Ira Harkavy, PhD

Ira Harkavy is the founder and Barbara and Edward Netter Director of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania.  He teaches in history, urban studies, and Africana studies, as well as in the Graduate School of Education. 

Harkavy has written and lectured widely on the history and current practice of urban university-community-school partnerships and the democratic and civic missions of higher education. He is the author or editor of fourteen books, including the forthcoming For the Long Haul: An Activist Academic’s Memoir (Temple University Press). He also serves as Executive Editor of Universities and Community Schools.

Harkavy is Chair of the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility, and Democracy; Founding Chair of the Anchor Institutions Task Force; Founder of the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND); Chair of the Paul Robeson House and Museum; and Chair Emeritus of the Coalition for Community Schools.

Among other honors, Harkavy received the University of Pennsylvania’s Alumni Award of Merit, Campus Compact’s Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning, New American Colleges and Universities’ Ernest L. Boyer Award, a Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant, and honorary degrees. Under his directorship, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships received the inaugural William T. Grant Foundation Youth Development Prize awarded by The National Academies and a Best Practices/Outstanding Achievement Award from HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research.

Harkavy received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in History from the University of Pennsylvania.