Lagemann said she has no specific agenda for now, but is eager to begin meeting with students and faculty to discuss changes at GSE.

And Lagemann’s appointment marks a significant change for the male-dominated ranks of Harvard deans—it is the first time in the University’s history that two schools will be headed by women.

Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, is currently the only permanent female dean.

Lagemann has worked with Faust before as a member of the ad hoc committee which provided extensive recommendations for the shaping of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study after Radcliffe College merged with Harvard in 1999.

Faust, who has publicly stated her desire for a female candidate to fill both the GSE post and the still-vacant Divinity School deanship, described the appointment of Lagemeann as “brilliant.”

“I’ve known her since we were in high school together but got to know her professionally through her judicious contributions to the Radcliffe Institute Ad Hoc Committee,” Faust wrote in an e-mail yesterday. “I am thrilled to have her here permanently...as a neighbor across the Radcliffe Yard.”

Lagemann succeeds Jerome T. Murphy, who was dean from 1992 through June 2001. Professors of Education Judith D. Singer and John B. Willet have served jointly as acting dean this year, while an advisory committee convened by Summers has been meeting to find a new dean.

Singer, who will return to the faculty when Lagemann takes over in July, said she was impressed by the time and energy that Summers devoted to the search, considering that GSE is smaller and often overlooked in comparison to the larger graduate schools.

“This is not replacing Jeremy Knowles,” she said of the outgoing dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “One could imagine a president not taking that kind of time to help find a new dean [for GSE].”