DURHAM, N.H. - Bruce Mallory, professor of education and former provost, has been named the interim director of the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Mallory will serve for two years, effective immediately.

"Since its beginning in 2002, the institute has demonstrated the critical importance of an interdisciplinary approach to applied, policy-relevant research on and with communities, families, and children. The two primary foci of the institute's work—community development and policies that affect vulnerable families and children—are at the core of complex research questions and represent some of the most important social policy challenges in New England and the United States," Mallory said.

"I have a deep personal commitment to the purposes of the Carsey Institute, having served the university over the past 32 years through my work as a faculty member in an applied discipline affected significantly by state and federal policies and as an academic administrator," he said. 

Mallory has been involved with the Carsey Institute since its creation and has served as a senior fellow there. As provost, he was deeply involved in its startup. "The blend of high-level, sophisticated research with an ethic of faculty and student development has been very successful, and I am committed to sustaining this special characteristic of the institute during the time of my appointment," he said. 

In addition to his new role with the Carsey Institute, Mallory will continue to teach in the education department and conduct research on the deliberative democracy movement. He has been a practitioner and national leader in the deliberative democracy movement for the past 15 years. At the Carsey Institute, he has provided technical assistance and leadership related to the use of deliberative processes for citizen engagement.

The announcement of Mallory's appointment was made by Kenneth Fuld, dean of the UNH College of Liberal Arts, and Barbara Arrington, dean of the UNH College of Health and Human Services.

"Dean Arrington and I could not be more pleased that Bruce has accepted the interim director position," Fuld said. "His rich experience working in the applied field of education, with the Carsey Institute itself, and as a senior administrator in various capacities at UNH over 32 years positions him well to understand the needs of a sponsored research unit at UNH as well as the needs of the array of stakeholders with which this particular unit works. We have every confidence that Bruce will be an outstanding steward and that he will continue to move Carsey in a forward direction."

As director of NH Listens and chair of the board of directors of the Democracy Imperative, which is housed within the institute, Mallory participates in national initiatives focused on the role of higher education in strengthening democratic practice. His primary objective at Carsey has been to integrate effective forms of citizen deliberation into policy analysis and dissemination around research topics related to social and economic justice.

Mallory holds a bachelor's degree in arts and master's degree in education from Allegheny College and a doctorate degree in special education and community psychology from the George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. He joined the UNH faculty in 1979.

Mallory succeeds Mil Duncan, the institute's founding director. Duncan retired as the institute's director in May 2011 and has assumed a new role as research director at AGree, a new initiative designed to tackle long-term agricultural, food, and rural policy issues.

The Carsey Institute conducts policy research on vulnerable children, youth, and families and on sustainable community development. The institute gives policy makers and practitioners the timely, independent resources they need to effect change in their communities. For more information about the Carsey Institute, go to www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,200 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students.

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Bruce Mallory, interim director of the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.
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