Overview

• Heather Gerken is the dean of Yale Law School and a leading constitutional law scholar with voting rights experience and Supreme Court clerkships.
• She will assume the presidency on November 1 after a yearlong national search following Darren Walker’s announcement last July that he would step down.
• Gerken will manage the Ford Foundation’s $16 billion endowment as federal oversight of nonprofit tax-exempt status and funding intensifies.
• During her tenure at Yale, she launched pipeline-to-law-school programs and created full-tuition scholarships to increase diversity and inclusion.
• Board chair Francisco Cigarroa described her as a thoughtful and innovative leader whose commitment to equity aligns with the foundation’s social justice mission.