Valerie Porciello is Executive Director of the Division of Research and Faculty Development at Harvard Business School and a member of the School’s administrative leadership team. Valerie joined Harvard Business School to create a new function dedicated to faculty support. Now called the Division of Research and Faculty Development, this $50M function has more than 300 staff members and includes faculty administration, research administration, and a wide array of research, teaching, and administrative support services for the School’s 300 faculty. The purpose of a unified organization for faculty-related administration and services is to enable a holistic view across the life cycle of the faculty, from recruitment through retirement. The DRFD team’s singular focus is supporting an environment where faculty members at all stages of their career have the opportunity to thrive and do their best work.
Valerie has stepped back temporarily from much of her line management responsibilities to work with the dean and other senior faculty in the School’s governance structure to advance a strategic agenda for faculty development and research. This work encompasses recruiting, appointments, planning and staffing, and the allocation of research funding and other support resources to individual faculty members, as well as priorities related to faculty culture, mentoring, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and supporting the School’s new research institutes.