Alan Garber

Alan Michael Garber (born May 7, 1955) is an American physician, health economist, and academic administrator. He is currently Harvard University's interim president. He served as Provost of Harvard from 2011 until March 14, 2024, when John F. Manning took on the position on an interim basis.

Early life and education
Garber was born in Illinois, in 1955, to Harry and Jean Garber in a Jewish household. He grew up in Rock Island, Illinois.

Garber attended Harvard College, where he obtained a B.A. in economics in 1976 followed by a M.A. and Ph.D. in economics, also from Harvard. While pursuing his PhD, he enrolled simultaneously at Stanford University, where he received a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1983. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston in 1986.

Career
Garber succeeded Steven Hyman as the provost of Harvard University on September 1, 2011.

Garber is also the Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Economics in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Public Policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

He is currently the interim president of Harvard University, having succeeded Claudine Gay after her resignation. Garber noted that he will not return to his position as provost after a permanent university president is named.

Opposition to graduate student unionization
In July 2016, Harvard University's Office of the Provost launched a web page in response to its graduate students' efforts to unionize. On August 23, 2016, following the Columbia decision which restored union rights to teaching and research assistants, the Provost's office wrote in an email to students, "we continue to believe that the relationship between students and the University is primarily about education, and that unionization will disrupt academic programs and freedoms, mentoring, and research at Harvard." Following a decision by the Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board that Harvard was in violation of the Excelsior rule, Garber defended the university's appeal to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., writing that the university "believes that the November 2016 election results, which reflect the votes and voices of well-informed students, should stand, and has appealed the Regional Director's decision to the contrary."

Pharmaceutical board memberships
In October 2019, The Harvard Crimson reported that Garber collected more than $2.7 million serving on the board of directors for Exelixis and Vertex Pharmaceuticals since being appointed as Harvard's provost in 2011, according to SEC filings. The companies indicated that his compensation was normal for board members. Garber stated that he had thoroughly disclosed his industry affiliations in conflict of interest forms for the university.

2024 commencement
Under Garber's leadership, Harvard administration drew criticism for preventing 13 undergraduates from collecting their diplomas at the annual commencement ceremony as a consequence for participation in pro-Palestinian protests. Nearly 500 Harvard faculty and students criticized the sanctions as disproportionate, unprecedented, and designed to stifle open discourse, while others identified it as an example of the "Palestine Exception" to free speech. The decision was initially overturned by 115 faculty members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but ultimately reinstated by the Harvard Corporation.

Personal life
Garber and his wife Anne Yahanda have four children.