PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Joseph S. Meisel, currently program officer for research universities and humanistic scholarship at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has been appointed deputy provost at Brown University, succeeding Vincent Tompkins. Meisel will take up his duties at Brown on Oct. 1, 2010.
“Joseph Meisel is a scholar who understands the history, development, and structure of American universities,” said Provost David I. Kertzer. “In more than 10 years as a program officer at the Mellon Foundation, he has designed and managed a variety of programs that have helped centers, departments, institutes, and schools create and enhance important academic ventures.”
As deputy provost, Meisel will oversee several offices, institutes, centers, and museums that report to the Provost’s Office, including the David Winton Bell Gallery, the John Carter Brown Library, the John Nicholas Brown Center, and the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.
The deputy provost serves as staff to the Corporation Committee on Academic Affairs and the University Resources Committee.
Joseph S. Meisel
Meisel, a program officer at the Mellon Foundation since 1999, is a graduate of Columbia University (A.B., history, 1988; A.M., 1992, M. Phil., 1998, Ph.D., 1999, all in history). After earning his baccalaureate degree, he joined Columbia’s Office of Management and Budget as an analyst and continued that work during his years of graduate study.
Meisel began his association with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation after completing his graduate studies at Columbia, serving as program officer for research universities and humanistic scholarship. He helped design, implement, manage, and evaluate programs that provided direct support to individual students and faculty scholars as well as funds for libraries, centers, and scholarly publishing — grant support totaling $60–$80 million annually.
Meisel began teaching history during his years of graduate study at Columbia and continued to teach during his years at the Mellon Foundation. He has held adjunct appointments at Columbia, the Teachers College at Columbia, and Baruch College, CUNY.
“In the academic community and at the foundation, I have directed my efforts toward helping institutions of higher education thrive and mature and toward supporting outstanding faculty and students,” Meisel said. “It has been a pleasure to have worked with some of the world’s finest universities, including Brown, and I am eager to continue those interests in Providence.”
The move to Brown is also ideally timed for a historian with an abiding interest in the history of higher education, Meisel said. He arrives as the University begins looking toward its 250th anniversary in 2014.