Board Chairs and CEOs: Partners in Leadership

Richard Chait, Ph.D.
Professor, Graduate School of Education
Harvard University
456 Gutman Library
Cambridge, MA 02138

Richard Chait, Ph.D., has served as a Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education since 1996. Prior to this, he was a Professor at the University of Maryland, as well as the Mandel Professor of Non-Profit Management at Case Western Reserve University and Associate Provost of Pennsylvania State University. Over the past twenty years, Dr. Chait’s research has focused on trusteeship and the governance of nonprofit organizations. He has co-authored three books: Improving the Performance of Governing Boards (1996); The Effective Board of Trustees (1991); and Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards (2005), with William P. Ryan and Barbara E. Taylor, which has won three awards, as well as numerous articles, including two in the Harvard Business Review, “The New Work of Nonprofit Boards” (1996) and “Charting the Territory of Nonprofit Boards” (1989), also with Ryan and Taylor.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of BoardSource and a Trustee and Member of the Executive Committee of the governing board of Wheaton College (MA), and previously served as a Trustee of Goucher College (MD) and Maryville College (TN). Dr. Chait has served as a governance consultant to the boards and executives of more than a hundred nonprofit organizations, including health-related organizations, colleges, universities, independent schools, and the cultural arts. He teaches in Harvard Business School’s program on Governing for Nonprofit Excellence, and in 2004, Dr. Chait was named one of Harvard’s “outstanding teachers.” He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.

Cathy Trower, Ph.D.
Co-Principal Investigator
Collaborative On Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE)
Graduate School of Education
Harvard University
8 Story Street, 5th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138

Cathy Trower, Ph.D., is a Co-Principal Investigator and Senior Research Associate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has studied governance, faculty employment issues, policies, and practices since 1996. Dr. Trower provides governance and teamwork consulting services to corporations, the U.S. Navy, academia and other nonprofits, and has served as a governance consultant to the boards and executives of dozens of nonprofit organizations, including colleges, universities, independent schools, and the cultural arts. As a facilitator, her approach focuses on the synergy of her personal knowledge of board governance, strategic thinking, and the development of high performance teams that achieve increased motivation and a shared commitment to excellence.

Dr. Trower is the Editor of Faculty Appointment Policy: Standard Practices and Unusual Arrangements (2000), and has authored several book chapters and numerous articles on faculty employment issues, including diversity. She recently conducted a national research study of faculty recruitment that examines choices young scholars make about where to work. Dr. Trower is a Trustee of a university in Atlanta. Previously, she served as a senior level administrator of business degree programs at Johns Hopkins University, with responsibility for corporate and community alliances. She holds an M.B.A. and a B.B.A. from the University of Iowa, and earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration at the University of Maryland.