MADISON, WI (WSAU) — The UW Board of Regents has named a new leader for the system’s flagship campus in Madison.
Dr. Jennifer L. Mnookin will take over as Chancellor of the school on August 4th after she received unanimous approval from the board. She currently serves as Dean of the UCLA School of Law in Los Angeles.
“Dean Mnookin’s passion for public higher education, her vision for its future and the crucial challenges it faces were so impressive,” said Karen Walsh, regent vice president and chair of the Search and Screen Committee. “The choice of leader for our flagship is one of the most important tasks regents can face. We were fortunate to have the help of an outstanding search committee and valuable campus participation, both of which were crucial to the process. Dean Mnookin is a collaborative, visionary leader for whom student success and the Wisconsin Idea will be paramount.”
“I’m absolutely thrilled to have this opportunity to lead UW-Madison, one of our nation’s truly great public universities,” Mnookin said. “I deeply admire UW-Madison’s dual commitment to educational access and research excellence, as well as its mission to serve and to contribute to the state as a whole. I’m both humbled by and grateful for the confidence that the Special Regent Committee and the regents are showing in me.”
Mnookin also has stops at the University of Virginia and Harvard on her resume. She’s earned degrees from two Ivy League institutions- Harvard and Yale, and a Ph.D. in the History of Social Study of Science and Technology from MIT.
She takes over for Rebecca Blank, who is leaving Madison to become the next President of another Big Ten school- Northwestern University in suburban Chicago.
