Stephen P. Crosby Appointed Founding Dean of UMass Boston’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies

April 24, 2006 - Stephen P. Crosby, whose distinguished career includes innovative corporate ventures as well as public service across many levels of government, has been named the founding Dean of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Chancellor Michael F. Collins announced today.

Crosby, 60, is founder and publisher of CCI/Crosby Publishing, in Boston, and brings more than 30 years of experience in public policy, entrepreneurial business, and non-profit leadership. From 2000 to 2002, Crosby served as Secretary of Administration and Finance to Governors Paul Cellucci and Jane M. Swift.

"Steve Crosby brings to the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies a distinguished record of accomplishment as both an entrepreneur and a public servant – a unique combination well suited to the city’s premier school dedicated to the issues that confront the residents and policy makers of Boston and the Commonwealth," Chancellor Collins said. "Steve’s private sector and public policy background will serve to elevate the work of the McCormack School, its faculty and students and enhance its already outstanding reputation."

Crosby, who received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his law degree from Boston University, said the chance to serve as the founding dean of the McCormack School is an extraordinary privilege and opportunity to educate young people for a life in public service.

"The school’s true strength is the integration of education with an active role in state and local policy and government," Crosby said. "The UMass Boston mission of serving a largely urban and ethnically diverse constituency is core to our region’s history and future, and offers a uniquely important forum for the study of public policy."

Since leaving state service, Crosby has worked nearly full-time on non-profit boards, serving as chair of the Boston History and Innovation Collaborative, the Center for Applied Special Technologies (CAST), vice chair of The Poverty Institute, and board member for the AIDS Responsibility Project, headquartered in Los Angeles.

In addition to serving as Secretary of Administration and Finance, Crosby served as Governor Swift’s chief of staff in 2002. In the private sector, Crosby has served as chairman and CEO of technology and publishing companies, including Interactive Radio Corp., Inc., SmartRoute Systems, Inc., Crosby Vandenburgh Group, and MetroGuide, Inc. In addition, Crosby's career includes work as a campaign manager and senior advisor for local and national candidates and elected representatives.

Crosby has provided public policy commentary on WBUR-FM, a National Public Radio affiliate, New England Cable News (NECN), and in the Boston Globe.

The McCormack Graduate School was formed by the University of Massachusetts Trustees in August 2003, a move that expanded on the service of the McCormack Institute of Public Affairs, which used astute research, respected analysis and nationally-recognized public service to carve out a reputation as the premier think-tank focused on issues facing urban Massachusetts.

The school is home to the Center for Social Policy, the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, the Center for Democracy and Development, the Center on Media and Society, and the Center for State and Local Policy. The school’s graduate degree programs include the university’s Gerontology Master of Science and Ph.D. programs, the Gerontology Institute, the Ph.D. Program in Public Policy and Master of Science in Public Affairs. The university’s Ph.D. in Gerontology is one of six such programs in the nation and the only program in the Northeast.

The school is funded, in part, by a $6.2 million endowment awarded by Congress to conduct policy research vital to the city and the state, and to advance democracy and economic development in post-communist and post-colonial areas abroad. The McCormack Graduate School has built upon the institute’s local focus on contemporary policy issues including education, economic development, labor markets, health, housing, family, criminal justice, and the environment.

The school hosts three professorships: Frank J. Manning Eminent Scholar’s Chair in Gerontology, Frank L. Boyden Professor of Political Economy and John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professorship for Peace and Reconciliation; and the Robert C. Wood Visiting Professorship in Public Affairs.