James McCarthy has been chosen as the ninth president of Suffolk University in Boston.
He comes to Suffolk University from Baruch College of the City University of New York, where he has been provost and senior vice president since 2007. He led Baruch College’s 2010 reaccreditation effort and used the process to review accomplishments and plan for new challenges at the public, urban university. More recently, he headed the College’s effort to develop a new five-year strategic plan.
As provost, McCarthy was the chief academic officer for Baruch, which has more than 18,000 students and 500 faculty. The institution offers undergraduate and graduate education through its Zicklin School of Business, Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, and School of Public Affairs.
McCarthy previously was dean of the School of Health and Human Services and professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of New Hampshire. He also has served as director of the Center for Population and Family Health at Columbia University and as the Heilbrunn Professor of Public Health in Columbia’s School of Public Health; assistant and associate professor of Population Dynamics at The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; and assistant and associate professor of Sociology and director of the Hopkins Population Center. He has been on staff at Princeton University, the International Statistical Institute London and Trinity College Dublin. McCarthy, a sociologist, has worked and conducted research in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the United States and has published widely on community, adolescent and reproductive health issues.
He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University, an M.A. from Indiana University and an A.B. from the College of the Holy Cross.
McCarthy has been involved in a variety of organizations outside of academia. He is on the board of directors of the Alan Guttmacher Institute and has served as chair. He served on the National Board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its CEO Search Committee and on the boards of several New Hampshire organizations, including the Manchester Community Health Center, the Foundation for Healthy Communities and the New Hampshire Area Health Education Council. He was director of the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Task Force of the New Hampshire Citizen’s Health Initiative. In 2009, 2010 and 2011, the Irish Voice named him to the “Irish Education 100” honor roll, which recognizes the 100 top Irish-Americans in U.S. higher education.