Yale Chooses 24th President, Stony Brook’s Maurie McInnis
Credit: Image Credit: Newsday LLC / Contributor / Getty Images- Maurie McInnis, president of Stony Brook University, has also served in leadership roles at the University of Virginia and the University of Texas at Austin.
- McInnis helped establish the New York Climate Exchange, a public campus for climate research, solutions, and student opportunities.
- Yale’s 23rd president, Peter Salovey, announced last year he would retire at the end of the 2023-24 school year to return to a faculty position.
After almost a year of searching, Yale University has found its new president: Maurie McInnis, a Yale trustee and Stony Brook University’s current president.
Yale announced its 24th president May 29. The current president, Peter Salovey, announced last year he would step down after the 2023-24 academic year to return to a faculty position at the university.
Salovey served as Yale’s president for 11 years and will retire June 30. McInnis starts the next day.
McInnis started at Yale in 1989 as a graduate student in the History of Art department and graduated with her Ph.D. in 1996. According to her Stony Brook biography, her work focused on race, slavery, and power in the 19th-century American South.
She spent 20 years at the University of Virginia serving in academic and administrative positions, including associate dean. She also served four years as executive vice president and provost at the University of Texas at Austin.
During her time at Stony Brook, she focused on affordable education and promoted diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through the Stony Brook Simons STEM Scholars Program, established in 2022.
A compelling leader, distinguished scholar, and devoted educator, she brings to the role a deep understanding of higher education and an unwavering commitment to our mission and academic priorities,
Yale Trustee Josh Bekenstein wrote on behalf of the board.
Her experience and accomplishments over the past three decades have prepared her to lead Yale in the years ahead.
As president of Stony Brook, McInnis oversees a U.S. Department of Energy facility for particle physics, nuclear energy, data, and quantum information sciences. She also helped establish the New York Climate Exchange as inaugural board chair.
The New York Climate Exchange will be a public-access campus for climate research, solutions, and student opportunities on Governors Island. Set to open in 2028, it will be 100% electrical and solar-powered.
McInnis wrote in a message to the Yale community that her top priority is to reconnect with people she knows and meet new community members. She said she’s excited to visit the art galleries and performances and see the renovated Yale Peabody Museum.
I was welcomed into a community that valued curiosity, connection, excellence, and impact,
she wrote. Faculty members, fellow students, staff, and alumni fostered curiosity, encouraged connections between people and academic disciplines, and challenged one another to not only excel in our fields but also to apply our abilities in improving the world.
“Those qualities shaped my life and career as I became an educator and art historian and took on leadership roles at universities, and they are the reasons I am excited and eager to return to Yale and New Haven as the next president of our university.