Maurie McInnis, an experienced higher education leader and cultural historian, was appointed as the 24th president of Yale University on Wednesday. She is the first woman to be permanently named to this position in the school’s history.
McInnis, who is 58 years old, currently serves as the president of Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York. She will be taking over from Peter Salovey, who is retiring and will become a faculty member at the prestigious Ivy League school in New Haven, Connecticut, after having served as its president for the past 10 years.
Yale announced that McInnis was the unanimous choice of the school’s Board of Trustees. Senior trustee Josh Bekenstein praised her as a “compelling leader, distinguished scholar, and devoted educator” who has a deep understanding of higher education and is committed to Yale’s mission and academic priorities.
McInnis, who will begin her new role on July 1, has been the president of Stony Brook University since 2020. Prior to that, she held leadership positions at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Virginia. She is familiar with New Haven, having received her master’s degree and doctorate from Yale, where she studied art history. Her research has focused on the politics of art and slavery in the southern United States during the 1800s.
In her statement, McInnis expressed her eagerness to reconnect with people she knows at Yale and to meet many more. She also commended the university’s faculty, staff, and students for their excellence and contributions to the Yale community.
As the new president, McInnis will be leading an elite institution founded in 1701, with a $40 billion endowment, approximately 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 5,500 faculty members, and about 11,600 staff.
Both Yale and Stony Brook were among the schools nationwide that saw protests over the Israel-Hamas war, with students at both campuses being arrested. While McInnis did not specifically mention Gaza in her comments, she had previously stated that while Stony Brook supported students’ rights to free expression and peaceful assembly, protests and demonstrations would not be allowed to disrupt the academic environment or create safety issues.
Yale’s search committee praised McInnis for her academic leadership experience, scholarship, and her work on climate change. She is the first board chair of the New York Climate Exchange and led the founding of an international climate change solutions center in New York City.
McInnis will be only the second female leader in Yale’s history, following Hanna Holborn Gray, who served as acting president from 1977 to 1978 before the “acting” designation was removed after her tenure.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.