Announcing New Professors of the Practice, Fall 2026

The Fletcher School is pleased to welcome two new professors of the practice for applied leadership development beginning in fall 2026. 

Kerry Healey

President Emerita of Babson College and Former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts 

Kerry Healey’s distinguished career spans higher education, public service, and foreign and domestic policy. She was the inaugural president of the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream in Washington DC, which opened its doors to the public in 2025. Previously, she was the first woman president of Babson College, a position she held from 2013-2019. While at Babson, Healey increased the college’s international profile, championed women entrepreneurs, created greater affordability and access for students, generated record-setting philanthropic investment in the college, and oversaw a dramatic renewal of the Wellesley campus and expansion into Boston and Miami.

As Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor from 2003 to 2007, she led bipartisan efforts to improve services for the homeless and those impacted by the opioid crisis, and increased protections for victims of child abuse, drunk driving accidents, and sexual and domestic violence. She was also integral in crafting the state’s pioneering health care reform legislation.

In 2007, Healey was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and later reappointed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to the Public Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan (PJRA). To support this effort, she founded a nonprofit, the Friends of the PJRA, to give scholarships to promising Afghan lawyers at top U.S. law schools to build capacity at Afghan universities, civil society and in government. She served on the board of the American University of Afghanistan from 2009-2025 and currently serves on the board of the American University of Bahrain. 

Healey has been a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Institute of Politics and the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, and is a member of the International Council of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Trilateral Commission, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She holds a BA in government from Harvard College and a PhD in political science and law from Trinity College, Dublin. 

Dee Mewbourne 

U.S. Navy, Vice Admiral (3-star), retired

After 40 years of service, Dee Mewbourne retired as a three-star vice admiral from the U.S. Navy in 2022, and is currently CEO of Quadrant Nuclear Industries Inc. While in the Navy, Mewbourne commanded nine consequential organizations, including being the only officer in the Navy’s history to command three nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. He also commanded Military Sealift Command, responsible for providing global maritime logistics support for the U.S. military, two Carrier Strike Groups, and Naval Service Training Command, leading accession training for officer and enlisted personnel. His last assignment was the deputy commander of U.S. Transportation Command, one of 11 combatant commands within the Department of Defense, responsible to deploy and sustain joint military forces globally, provide humanitarian assistance, and integrate the multibillion-dollar Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise.

Mewbourne earned a BS from the U.S. Naval Academy, an MBA from Colorado State University, and an Ed.D. in Leadership and Learning in Organizations from Vanderbilt University. He completed the Navy’s nuclear power training program and multiple prestigious leader development courses and is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. In addition to numerous military decorations, Mewbourne received the Carl Vinson Leadership Award (1979), Truman Foundation Leadership Award (2012), and National Defense Transportation Association Leadership Award (2022).