Tom directs the Harvard College Writing Program, where he has taught, administered, and developed innovative writing curriculum and teaching methods since 1997. 

In addition to working with undergraduates, graduate students, and professors across the social sciences, humanities, and STEM fields at Harvard, he has deep expertise in teaching writing to adult learners. He has taught writing extensively in Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education. Over the past 25 years, he has run communications training seminars and personalized coaching for executives, managers, and support staff at a variety of companies and non-profits, from insurance and private wealth management companies to government agencies, philanthropies, and Harvard Medical School. He has also developed online guides for writing in the workplace.

He has been active in improving literacy in New England communities and across the country. As the program officer for the Calderwood Writing Initiative at the Boston Athenaeum, an arts and education charity, he designed and led financing for university-partnered writing centers at eight Boston Public high schools serving more than 3,000 students. He has led professional development courses for teachers in public and private high schools and colleges. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Harvard Allston Education Portal, Harvard’s community outreach center, for which he created and oversaw its writing and speaking program. 

The winner of numerous teaching awards at Harvard, Tom has been a contributing author for a series of best-selling composition textbooks by Diana Hacker, published by Bedford/St. Martin’s Press. He currently serves on Harvard College’s Admissions Committee. He holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia.