Peggy Newell joined Harvard’s Office of the President and Provost in November 2012 as Deputy Provost.  She is responsible for strategic and tactical planning and management of all provost area activities, as well as advising the Provost on a wide array of administrative matters requiring executive decision-making.  She works closely with the University Development Office to assure that academic priorities drive fundraising. With the Executive Vice President, she works to plan for development and future use of 178 acres of property in Allston, which will include academic expansion, a million square feet of new space for science and engineering, an enterprise research campus, and a hotel and conference center.  She created and directs the Provost’s Academic Leadership Forum, a program that helps to develop leadership potential in faculty members selected from across Harvard’s schools.

In addition, Peggy oversees the Title IX Office, the budgets and financial management of all Provost’s offices and activities, and the Associate Provosts for Arts and Culture, Institutional Research, and Social Sciences & the Professions.  She works closely with the Harvard Library, serves as co-chair of the University Risk Management Committee and is a member of the Harvard University Information Security Oversight Committee.   She represents Harvard on the Executive Committee of HUBWeek, a collaboration led by Harvard, MIT, MGH, and the Boston Globe to promote and celebrate Boston as an innovation hub.

Prior to coming to Harvard, Peggy held a variety of positions over a thirty year career at Tufts University, most recently serving as Provost ad interim, Vice Provost, and Associate Provost for Research.  Before joining the Provost's Office at Tufts, she was Associate Dean of the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences and Associate Dean for Special Programs at Tufts University School of Medicine.