Avery will be leaving Harvard for the first time since arriving here as an undergraduate in 1983.

After graduating from the College in 1987, Avery became a proctor, attended the Graduate School of Education and worked in the admissions office before becoming an assistant dean in 1995.

Avery said she is looking for a job—possibly in a “non-university environment”—in D.C.

“It’ll be interesting to see if one day I’ll be able to cut the cord with Mother Harvard,” Avery told the Crimson last February while on maternity leave.

But now that she is leaving, both she and her colleagues said they doubt this will be the end of her connection to Harvard.

“Hopefully we’ll keep in close touch,” Fox said. “I don’t think she can stay away from her alma mater for long.”

—Staff writer Sarah M. Seltzer can be reached at sseltzer@fas.harvard.edu.