Phillip L. Clay is the Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Professor of City Planning. He has served as the Chancellor since 2001. The Chancellor and the Provost are the Institute’s two most senior academic officers. As Chancellor, Professor Clay has oversight responsibility for graduate and undergraduate education at MIT, student life, student services, international initiatives, and the management of certain of MIT’s large-scale institutional partnerships. Together, the Chancellor and the Provost advise the President and participate in strategic planning, faculty appointments, resource development, and Institute resources and buildings.
A member of the MIT faculty since 1975, Professor Clay served as Associate Provost in the Office of the Provost from 1994 to 2001. He was the Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning from 1992 to 1994 and its Associate Department Head during 1990 to 1992. From 1980 to 1984, Professor Clay served as the Assistant Director of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT and Harvard.
Professor Clay is widely known for his work in U.S. housing policy and community-based development and has been involved in several studies that received national attention. For example, in a 1987 study commissioned by the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp., he identified the market and institutional conditions contributing to the erosion of low-income rental housing and documented the need for a national preservation policy. He later served on the national commission that recommended the policy that became part of the Housing Act of 1990. His research and writing continue to explore U.S. housing and urban policy. In his most recent research, sponsored by several national foundations, Professor Clay evaluated the effectiveness of various initiatives to build organizational and developmental capacity in community-based development organizations.
Professor Clay is a founding member of the National Housing Trust that continues to address the issue of housing preservation. He is also President of the Board of The Community Builders, Inc., the nation’s largest nonprofit developer of affordable housing. In recent years, Professor Clay has served as a senior advisor on projects in several areas that include public housing, community capacity-building, and urban job initiatives. He served as Chairman of the Board of a local community college from 2002 to 2006. Additionally, he has served as a consultant to numerous federal and state agencies and foundations. He also maintains extensive involvement in community and professional activities, including memberships on other local and national boards and committees. He serves as member and Vice Chair of the MasterCard Foundation board and recently he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Among other works, his publications include two books, Neighborhood Renewal: Middleclass Resettlement and Incumbent Upgrading in American Neighborhoods, and Neighborhood Politics and Planning (with Rob Hollister).
Professor Clay is a native of Wilmington North Carolina. He received the AB degree with Honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1968 and his Ph.D. in City Planning in 1975 from MIT. Professor Clay resides in Boston with his wife.