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Distributed September 19, 2005
Contact Tracie Sweeney


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Nozaki Named Associate Dean of the College, Director of Swearer Center

Roger Nozaki, executive director of the General Electric Foundation, has been named an associate dean of the College and director of the Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University. Nozaki, who earned a Master of Arts in Teaching at Brown in 1989, will begin his duties Nov. 1, 2005.


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Roger Nozaki, currently executive director of the General Electric Foundation, has been named an associate dean of the College and director of the Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University. Nozaki, who earned a Master of Arts in Teaching at Brown in 1989, will begin his duties Nov. 1, 2005

The Swearer Center, honoring the work of Brown’s 15th president, supports students and faculty who are interested in community participation, activism and action-research as central components of a liberal education. The center annually coordinates 45 local community-based partnerships, funds more than 60 student fellowship projects and supports several academic and professional advising programs.

“The Swearer Center is an important resource for the campus and the community, and I am glad that we have found someone with Roger Nozaki’s energy, vision, and experience to lead the next chapter of its history,” said Paul Armstrong, dean of the College, to whom Nozaki will report. “He has exciting ideas about how to increase the Swearer Center’s involvement with faculty and its integration with the academic mission of the University that come out of his long involvement with the center and reflect a deep understanding of its importance for the Brown curriculum.”

Nozaki has had a longtime commitment to public service, including two years as a full-time volunteer for adults with disabilities. As a graduate student at Brown in the late 1980s, Nozaki had a Swearer Center proctorship that focused on faculty involvement in public service. He worked on those issues at the national level at Campus Compact, a coalition of college presidents committed to public service, founded by Swearer and the late Frank Newman. Nozaki’s career has been dedicated to strengthening both K–12 and higher education, with particular focus on partnerships between education, communities and corporations.

“I am honored to have been selected for this role and to have the opportunity to build on the meaningful, effective partnerships established under the Swearer Center's wonderful previous leaders,” Nozaki said. “The center and its staff have a solid track record and tremendous potential for enhancing scholarship at Brown and strengthening the broader community. I am excited to return to the vibrant intellectual and community life of Brown and Providence.”

The General Electric Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the General Electric Company. As its executive director, Nozaki manages the foundation’s work in developing a global grant strategy to create significant and sustainable improvement in education for disadvantaged youth. He is a co-founder of the Pathways to College Network, a coalition of nine foundations and 25 educational organizations with the mission of promoting data-driven, school-based approaches to increase the rate of college attendance among under-represented students.

Nozaki has extensive experience with educational initiatives designed to increase the success of under-represented students in the sciences and quantitative business disciplines. In collaboration with the National Academy of Engineering, the American Association of Engineering Societies, and the National Science Foundation, he led an effort to promote careers in engineering among under-represented students.

Before joining the General Electric Foundation eight years ago, Nozaki was senior program officer for the Hitachi Foundation, where he developed and implemented initiatives in education, community development and global corporate citizenship.

Nozaki has a bachelor’s degree in history, cum laude, from Princeton, and has done graduate work at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He succeeds Peter Hocking, who is leaving Brown to focus his energies on his career as an artist and a college teacher.

“It has been a pleasure to lead the center through a period of foundational growth,” Hocking said. “I am thrilled that Roger Nozaki has agreed to bring his vision to its future. His experience and perspective will insure the center's vitality and innovation.”

The Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service

The Swearer Center supports students and faculty who are interested in community participation, activism, and action-research as central components of a liberal education. Established in 1987 by Howard R. Swearer, the fifteenth president of Brown University, the Center encourages active community involvement through direct service project by helping students connect service and learning, by encouraging University-community partnerships, and by building opportunities for the development of leadership skills among participants.

For more information, visit the center’s Web site.

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