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Writer's picturePatricia Salkin

NYU Selects First Woman President Who Happens to Be a Lawyer

Updated: Mar 2, 2023


On July 1, 2023 Linda Mills will become the 17th president of New York University. The appointment of Dr. Mills marks the first woman president of NYU. Mills is currently a professor of social work, public policy and law, and the inaugural Lisa Ellen Goldberg Professor and Vice Chancellor and Senior Vice Provost for Global Programs and University Life.


A member of the NYU community for almost twenty-five years, she serves as the executive director of the Center on Violence and Recovery at NYU and her scholarship in the social work field focuses on domestic partner abuse and treatment. Mills is also the director of NYU’s Production Lab which supports student filmmaking. An award-winning filmmaker herself, in 2010 Mills co-directed and produced, ‘Auf Wiedersehen:’Til We Meet Again’ about her mother’s Holocaust experience. She also produced Of Many: Then and Now, about a transformative relationship between an orthodox rabbi and an imam.


In announcing her appointment, which was a unanimous decision of the Board, William Berkley, the Chair of the Board of Trustees, said, “We couldn’t be more pleased by the selection of Linda Mills as president. Linda has been deeply involved in many of NYU’s most important undertakings over the past decade. She brings a data-driven approach to analysis and decision-making, yet never loses sight of the very human elements at the heart of a university - the passion of scholars for their field, the interaction between faculty member and student, the ambitions and welfare of students in and out of the classroom, and the trust that students’ families place in us.”


Prior to joining NYU, Mills was a lecturer in the School of Law and an assistant professor in the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research, where she received early tenure.

Mills earned her JD from the University of California Hastings College of Law, an MSW from San Francisco State University and a PhD from Brandeis University in health policy.


NYU has had two other lawyer presidents: John Sexton who served from 2003-2015 and Theodore Frelinghuysen, President from 1839-1850.

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