Sharma named provost at RISD

PRADEEP SHARMA has been named provost at the Rhode Island School of Design. / COURTESY JO SITTENFELD/RISD
PRADEEP SHARMA has been named provost at the Rhode Island School of Design. / COURTESY JO SITTENFELD/RISD

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island School of Design’s interim provost, Pradeep Sharma, has been promoted to provost.
As chief academic leader, Sharma will continue to work as he has already with RISD President Rosanne Somerson to shape the school of art and design’s academic vision and direction. The team he leads prioritizes teaching and learning initiatives and ensures faculty members have the resources to deliver on those priorities. The position also involves external communications about RISD’s pedagogical focus on immersive studio experience, which blends critical thinking and hands-on making skills.
Sharma had been interim provost since January of 2014, when Somerson, who had been provost, was promoted to interim president. She was named president in February.
Somerson said in a press release that she has confidence in Sharma’s “global perspective, intellect and collegiality” and is eager to work with him on her leadership team.
“Since joining RISD in 2012 as dean of Architecture and Design, Pradeep Sharma has proven himself to be a trusted leader, and an expansive and challenging thinker,” she said. “Pradeep has fostered new forms of research as well as integration among the fine arts, design, liberal arts and foundation studies at RISD.”
Sharma called the appointment a privilege.
“I deeply value RISD’s commitment to practice and the attention that is paid here to taking experience seriously,” he said. “At RISD new technologies coexist with traditional technologies, new methods constantly evolve, ideas drive making, students want to change the world, faculty really know how to teach, the hand is conscious of the brain, ideas exist in contexts of practice, culture, society and politics, and art and design are at the forefront of everything we do.”
Before coming to RISD, Sharma served as dean of the Bath School of Art and Design at Bath Spa University in England. There, he led the academic programs and student experience as well as managing the school’s operations, finances, facilities and quality assurance.
He also had developed new degree programs, expanded research activity and built collaborative relationships with industry partners.
Besides a doctorate in complexity management from the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K., Sharma holds a master’s degree in industrial design engineering from Teesside University and both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical and information sciences from Cambridge University. He also ran his own international design management and innovation consultancy practice for more than a decade.

No posts to display