Since the merger of Harvard and Radcliffe in 1999, alumnae and friends have established several unique professorships at Radcliffe. These professorships are designed to bring a succession of eminent individuals to the Institute and to attract outstanding faculty to tenured positions at Harvard. Professors at Radcliffe are recruited with the opportunity of spending four semesters in residence at the Radcliffe Institute during their first five years at the university.

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Nancy E. Hill, a leader in the study of cultural influences on parenting and adolescent achievement, is the first Suzanne Murray Professor and a professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, effective July 1, 2009.  She is the cofounder of the Study Group on Race, Culture and Ethnicity, an interdisciplinary group of scientists who develop theory and methodology for defining and understanding the cultural context within diverse families. Hill's research ideally positions her to collaborate with Radcliffe faculty leaders on the Institute's new policy studies initiatives as well as other academic activities.

Joanna Aizenberg, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, joined the Harvard faculty in 2007 as the first Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at Radcliffe and the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science. She was recruited from Lucent Technologies’ Bell Laboratories. In residence at Radcliffe during fall 2008, Aizenberg is conducting research in the field of biomimetic materials.
     
Carolyn Abbate, a renowned musicologist, was named a tenured professor in the Harvard Department of Music in the fall of 2005, when she also became the first Radcliffe Alumnae Professor. She has received numerous awards, including the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Her work crosses disciplinary boundaries from music into literature and philosophy. Abbate was a member of the Radcliffe Institute fellowship community in 2006–2007.
 
The first professor at Radcliffe was Mahzarin R. Banaji, who was recruited to Harvard in 2002 with the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professorship at Radcliffe and as Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology. Banaji, who was in residence at Radcliffe in 2007–2008 and 2004–2005, is known throughout the world for her research into the unconscious origins of ordinary prejudice.