Debora Spar
Debora Spar | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Georgetown University (B.S.), Harvard University (Ph.D.) |
| Occupation(s) | Academic administrator, author |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Known for | President of Barnard College, Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School Online, President of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts |
| Notable work | The Baby Business, The Hidden Market for Babies, Wonder Women, Work Mate Marry Love |
Debora L. Spar currently holds the position of Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School Online. She previously served as President of Barnard College, a women's liberal arts institution connected to Columbia University. Taking office as Barnard's seventh president in July 2008, she followed Judith Shapiro after an accomplished career at Harvard Business School where she was a Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean overseeing Faculty Research and Development.
In March 2017, Spar was appointed the tenth president of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a role she held for approximately one year before stepping down in April 2018. She resumed her role as Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School Online in January 2020, concentrating on broadening modular course offerings and promoting diversity initiatives.
Education
Spar graduated magna cum laude in 1984 from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She then earned her Ph.D. in government from Harvard University.
Research and academic interests
Spar’s scholarship has concentrated on the economics surrounding human fertility and the development of the Internet. Her pioneering analysis of fertility through a commercial perspective garnered widespread recognition. She is the author of The Baby Business: How Money, Science and Politics Drive the Commerce of Conception, followed by The Hidden Market for Babies published in 2006. Despite initial doubts within academia, she was among the first to conceptualize fertility as a market-driven activity.
Her academic pursuits also encompass topics such as AIDS, economic conditions in Africa, international markets, power relations, and terrorism. Spar has been featured on prominent media platforms including 60 Minutes and ABC World News Tonight, with her writings appearing in leading publications like The New England Journal of Medicine and Foreign Affairs.
She directed Making Markets Work, an executive education collaboration between Harvard Business School and the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science, which aimed to foster economic growth through public-private partnerships in South Africa. Furthermore, she developed executive education initiatives targeted at government leaders in Rwanda.
Leadership
During her inaugural speech as Barnard College President in 2008, Spar highlighted her commitment to raising Barnard’s global stature for women and enhancing leadership development programs. Under her guidance, the Barnard Leadership Initiative was expanded into the Athena Center for Leadership Studies.
Spar also held a seat on the Board of Directors at investment bank Goldman Sachs from June 2011 until April 2017.
Works
- The Baby Business, Harvard Business School Press, 2006
- Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet
- The Cooperative Edge: The Internal Politics of International Cartels
- Beyond Globalism: Remaking American Foreign Economic Policy
- Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection, 2013
- Work Mate Marry Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny, 2020
External links
- Debora Spar’s professional profile | Barnard College
- News and analysis on Debora Spar Columbia Spectator