Prof. Jennifer Mnookin became Columbia University’s 21st president on July 1, 2026 – the school’s first Jewish leader in three decades. She arrived after two turbulent years of campus antisemitism controversy, a $221 million settlement with the Trump administration, and three predecessors in rapid succession.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1967, Mnookin built an academic career at the intersection of law and science, earning degrees from Harvard, Yale, and MIT before specializing in how expert and scientific evidence is evaluated in American courtrooms, the subject of her doctoral thesis, “Images of Truth: Evidence, Expertise, and Technologies of Knowledge in the American Courtroom.”
She spent six years on the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, and co-chaired a working group advising the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on the use of forensic science in criminal courts. She served as dean of UCLA’s law school before becoming chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2022, where she led an institution of more than 50,000 students across 13 schools and colleges.
Her handling of October 7 was a preview of the balancing act she now faces at Columbia. Four days after the Hamas-led terrorist massacres in Israel, she wrote to her Wisconsin campus community, condemning the “vicious terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians,” adding: “To the great many people in our community who have friends, family, and loved ones in Israel or the Palestinian territories: my heart goes out to you.”
Mnookin authorized NYPD to clear pro-Palestinian campus encampment
When a pro-Palestinian encampment rose on campus in April 2024, she authorized police to clear it, then, when protesters returned, negotiated an agreement to end it peacefully, pledging in exchange to host Palestinian guest scholars.
The approach drew mixed reviews: one Wisconsin graduate, Jacob Bigelman, cautioned “the chancellor being Jewish would lead a lot of Jewish students to automatically assume she’s ‘on our side.’ That’s not her role,” while acknowledging “Mnookin was definitely present in the aftermath of October 7.”
That record shaped the welcome she received at Columbia. “The last few years have been undeniably difficult for the Jewish and Israeli communities on campus,” said Brian Cohen, a Hillel leader at Columbia, in a statement following her appointment. “I am hopeful that president-elect Mnookin will bring the reputation, experience, and understanding that we need.”
Columbia’s trustees, announcing her selection, called her “a keen listener who builds consensus and does not shy away from making difficult decisions when necessary” – a description she will be tested against as she works through the recommendations of Columbia’s antisemitism task force, on a campus still deeply divided.
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