Christine W. Letts

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Biographical Information

"Christine W. Letts is the Interim Director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations and the Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). She has extensive experience in private, nonprofit, and public management. Letts joined the faculty of HKS in 1992 and was the founding Executive Director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations. From 2005-2011 she was the Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education. After graduating from Connecticut College with a degree in history, she started her career working in New York City government. After receiving her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1976, she joined Cummins Engine Company in Columbus, Indiana and spent 10 years in labor relations and manufacturing management roles, the last of which was Vice President - Columbus Plant Operations. Her final job at Cummins was President of the Cummins Engine Foundation and Vice President of Corporate Responsibility. 1988, Letts became the first Secretary of the Indiana Department of Transportation, and later led the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. She co-authored Virtuous Capital: What Foundations Can Learn from Venture Capitalists (Harvard Business Review 1997), High Performance Nonprofit Organizations (John Wiley and Sons 1999) and Social Entrepreneurship and Societal Transformation (The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science September 2004). Letts also chairs and teaches nonprofit management in several Executive Education programs including Strategic Management for Leaders of Non-Governmental Organizations (delivered in Turkey), Strategic Frameworks for Nonprofit Organizations (delivered online) and Performance Measurement for Nonprofit Organizations (in partnership with the Harvard Business School). She co-teaches a new course in Philanthropy for students of Harvard College and the Harvard Kennedy School."

Affiliations

• Steering Committee, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative