been published in The Diplomats, 1939–79 (Princeton University Press, 1994) and in The Times of India. In 2005, she was a historical series consultant for the PBS “Time Warp Trio” series, and she previously acted as an information consultant to UNICEF.
Fonseca received a bachelor’s degree from Elphinstone College, University of Mumbai.
She received a master’s degree and a doctorate in history with international relations from Harvard University.
Please join me in welcoming Rena to the GSD.
Mohsen Mostafavi
Dean, Faculty of Design
Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design
