Purcell shipping up to Boston

Former Nashville Mayor pulling up stakes and headed to lead Harvard's Institute of Politics

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Bill Purcell

For those of you waiting to see former Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell run for statewide office, you will have to start watching him in Massachusetts.

Harvard University announced today that Purcell has been named director of Harvard's Institute of Politics (IOP) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Purcell will assume the post on September 1.

Since the position is full-time and will require him to live in the Boston area, Tennessee State University, where Purcell has been employed as founding dean of the College of Public Service and Urban Affairs since January, loses one of their most high profile faculty members.

Tennessee State University President Melvin N. Johnson said: "Bill Purcell came to Tennessee State University at a very pivotal time in its academic history. As the founding dean of the College of Public Service and Urban Affairs, he has proven to be a strategic thinker, visionary leader and astute academician.

"During his tenure at TSU, he created a rigorous CPSUA program, focusing on improving the college's academic environment, and attracting and retaining the best and brightest students from throughout the nation.

"I am elated to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Bill on numerous academic initiatives. Without a doubt, he is one of our nation's most accomplished and visionary leaders. I wish to thank him for his commitment to Tennessee State University and the state of Tennessee. We look forward to observing his future success at Harvard's Institute of Politics."

Purcell has spent more than 30 years in public service, law and higher education. During his eight-year tenure as mayor of Nashville (1999-2007) the city saw unprecedented economic expansion, an increase in Metro school funding of more than 50 percent, and the development of more than 26,000 affordable housing units. His accomplishments as a civic leader earned him "Public Official of the Year" honors in 2006 by Governing Magazine. Purcell was an IOP Fellow in the fall of 2007.

"I am greatly honored by this appointment to lead the Institute of Politics, a truly unique and irresistible professional and personal opportunity," said Bill Purcell. "The Institute's central undergraduate mission is critical to the future of public service in this country, and its program reach is both local and global. I am looking forward to again working with the outstanding students and staff of the Institute and the extraordinary colleagues at the Harvard Kennedy School."

Purcell will succeed former U.S. Congressman James A. Leach (R-IA), who stepped in to serve as IOP director for the 2007-08 academic year. Leach will return to his faculty appointment at Princeton University, where he is the John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School.

No word on whether Purcell's move to Boston, hometown of his former legal director and successor, current Nashville Mayor Karl Dean is part of some elaborate cultural exchange program.