Dean

Duke University has named Dr. JR DeShazo as the Joel L. Fleishman Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy, effective July 1. DeShazo comes to Duke from the University of Texas at Austin, where he has served as dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs since 2021. He holds faculty appointments as the J. J. “Jake” Pickle Regents Chair in Public Affairs and the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in National Policy. Before joining the University of Texas, DeShazo spent two decades at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was the founding director of the Luskin Center for Innovation, which became part of the Luskin School of Public Affairs in 2009. A distinguished scholar and public policy expert, DeShazo specializes in clean technology policy, environmental equity and environmental economics. He has been an advisor to the World Bank and the United Nations, as well as U.S. federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency. DeShazo earned his bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary. He was the college’s first Rhodes Scholar, earning a Master of Development Economics at Oxford University. His Ph.D. in urban planning is from Harvard University. For more information on Dr. DeShazo’s appointment, click here.