Managing Director

Gillian A. Najarian, Ed.M.

Headshot of Gillian Najarian

Gillian Najarian is Managing Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and was among the Center’s founders in July 2006. She is Chief Operating Officer for the Center, responsible for overseeing and coordinating Center-wide governance issues, including resource assessment and strategic planning around all new initiatives as well as fundraising and donor relations, board management, faculty development, partnership development, and staff deployment and development.

Previously, as Associate Dean at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, Gillian worked with faculty and research staff on media and communications issues related to public dissemination of their work in the context of overall branding and marketing for the school. Early in her tenure at The Heller School, she directed a complete reorganization of all student affairs, including admissions, financial aid, counseling, and career and academic services. Before joining Brandeis, she worked at the Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Prior to her career in higher education administration, she worked as an ESL teacher and foreign program officer in Boston, France, and Japan. She earned a B.A. in French language and literature and international relations from Connecticut College, and an Ed.M. in higher education administration, planning and social policy, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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