President Harriet B. Nembhard
Harriet B. Nembhard is the sixth president of Harvey Mudd College, the nation’s premier liberal arts STEM college and a member of The Claremont Colleges. A transformational academic leader and a distinguished industrial engineer, President Nembhard began her tenure on July 1, 2023.
Since her arrival, President Nembhard has focused institutional capacity on critical modern challenges, including student mental health and well-being; affordability and access for middle-income families; the thoughtful evolution of the College’s corporate partnerships and Clinic programs by anchoring stakeholder engagement in the principles of pluralism and mutual respect; and climate and sustainability commitments.
Under her leadership, the College launched STEM for a Better World—HMC Strategy: 2025-2035, a bold strategic plan that reflects Harvey Mudd’s commitment to educating responsible and compassionate scientists, mathematicians, and engineers with a deep understanding of ethical, social, and environmental considerations required to develop solutions that benefit humanity and the planet. Guided by this strategy, she has spearheaded the philanthropic momentum for the Campaign for Harvey Mudd College, an ambitious $250 million comprehensive fundraising effort—the most significant in the College’s history.
Central to this vision of academic excellence is her creation of the Innovation Accelerator (IA), a dynamic platform that has expanded to five advanced research and pedagogical laboratories. Among them, the IA Lab for Artificial Intelligence is actively defining academic standards for secure generative AI tools, while the IA Lab for Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering is shaping the design of the College’s next major academic building.
Beyond campus, President Nembhard is a prominent national thought leader at the intersection of technology, civic life, and human connection. She represents Harvey Mudd in the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness national coalition, co-authored a high-profile TIME magazine essay on the imperative of building human connection in the AI era, and introduced The Game of Democracy, an interdisciplinary course that treats democratic systems as a design and engineering challenge.
President Nembhard’s expertise is rooted in a lifelong fascination with complex systems. Entering college at age 16 to study management-engineering, her early curiosity was shaped by asking her father, a pilot, structural questions about airport logistics. This interest evolved into a prolific academic career in industrial engineering, where her multidisciplinary research teams developed medical devices for minimally invasive surgery and machine-learning systems for early disease screening. Reflecting her commitment to mentorship, many of her former PhD students and postdocs now hold significant positions in industry and academia worldwide.
Her national leadership includes serving as chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Action Collaborative on Education and Workforce Trajectories in Tech and as a member of the NASEM Roundtable on Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Education. She is an elected Fellow of the American Society for Quality, the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Prior to leading Harvey Mudd, she served as Dean of Engineering at the University of Iowa and held leadership positions at Oregon State University and Penn State University. She earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College, a BS from Arizona State University, and an MS and PhD in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan.