Maurie McInnis, a seasoned higher education leader and cultural historian, has been appointed the 24th president of Yale University. McInnis, 58, currently the president of Stony Brook University in New York, will succeed Peter Salovey, who is retiring and returning to a faculty role at Yale after a decade of leadership.
Yale’s Board of Trustees unanimously selected McInnis, recognizing her as a “compelling leader, distinguished scholar, and devoted educator,” according to senior trustee Josh Bekenstein. McInnis will officially begin her role on July 1.
McInnis has a long history in academia, having served as executive vice president and provost at the University of Texas at Austin and as vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Virginia. She is no stranger to Yale, where she has been a trustee since 2022 and earned her master’s degree and doctorate in art history. Her academic work has centered on the politics of art and slavery in the southern United States during the 1800s.
In her new role, McInnis expressed eagerness to reconnect with familiar faces and engage with new members of the Yale community. She highlighted the excellence of Yale’s faculty, staff, and students, praising their contributions to innovation, academic progress, and community engagement.
McInnis plans to hold listening sessions and individual meetings over the summer to better understand the needs and aspirations of the Yale community. She will lead an institution with a $40 billion endowment, around 12,000 students, 5,500 faculty members, and approximately 11,600 staff.
Both Yale and Stony Brook University recently experienced protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. McInnis maintained that while Stony Brook supports students’ rights to free expression, protests must not disrupt the academic environment or create safety issues.
Earlier this month, a proposed censure of McInnis over the arrests of 29 protesters at Stony Brook was narrowly rejected by the faculty Senate.
Yale’s search committee commended McInnis for her academic leadership and scholarship. Jacqueline Goldsby, a professor at Yale, praised her as a “practicing humanist” whose award-winning books on antebellum visual culture exemplify the rigorous scholarship Yale values.
The committee also noted McInnis’s contributions to climate change initiatives. She is the first board chair of the New York Climate Exchange and played a key role in founding an international climate change solutions center in New York City.
McInnis follows Hanna Holborn Gray, who served as acting president from 1977 to 1978, as Yale’s second female leader.