College Names Interim Currier House Masters

Currier House resident tutors Shahram and Laura Khoshbin have been named interim House masters for the coming academic year, outgoing House master and Shad Professor of Business Ethics Joseph L. Badaracco announced at Thursday's Currier House diploma ceremony.

According to a June 8 statement issued by Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross '71 to Currier House, the Khoshbins were chosen as interim masters when it "became clear that more time was needed to complete the search for new House Masters."

The Khoshbins will take up the posts most recently held by Badaracco and his wife, former Deputy Dean of the College Patricia O'Brien.

In the statement, Gross also said that a committee of Currier House staff and students will convene in the fall to resume the search for new House masters.

Badaracco and O'Brien have served as Currier's House masters since the fall of 2003. In Feburary the couple announced that they would be stepping down at the end of this academic year, citing "personal and professional" reasons in an e-mail sent to the House announcing the move.

Their decision to depart came after a year that saw the summer 2006 ousting of O'Brien from her former deputy dean position, and the death of Badaracco's oldest daughter, Anna, in an August 2006 car accident.

Shahram Khoshbin, an associate professor of neurology at the Medical School, has been affiliated with Currier for over 30 years as a resident tutor and chair of its pre-medical advisory committee. His wife, Laura, is a senior attorney in the law office for the Brigham and Women's Hospital, the Massachusetts General Hospital, and McLean Hospital, and has served as chair of Currier House's pre-law advisory committee. Together, they teach a popular House seminar, Currier 79, "Medicine, Law, and Ethics: An Introduction."

The Khoshbins have a five-year-old daughter, Amy.

—Staff writer Aditi Banga can be reached at abanga@fas.harvard.edu.