Incoming Provost Edward Balleisen was drawn to GW by University President Ellen Granberg’s vision.
Balleisen, Duke University’s senior vice provost for interdisciplinary programs and initiatives, is inspired by interdisciplinary collaboration and expanding research opportunities, he told The Hatchet in a sit-down interview Sunday, just days after GW announced his appointment as provost. He added that Granberg’s strategic framework aligns with the direction he believes higher education should take, and when he comes to campus in July he will engage faculty and make decisions rooted in shared governance and transparency.
“As I moved through the process and learned more and more about the University, my sense of the possibility of being able to really work with the folks at GW to move it forward became more and more enticing,” Balleisen said in an interview. “It’s just a fantastic university with incredible potential.”
Balleisen will join GW as officials continue implementing the strategic framework guiding the University’s next seven to 10 years, which aims to expand students’ career opportunities, support graduate and professional programs, build a “robust” administrative system and emphasize interdisciplinary research and D.C.-based learning experiences. As the chief academic officer, Balleisen will work alongside Granberg to oversee the framework’s phased implementation as officials work to accomplish its twelve goals.
“I’ll be eager to learn more about the places where GW is incredibly strong and to think about the best approaches to find that right balance between the foundational strength in departments and then the opportunities for people in those units to collaborate with others outside of them,” Balleisen said.
But Balleisen is also stepping in at a time of acute strain on GW’s academic mission as schools and departments grapple with cuts to budgets, Ph.D. programs and federal research grants as well as declining international student and graduate enrollment stemming from President Donald Trump’s visa and student-loan-borrowing restrictions.
Balleisen said officials have briefed him on some of the University’s current challenges, and he looks forward to working with Granberg, deans and the Faculty Senate to keep the community informed about decision-making. He added that his experience at Duke — learning how the budget system works, developing new programs and reviewing existing ones — will provide relevant experience for decision-making at GW.
GW is facing an unprecedented convergence of challenges, including cuts to the fiscal year 2026 budget — which triggered layoffs and reductions in campus services — the Justice Department’s antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion probes into the University, Trump’s cuts to federal research funding and increased oversight on international students.
Balleisen said he has a “core belief” of sharing information about University decision-making with the community, especially regarding constraints the University is operating under, but declined to comment on how he would navigate the specific challenges facing GW because he still has a “lot to learn” about the University’s circumstances.
“It’s important for members of the community to have a good sense of both the constraints that the university is operating under and where there are opportunities that are worth considering,” Balleisen said.
At the same time, Balleisen says he’s not naive to the realities of leading a large group of people with different priorities. He said he understands there are moments when it’s difficult for officials to share certain information with the community — a challenge he said University President Ellen Granberg has navigated well.
“There is a university community, and then there are many, many, many, many different sub communities,” Balleisen said. “And if you want to please everyone in a university, you will get nowhere.”
Still, he said he champions shared governance throughout the process, nodding to moments during academic program reviews when he would make decisions some disagreed with, but only after seeking input from faculty, staff and students in the process.
Former Provost Chris Bracey co-chaired the committee in 2022 that established the shared governance principles, but faculty consistently criticized him for not seeking faculty input in officials’ decision-making.
At his last Faculty Senate meeting in May, Bracey sparred with several faculty senators over the new process for implementing community feedback into University policies, which senators said violates the shared governance principles and lacks faculty input. Bracey said during the meeting that faculty and administrators have a “disagreement” on the meaning of shared governance.
Officials published a position profile in November stating that the next provost should strengthen shared governance and expand the University’s research capabilities. The profile also stated the provost should have experience at a university with multiple schools or campuses and complex budgets and a proven record of academic research.
Balleisen has served as a Duke faculty member for 29 years, with scholarship focusing on American institutional history across business, law, public policy and regulatory governance. As Duke’s vice provost, he has led efforts to expand interdisciplinary education, overseeing the creation, assessment, evolution and leadership selection of the university’s interdisciplinary units, according to his curriculum vitae.
Students and faculty said in August that they hope the new provost will protect the University’s current resources, build on its foundation and lead GW in the right direction, especially as Trump reshapes the higher-education landscape and officials grapple with a budget deficit.
More than 10 of Balleisen’s colleagues described his experience as a “great fit” for GW, saying they are confident he will advance the University by bringing new ideas and creating more research and educational opportunities for faculty and students. They characterized him as an approachable, collaborative leader who listens to community input before making decisions.
Lori Snyder Bennear, the dean of Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment who co-authored a book with Balleisen, said he always brings in new and fresh ideas to the work he does through an interdisciplinary lens. She added that he’s a “very inclusive leader” and is always the person people go to if they have a problem because he will include various perspectives when coming up with a solution.
Bennear said Balleisen is also a quick learner, and she has “no doubt” he will learn about the issues facing GW’s 10 schools in order to be a strong advocate for its academic mission.
Laura Howes, the chief of staff to the executive vice provost and assistant vice provost for strategic initiatives at Duke who has worked with Balleisen since 2015, said Balleisen has a “deep belief” in connecting higher education to local communities to create an impact. She said he’s focused on community engaged research and integrating students into the process.
“He just really believes that higher education can be a force for good in the world, and that’s kind of what drives him,” Howes said.
Howes said Balleisen is a decisive leader who likes to collect data and community input before making decisions, adding that he has a “good grasp” on financial data and internal administrative details. She said after working with him for 10 years, she knows that he listens to others’ perspectives and includes those different thoughts in his decision-making process.
Balleisen will assume the University’s top academic post as officials continue to navigate a structural budget deficit and work to develop a new budget model as officials told Faculty Senators in January to prepare budget contingency plans that include 5, 10 and 15 percent reductions for fiscal year 2027, which would come on top of existing budget cuts in FY2026.
“He was always, not just open to my ideas, but really welcoming of encouraging me to tell him what I thought and including that in the decision-making process,” Howes said.
Jonathan Wiener, a professor at Duke who has worked with Balleisen for about 20 years, said Balleisen always looks forward to new opportunities and finding additional ways to help support faculty and students. He said Balleisen has been “pivotal” in cultivating an interdisciplinary environment at Duke where people of different strengths and skills work together and collaborate on projects.
Wiener said Balleisen has gained a “really deep understanding” of how universities work logistically throughout his time at Duke, pointing to how Balleisen always connected people from across different disciplines to work together and create new opportunities for students.
“There’s real value in the serendipity of identifying connections in our research, in our teaching that then people can collaborate through the proximity, and Ed has been just so dedicated and so effective at helping those connections occur,” Wiener said.
Balleisen said his tenure at Duke will conclude on June 30, and he will begin his role at GW on July 1.
Arjun Srinivas, Dylan Ebs and Tyler Iglesias contributed reporting.
