After 34 years at the Institute of Design, Distinguished Professor Patrick Whitney will leave his full-time faculty role at ID to join the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as a professor in residence.

Whitney is both a thought leader and a visionary who served as dean of ID for 28 years. He led the development of the fields of human-centered design and strategic design and, as a result, helped update the Institute of Design and transform it into the remarkable organization it is today. Since stepping down as dean in 2016, Whitney has focused on bringing design approaches to other disciplines, particularly public health. His appointment at Harvard reflects this and is an exciting opportunity for him. This will also be a return for him to the Chan School, where he spent 2017 as a visiting professor.

Whitney will continue to be a part of ID as an active professor emeritus, collaborating with ID faculty to apply design methods and frameworks to address complex public-health problems.