About President-Designate Jennifer L. Mnookin
Jennifer L. Mnookin has been appointed President of Columbia University, effective on July 1, 2026.
Mnookin comes to Columbia from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she currently serves as its Chancellor and will complete her tenure in May 2026. As Chancellor, Mnookin leads an institution of more than 50,000 students across 13 schools and colleges with more than 25,000 faculty and staff. Her tenure has included significant investments in faculty hiring and research infrastructure, the launch of major cross-campus initiatives on artificial intelligence and interdisciplinary research, and sustained leadership through an uncertain federal funding environment.
She has also made access and affordability a central priority, establishing initiatives such as Bucky’s Pell Pathway, which guarantees full financial support for Pell-eligible Wisconsin residents, and expanding scholarship opportunities and academic support services, which have contributed to improved completion and graduation outcomes. A prolific fundraiser, Mnookin has boosted philanthropic giving at UW-Madison, securing last year the second-highest amount in contributions in the history of the institution.
Mnookin is a nationally recognized legal scholar whose work sits at the intersection of law and science and examines how scientific and expert evidence is evaluated and used within the legal system. An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she is widely regarded as one of the most cited scholars in the field of legal evidence, with core areas of focus including wrongful convictions, forensic evidence, and visual evidence. She recently served as co-chair of a 2024 expert report on facial recognition technologies for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
Prior to leading UW-Madison, Mnookin served as dean of the UCLA School of Law, where she spent 17 years on the faculty, strengthened the school’s scholarly profile, expanded clinical and experiential programs, and led record-breaking fundraising efforts in support of the school’s academic mission. Before that, she was a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School.
Mnookin previously served for six years on the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Science, Technology, and Law. She also co-chaired a group of senior advisors for the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology report on the use of forensic science in criminal courts.
Mnookin received her AB from Harvard University, her JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in history and social study of science and technology from MIT.
Jennifer Mnookin and her husband, political theorist Joshua Foa Dienstag, have two children.