David T. Ellwood '75 has resigned as President Clinton's assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services to resume his post as academic dean of the Kennedy School.

The announcement of Ellwood's-return was made on July 31 to members of the Kennedy School community in a memorandum from Albert Carnesale, who is serving as Kennedy School dean until Dec. 1 and who is University provost.

"[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 on July 31.

"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.

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-chair of the Clinton Administration's Working Group on Welfare Reform, Family Support and Independence.

Alan A. 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.

Altshuler, who is also Stanton professor of urban policy and planning, will return to teaching at the Kennedy School next year.