SEPTEMBER 2, 2025, NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Heterodox Academy (HxA), a non-partisan, non-profit membership organization committed to improving institutions of higher education by advocating principles of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement, today announced that Jeffrey S. Flier, M.D., has assumed the role of Chair of the HxA Board of Directors, succeeding HxA’s co-founder Jonathan Haidt, Ph.D., effective September 1.

Dr. Flier, the former Dean of Harvard Medical School (2007-2016) and a longtime advocate for academic freedom and intellectual diversity, has served on the HxA Board since 2019. His leadership will guide the organization into its next chapter as it continues to expand its impact across higher education.

“It is an honor and privilege to succeed Jonathan Haidt as HxA board chair, a position he held since co-founding the organization in 2015. The missions of HxA to promote open inquiry, viewpoint diversity and constructive disagreement in higher education have never been more important, and I look forward to working with HxA’s board, its president John Tomasi and the HxA staff and community to advance this mission going forward,” said Dr. Flier.

Reflecting on the organization’s growth, Haidt said: “When a few professors joined together in the summer of 2015 to commit our voices to a blog advocating for the improvement of universities, we had no idea that the challenge would grow so quickly over the coming years, nor that HxA would grow and evolve so quickly to meet those challenges. After ten years in a leadership role (as informal director at first, then as board chair), it is time for me to step back just a bit. I am thrilled that Jeff Flier has agreed to serve as our next board chair. Jeff has been writing brilliantly in defense of free inquiry for nearly a decade, and from his years as the dean of Harvard Medical School he brings a depth of experience far beyond mine, which will be crucial as HxA works more closely with university administrations. I will stay on the board for as long as they'll have me, and will do all I can to help Jeff, John, and Michael lead HxA forward.”

Flier is a distinguished endocrinologist, researcher, and leader in academic medicine. He is an authority on diabetes and obesity and is the Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and the Higginson Professor of Physiology and Medicine. Flier received a BS from City College New York and an MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. As an author of over 300 scholarly papers, he is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and in 2005 received the Banting Medal, the highest scientific honor granted by the American Diabetes Association.