President Clinton's Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services, David T. Ellwood '75, will return to Harvard next week to resume his post as academic dean of the Kennedy School of Government.

Ellwood had been rumored to be a frontrunner in the Kennedy's School's search for a new dean, and the announcement that he would return to his former job as academic dean--a position which reports to the dean of the Kennedy School--suggests that the 15-month long search for a Kennedy School dean may not be near an end.

The announcement of Ellwood's return was made yesterday to members of the Kennedy School community in a memorandum from Albert Carnesale, Harvard's provost and the Kennedy School's acting dean.

"[Ellwood] and I both understood from the time he took leave that he would like to return to Harvard, and the question was a matter of when," Carnesale said in a telephone interview yesterday.

"My view was the sooner the better. This proved to be the best time for him," he said.

Ellwood, a labor economist who specializes in the problems of the poor, was the academic dean of the Kennedy School when he left Harvard in 1992 to serve in the Clinton administration.

The job of academic dean at the Kennedy School includes serving on an academic appointments committee, general oversight of academic programs and advising the dean. Ellwood will also resume his teaching and research when he returns to the school, Kennedy School officials said.

"I think this is great for the Kennedy School," said Professor of Economics Lawrence Katz, who served as chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor for a year during Ellwood's tenure in Washington. "We're glad to have him back."

Carnesale said: "David is a career scholar and teacher who had an opportunity to serve in government and to both apply some of the knowledge he gained and also gain additional knowledge."

In Washington, Ellwood served as co-chiar of the Clinton Administration's Working Group on Welfare Reform, Family Support and Independence.

Ellwood, 42, could not be reached for comment yesterday at his home in Bethesda, Md. He will return to Cambridge on August 7.

Alan Altshuler, the Kennedy School's academic dean for the past two years, will begin a sabbatical which he had postponed in order to serve in Ellwood's absence.

Altschuler, Stanton professor of urban policy and planning, will return to teaching at the Kennedy School next year.

Carnesale, who had worked closely with Ellwood prior to 1992, said he could not speculate as to what Ell- wood's appointment would mean for the KennedySchool's dean search.

"I'm not commenting as to what the decision ofPresident Rudenstine concerning the deanship mightor might not be," Carnesale said. "David wouldcertainly be an obvious and fine candidate fordean just as he's an obvious and fine candidatefor academic dean...I don't make any guesses aboutwhat's going to happen.