"It's a large job one with many challenges," Power said. "He'll be very involved in a range of community discussions. He'll be working closely with me...to develop better relations with the city of Cambridge."
"Our hope is that Travis can handle [those responsibilities] so Mary can get freed up for more strategic thinking and programmatic initiatives," Grogan said.
"We needed more help. It's a huge amount of work," Grogan said. "I wanted a little more strategic thinking, and if you're consumed by the day-to-day thinking, it's very, very hard to do that."
Power added that the office is interested in expanding outreach to local officials and inviting officials to participate in executive education.
"We've been working to bring better visibility to Harvard's positive impact on the community," she said.
She cited a report on University students' impact through community service as proof of Harvard's growing links to the city.
She added that the office will be exploring new partnership initiatives.
McCready did not return a call for comment last night.