Dacia Read, a Providence native and former deputy chief of staff to then-Governor Gina Raimondo, will join Brown as the chief of staff for President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20.
As chief of staff, Read will be responsible for supervising the Office of the President and promoting the University’s goals, which include launching a school of international public affairs and creating a University-wide strategy for artificial intelligence research.
Read is inheriting the office as Brown approaches a contentious divestment vote in October. She said she hadn’t been following the events at Brown closely before taking the role, but she’s “learned more about it since I’ve gotten here.”
Key to Read’s job will be to communicate Paxson’s goals to different constituencies on and off campus.
“Understanding and elevating the lived experience of the people that you’re working with is really important,” Read said. “I've done policy work that’s ‘system level,’ but you cannot forget the ‘person level.’ It’s motivating, it keeps you honest, and it’s important,” Read said.
Read has previously worked as deputy chief of staff to former Governor Gina Raimondo’s administration, where she said she focused on issues that impacted families.
“I’m a single mom, and I care about taking care of moms, so healthcare and education are key to that,” Read said.
Read began working in Raimondo’s office in 2015, where she staffed Rhode Island’s children’s cabinet, which focused on issues with an outsized impact on children and families. After that, Read served as Raimondo’s deputy chief of staff for health and human services.
Read moved to her position in health and human services in March 2020, where she led the state response to COVID-19. That experience took her to a leadership position in Medicaid and child welfare policy at Unite Us, a healthcare technology company.
“I think that experience, plus what I worked on in state government, gave me a sense of the opportunity for the Brown University and Lifespan affiliation,” Read said. Lifespan is set to change its name to Brown University Health in the upcoming year as Brown plans to invest over $150 million into Lifespan over the next seven years, the Herald previously reported.
Hadley Carr is a senior staff writer at The Herald.
