Dear Members of the HMS and HSDM Community:

I am writing to share with you that Chief Information Officer Deborah Corwin Scott has communicated to Dean Daley and me her plans to retire from Harvard Medical School on June 30. She will step down from her CIO role on April 30 and will then work part-time to help ensure a smooth transition leading up to her departure in June.

Deborah joined HMS in September 2017 and immediately got to work to assess and remedy the School’s technical deficits. Among her many accomplishments, she made critical contributions to preparations for HMS’ accreditation review by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and shepherded major improvements to the School’s information security environment. As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, Deborah led technology efforts that helped smooth the transition to remote learning and hybrid work for the Quad community.

I have deeply valued and admired Deborah’s energy, strategic thinking, and commitment to the mission and people of HMS. She has also been an effective partner with colleagues at the University, which has benefited both the University and HMS. Perhaps her greatest legacy is the professional IT organization she has built — including a top-tier leadership team — amid a period of extraordinary change and challenge in the fields of information technology and security.  

Please join me in thanking Deborah for her service to HMS over the past seven years and wishing her the very best in her well-deserved retirement.

We will begin the search process for our next CIO immediately. I am pleased to announce that Chief Technology Officer Spencer Pruitt has agreed to serve as interim CIO effective May 1. Since joining HMS IT as chief technology officer in February 2023, Spencer has made dramatic improvements that have touched every facet of our IT enterprise. I have the utmost confidence in his ability to lead the team during this transition, and I am deeply grateful to Deborah for recruiting Spencer as our CTO.

Sincerely,

Lisa M. Muto
Executive Dean for Administration
Harvard Medical School