Maurie D. McInnis, a cultural historian, will be the first woman to serve as the school’s permanent president.
Yale University’s new president will be Maurie D. McInnis, currently the president of Stony Brook University, a New York state public university, where she is known for raising the school’s profile, donations and prestige.
When she takes over from Yale’s outgoing president, Peter Salovey, in July, Dr. McInnis, who earned masters and doctoral degrees from Yale in the 1990s, will become the university’s first permanent female president.
Her selection followed a search that began last fall. The delay in announcing a successor for Dr. Salovey, who leaves his post at the end of June, prompted speculation that the university’s selection committee was having difficulty finding someone during a tumultuous time on university campuses.
Joshua Bekenstein, a founder of Bain Capital who heads the Yale Corporation, the university’s governing board, said the search committee had undertaken a “very thorough” selection process.
“We felt it was important to do all the work,” he said. Expressing confidence in Dr. McInnis, he added, “She’s going to do a wonderful job.”
Dr. McInnis, who serves on the Yale board, will assume the role at a tumultuous time when universities face challenges stemming from last year’s Supreme Court decision banning race-conscious admission, and from the likely continuation of pro-Palestinian protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
