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Shankar K. Prasad, dean of Brown University’s School of Professional Studies, SPS since 2022, will step down effective January 31 to join the senior leadership team at Carnegie, a higher education marketing and enrollment strategy firm, as chief strategy officer.
Prasad, a Brown University Ph.D. alumnus, will depart Brown after a decade-long tenure that also included appointments as deputy provost, vice president for academic innovation, and associate director of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Since his appointment as School of Professional Studies dean, he has led an expansion in master’s degree, professional and non-degree programs, and strengthened support for master’s students at Brown.
As the third dean of the School of Professional Studies and Brown’s first vice president for academic innovation, Prasad provided executive oversight of SPS’s academic programs, finance and administrative operations, and student life, and worked with academic leaders across campus to develop new areas for growth and success. Prasad expanded Brown’s suite of non-degree programs, including corporate education programs, certificate programs and short courses that focus on rapid skill development.
He developed partnership with the School of Public Health to launch an online master of public health program, Brown’s first exclusively online degree program.
“Shankar has been instrumental in building on Brown’s academic strengths, delivering instruction in compelling new ways and making Brown’s world-class education accessible to a diverse range of learners across the globe,” said Brown Provost Francis J. Doyle III.
In a series of leadership roles in the Office of the Provost from 2016 to 2022, Prasad worked closely with Brown leaders to advance academic excellence, improve operational effectiveness and financial sustainability, and promote community. He played important roles in academic continuity and return-to-campus planning during the COVID-19 pandemic, strategic planning and reorganizations for multiple Brown schools, and the transition of the Brown Arts Initiative to the expanded Brown Arts Institute.
He wrote the University’s first global strategy for advancing research, teaching and learning around the world. In recognition of those efforts, the launch of the Global Brown lounge and the expansion of the Office of International Student and Scholar Services, Brown was awarded a Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internalization in 2019.
“Working at Brown over the last decade, and particularly serving as dean of the School of Professional Studies, has been a distinct honor and privilege,” Prasad said. “I am profoundly grateful to this University for the tremendous opportunities it has given me as a student, an alum and an administrator.”
Prasad holds a Ph.D. in political science from Brown, an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and bachelor’s degrees in finance, political science and French from Rutgers University. He served as director of undergraduate studies and clinical professor of public policy at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service from 2009 to 2014.
In assuming the role of chief strategy officer for Carnegie, a leader in higher education marketing and enrollment strategy, Prasad will be responsible for overall enterprise strategy and will oversee student search and success and presidential advisory offerings for the company.
