After 25 years at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Nathan Scovronick, associate dean for undergraduate education, will retire, effective Jan. 1, 2019.
Scovronick has led the undergraduate program, managing its curriculum and overseeing student advising, research and internship funding and the undergraduate budget.
The undergraduate program is a multidisciplinary major focused on public policy. Each year, it enrolls approximately 240 students and offers around 60 courses as well as 30 junior policy seminars; eight of those seminars are offered abroad in programs Scovronick initiated in locations such as Cape Town, Oxford and Havana.
Scovronick also served as a member of the committees, made up of faculty from across the social sciences, that oversee the undergraduate program. He has taught courses each year on education policy and public leadership, and co-authored “The American Dream and the Public Schools” with Jennifer Hochschild in 2003.
“Nate has been a steward of our very important undergraduate program,” said Cecilia Rouse, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School. “Working with hundreds of students, he not only strengthened the international component of the curriculum but also shepherded the program through a major reform. He is an asset to the Woodrow Wilson School community and will be greatly missed.”
In addition to his university duties, Scovronick has for the last several years been the president of Philani Fund USA, a charity that raises funds to support the Philani Maternal, Child Health and Nutrition Project, a community-based organization in the informal townships around Cape Town and in the rural Eastern Cape. It provides food, medical services and preschool education to aid children and mothers in those very poor and needy communities. Philani’s founder and medical director is Dr. Ingrid le Roux MPP ’01; the tapestry that hangs in Robertson Hall’s Dodd’s Atrium was made by the mothers of Philani.
“It is sad to leave the Woodrow Wilson School after all these years,” Scovronick said. “It has been a pleasure to spend so much time with the wonderful people who work and visit here. At the same time, I am very happy that I will be able to spend more time raising support for Philani. It is an inspiring and incredibly effective organization.”
Scovronick previously served as director of Princeton University’s Program in New Jersey Affairs and as acting director of its Policy Research Institute for the Region. Prior to coming to Princeton, Scovronick was the executive director of the State of New Jersey’s Department of the Treasury and deputy director of the New Jersey General Assembly. He also worked for the New Jersey State Senate’s Committee on Education and Higher Education and the Governor’s Commission on Post-Secondary Education in the State of New York.
His wife, Frances Loren, was, for many years, associate general counsel at Rutgers University. When she returned to work after their children, Noah and Sara, began school, Scovronick stayed home for five years to take care of them. While not really comparable to his professional responsibilities, he continues to think it was the best job of all.