She had helmed Yale Law School since 2017
Yale Law dean Heather Gerken has been announced as the Ford Foundation's new president effective November, reported Reuters.
Gerken takes over from Darren Walker, who led the Ford Foundation for over 10 years. Walker had said in July 2024 that he was stepping down in 2025.
Gerken had been helming Yale Law School since 2017. Her current five-year term as dean was supposed to conclude in 2027.
In a snippet from a prepared statement that was published by Reuters, Gerken said she would aim to "protect democracy and the rule of law and further our mission to create a more just and fair world for everyone."
In 2022, Gerken led a boycott of U.S. News and World Report's law school rankings that resulted in U.S. News revising its rankings methodology. She had accused the rankings of incentivizing schools to grant financial aid to applicants who scored high on tests rather than to those in need of funding.
As Yale Law dean, she also launched programs to improve the accessibility and affordability of law school, such as cutting the tuition requirement for low-income students. The program was replicated by Stanford and Harvard's law schools.
In 2020, Gerken supervised an investigation into sexual misconduct claims brought against Yale Law professor Jed Rubenfeld. Rubenfeld was suspended for two years following the investigation.
Under her watch, Yale Law was also criticized in 2022 when students protested a conservative speaker. Two federal judges declared that they would not take clerks from Yale Law as a result.
A Yale Law spokesperson said that no interim dean had been named to replace Gerken yet.
On Monday, Harvard University promoted interim law school dean John Goldberg to permanent dean. On the same day, Joshua Teitelbaum commenced as interim dean of the Georgetown University Law Center after William Treanor stepped down.
On Tuesday, Adam Chilton started his tenure as dean of the University of Chicago's law school; Neel Sukhatme began serving as University of Michigan Law School dean; and Stephanie Lindquist commenced as Washington University in Saint Louis School of Law dean.
The Ford Foundation is a high-profile philanthropy with a US$16 billion endowment.
