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Judith Rodin, Ph.D., is president-elect of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1994, she became president of the University of Pennsylvania, the first woman to be named to the presidency of an Ivy League institution, and served in that position until 2004. During her presidency, Dr. Rodin guided the University through a period of unprecedented growth and development that transformed Penn’s academic core and dramatically enhanced the quality of life on campus and in the surrounding community. Under her leadership, Penn invigorated its resources, doubling its research funding and tripling both its annual fundraising and the size of its endowment; launched a comprehensive and internationally acclaimed neighborhood revitalization program; attracted record numbers of undergraduate applicants, creating Penn’s most selective classes ever; and rose in the U.S. News & World Reportrankings of top national research universities from 16th in 1994 to 5th in 2003. Dr. Rodin’s presidency also marked the largest capital construction period in Penn’s history, with more than $1 billion invested in new buildings, renovations, and restorations.
In addition to being the first woman to be named to the presidency of an Ivy League institution, Dr. Rodin was also the first Penn alumna to serve as president. She holds faculty appointments as a professor of psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences and as a professor of medicine and psychiatry in the School of Medicine. She returned to Penn after 22 years on the faculty of Yale University, where she served as provost from 1992 through 1994.
Rodin serves on the boards of the Brookings Institution and Catalyst, and on the boards of Aetna, Inc., AMR Corporation, Electronic Data Systems, and Comcast Corporation. She is also a Trustee of the BlackRock Funds. She chaired the Council of Presidents of the Universities Research Association. She chairs the board of Innovation Philadelphia and the Knowledge Industry Partnership, and she serves on the steering committee of college presidents for America Reads and the executive committee of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Rodin is also a member of the Council on Competitiveness.
After completing her Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1970, Rodin joined the faculty of New York University as an assistant professor of psychology. She moved to Yale in 1972, was promoted to associate professor in 1975, named a full professor of psychology in 1979, and added the title of professor of medicine and psychiatry in 1985. Prior to her appointment as Yale’s provost in 1992, she served two years as chair of the department of psychology and one year as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
At Yale, Rodin earned an international reputation as both a pioneer of the women’s health movement and one of the only psychologists ever to master both the biological and psychological factors that lead to obesity. From 1983 to 1993, she chaired an international research network studying healthpromoting and health-damaging behavior for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Rodin’s research also contributed to society’s understanding of aging by demonstrating that elderly people who are given control over their environment are more active, healthier, and live longer than those who are consigned to helplessness.
Rodin has published more than 200 articles and chapters in academic publications and authored or co-authored eleven books, including most recently, Public Discourse in America: Conversation and Community in the Twenty-first Century (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003), which originated in the work of the Penn National Commission on Society, Culture, and Community, which she convened and chaired.
During her presidency at Penn, Rodin served on President Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and co-chaired the transition team of Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street. She also served from 1994 to 1995 on a Presidential panel to review security at the White House.
Rodin has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She holds honorary doctorates from Brown University, New York University, Arcadia University, and the University of Pennsylvania.
She has also received numerous awards and honors. In September 2004, Rodin received the prestigious 2004 Philadelphia Award for her “commitment to elevating the economy of West Philadelphia and the quality of life for its residents; for her leadership roles in galvanizing Philadelphia’s higher education institutions in order to keep the region’s brightest graduates here and for promoting the region as a high-tech business location.”
Dr. Rodin has been named president of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the world’s oldest and largest private philanthropies. She will assume her new position in March 2005. March 2005
March 2005