Dean Carol Lancaster assumed the deanship of SFS in 2010 after serving as interim dean for the previous year.

She is a professor, scholar and practitioner of international politics, having served in government for thirteen years, including as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, and Deputy Administrator of USAID - a Presidential appointment. Her scholarly work includes ten books and numerous articles on foreign policy, the politics of foreign aid and the politics of development. She is currently working on two books: an edited volume on the Politics of Development for Oxford University Press, and Barack Obama's Foreign Aid for the Center for Global Development. She has been a Fulbright Fellow, a Congressional Fellow, a Twentieth Century Fellow and a Carnegie Fellow among others.

Dean Lancaster is Vice Chair of the Board of Vital Voices and Vice Chair of the Joint Advisory Board of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. She also serves on the boards of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Society for International Development, the American University of Afghanistan and other organizations. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development.