Dr. Jack H. Knott will step down as dean of USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, ending a 15-year career at USC that oversaw the expansion of the school’s research programs and international outreach, according to an email sent by the Provost’s Office on Friday morning.
Knott will be moving to New York University to serve as dean of the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, starting on Aug. 1, 2020.
Knott developed new PhD, masters and bachelors programs at Price during his tenure, while also building the school’s research capabilities and improving it’s national standing. Price tied with programs from Harvard and University California, Berkeley to be ranked as the second-best public affairs school in the country by U.S. News and World Report in 2019.
USC will soon announce the interim dean and form an advisory group to search for Knott’s replacement, according to the email.
Prior to his work at USC, Knott served as a professor of public policy and management at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also taught at Michigan State University and was a visiting professor at the University of Arizona and the University of Warwick in the U.K.
The announcement came the same day the Price School began testing L.A. residents for COVID-19 antibodies in a partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. It is the first procedure of its kind conducted in the U.S.
“It has been an immense privilege to work alongside you as your Dean for the past 15 years. The mission of our School, to improve the lives of people and their communities, here and abroad, has been my guiding principle and it has been truly inspiring to see you all embrace this sense of purpose as well," Knott said in a memo to the Price community.
The Price School offers programs in fields such as urban planning or health policy and management at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels.