New Director Serves as Nexus for Administrators
Tucked away on the bookshelves and window ledge of Russ Irwin's office in the Kresge Building are reminders of his many visits abroad during his tenure at the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID). They are signs of why he was tapped for the newly created position of director of strategic planning and projects in Financial Services at HSPH.
Irwin has mastered the art of getting people to communicate with each other across cultural and other boundaries, and he will use those skills in his new position.
Irwin will advise on the administrative aspects of international work done by the school, something he did many times at HIID. During his tenure there, Irwin traveled to Indonesia, Russia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, and Nepal to help HIID project administrators there oversee their grants.
For example, he frequently tailored computer systems to manage financial systems in field offices in a way that reflected both Harvard and local policies.
At HSPH, he would like to bolster the consistency in which the school conducts financial and administrative policies abroad, creating a guidebook of resources and suggestions for HSPH researchers.
"From an administrative standpoint, what is the face that we as a school would like to present internationally--that is a question we'd like to address," said Irwin.
He will also tackle issues much closer to home. One of Irwin's first tasks is to create an administrative group with representatives from each department at HSPH. In the past, administrators gathered periodically, but Irwin envisions a more formal, smaller working group. The goal is to help administrators become more aware of what each department is doing and to encourage them to work together. The same group will be used to tell their departmental colleagues about changes in policies, providing a human touchstone for decision-making at the school.
"We'd like them to see themselves as advisors about different areas at the school," said Irwin. "They will be in the loop and have a say about what our priorities should be with respect to solving various administrative problems."
Irwin will also aid in the management of grants and sponsored research. He is currently representing the school at meetings concerning a new university-wide system for managing these funds. The system would add to the programs that administrators need to know, such as ADAPT, and Irwin is considering what such a system would mean to HSPH. This issue and others like it, said Irwin, are good topics for the administrative group Irwin would like to create.
Irwin worked at HIID for ten years as the financial manager on a variety of global research projects. He left HIID in 1997 but continued to work as an advisor to university officials about the development of financial systems. He re-joined HIID in 1998 and was there until the institute closed in June 2000.
Irwin said his biggest challenge is entering a job that had not previously existed at the school. He added that part of the reason he accepted the position was that the HSPH financial group had such a good reputation around the university.
"When I looked at where else I would want to work at the university, the School of Public Health seemed just right," said Irwin.
Irwin's office is in Kresge 1001-A, and he can be reached at 432-3058.
