Mayor de Blasio on Thursday appointed a former colleague who worked with him in the Dinkins administration in the early ’90s as deputy mayor for strategic initiatives.

J. Phillip Thompson, who has been teaching at MIT since 2002, will take over for outgoing Deputy Mayor Richard Buery next month.

Buery was responsible for coordinating large-scale initiatives like the expansion of universal prekindergarten and the rollout of the ThriveNYC mental-health initiative.

Officials couldn’t immediately say what projects Thompson will oversee.