Dayton-Johnson Named Dean of the Institute

Dayton-Johnson succeeds Sunder Ramaswamy, who informed the Monterey campus community on Nov. 20 that he would be stepping down on Jan. 31, after six years as president. In an email to facul­ty, staff, and students, Sunder called it “an extraordinary privilege” to lead the school. “Every day I appreciate the communi­ty that we have nurtured and strength­ened over the past seven years,” he wrote. “As we undergo this period of dynamic change, I believe that this is the right time to align and synchronize changes in the leadership of MIIS with the transition in governance and presidential leadership at Middlebury.”

In keeping with Middlebury’s overall governance and administrative structure, Dayton-Johnson’s new position replaces the position of president of the Institute. His 18-month interim term will provide Middlebury president-elect Laurie Patton (see story on page 3) time to determine her own administrative structure and to conduct a search for a permanent leader for the Institute.

Ramaswamy shepherded the school through the integration with Middlebury and an ambitious academic reorganization initiative. During his tenure, the Institute launched new degree programs in nonpro­liferation and terrorism studies, interna­tional education management and inter­national trade and economic diplomacy, as well as three new research centers: the Center for the Blue Economy, the Center for Conflict Studies, and the Center for So­cial Impact Learning.

Ramaswamy, who is also a distin­guished college professor of international economics at Middlebury College, is rec­ognized for his work in international and development economics, particularly in India and Africa. Ramaswamy will con­tinue with Middlebury in an advisory role until June 30, 2015. He then will be­gin a scheduled sabbatical to continue his academic research on the Indian economy, including the development of higher educa­tion in India.

Dayton-Johnson is a familiar presence at the Institute. He joined the faculty in 2011 and since that time has published two books on the political economy of Latin America. Since June, Dayton-Johnson has been transitioning into a leadership role within the Graduate School of Interna­tional Policy and Management (GSIPM), with the expectation that he would begin serving as interim dean of GSIPM in January. “During this time,” added Liebowitz, “Jeff has emerged as a leader who is able to work across programmatic boundaries and who communicates the Institute’s curricular distinctiveness with compelling clarity.”

“The Institute is a truly special and unique school and it’s an honor to be asked to take on this role at this time,” said Dayton-Johnson. “I hope to bring even greater visibility to the really dis­tinctive aspects of the Institute and to the real-world, problem-solving fo­cus of our curriculum that produces students who graduate ready to hit the ground running.”

Last year, Dayton-Johnson helped lead the integration of the Master of Public Ad­ministration and the International Policy and Development programs into a coor­dinated program in Development Practice and Policy.

Prior to coming to the Institute, Day­ton-Johnson spent seven years as a senior economist at the Organisation for Eco­nomic Co-operation and Development (oecd) in Paris. Previous to that, he was a tenured associate professor of econom­ics and international development stud­ies at Dalhousie University in Canada. Dayton-Johnson received his PhD in eco­nomics from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his undergradu­ate education in Latin American studies at Berkeley and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.