Heather Gerken appointed 11th president of the Ford Foundation
By Emma Ogbuehi
Heather Gerken, dean of Yale Law School and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law, has been appointed as the 11th President of the Ford Foundation.
The appointment was made by the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
She will resume duties in November. Ms. Gerken will succeed the 10th president, Darren Walker
This was disclosed on Tuesday by Francisco Cigarroa, Chair, Board of Trustees Ford Foundation, in a statement titled, “Introducing Heather Gerken, the next president of the Ford Foundation.”
The statement reads: “It is my pleasure to announce that the Board of Trustees has appointed Heather Gerken to become the 11th president of the Ford Foundation, succeeding Darren Walker. She will join the foundation in November of this year.
“Heather currently serves as the dean of Yale Law School and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law, where she is one of the nation’s leading experts on democracy and constitutional law. A founder of the “nationalist school” of federalism, her work focuses on federalism, diversity, and dissent. She is the first woman to serve as dean in the school’s 200-year history.
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“Heather is a thoughtful and innovative leader and a tireless advocate for equity, justice, and values of democracy—her life’s work resonates with the core mission of the Ford Foundation. At Yale, she led initiatives to increase the pipeline to law school for underrepresented students and bolstered the school’s commitment to need-based aid.
“Under her leadership, Yale Law School launched the first full-tuition scholarships for students from low-income backgrounds. She led the withdrawal of law schools from the US News and World Report ranking in response to concerns that the ranking’s methodology negatively impacted affordability and access.
“During her tenure as dean, the law school class underwent significant changes. The current first-year class now includes a greater representation of veterans, students who are the first in their family to attend college, and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
“In addition to her duties as dean, she founded and leads Yale Law School’s innovative San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project Clinic, which helps students work with city attorneys to litigate cases on behalf of the city. For almost twenty years, the clinic has helped the city achieve major victories, including a multimillion-dollar settlement in the opioid litigation consumer protection case and a landmark case that legalized same-sex marriage in California.
“Hailed as an “intellectual guru” in The New York Times, Heather’s scholarship has been featured in The Atlantic, the Boston Globe, NPR, The New York Times, and Time Magazine. In 2017, Politico Magazine named Heather one of The Politico 50, a list of idea makers in American politics. Her work on election reform has affected public policy at the national level.
“Prior to her time at Yale, she was a professor at Harvard Law School and was an associate at Jenner & Block, where she litigated voting rights cases and helped reach a significant settlement in a housing desegregation case. Gerken has clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
“A native of Massachusetts, Heather graduated from Princeton University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude in 1991. A Darrow Scholar, she graduated from the University of Michigan Law School summa cum laude in 1994. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Law Institute. She also serves as a trustee on the boards of Princeton University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
“Heather’s appointment follows an extensive national and international search led by the Board of Trustees and Russell Reynolds Associates, which began in 2024 when Darren Walker announced his intention to step down after more than a decade of leading the Ford Foundation.
“Darren is a visionary leader who oversaw some of the foundation’s most influential work, from the evolution of its mission to focus on inequality and social justice to improving the way Ford and many of its peer foundations conduct grantmaking. I greatly appreciate his pragmatic leadership, innovation, and partnership over the past 12 years. He leaves the Ford Foundation and the philanthropic sector stronger and even more effective in serving communities around the globe.
“Heather will formally begin her presidency on November 1, 2025, and we look forward to introducing her to all of you in the coming months. Please join me in extending a hearty congratulations and warm welcome to Heather as she steps into her new role leading the Ford Foundation.”
