Judith Rodin

Judith Rodin
Born	September 9, 1944 (1944-09-09) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation	President, Rockefeller Foundation; Former President, University of Pennsylvania
Spouse	Paul R. Verkuil

Judith Rodin (born Judith Seitz; September 9, 1944) was the 7th president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1994 to 2004 and the first permanent female president of an Ivy League university. She is currently the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a position she has held since 2005. A University of Pennsylvania alumna, she received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1970.

Rodin expanded and improved the University and created numerous interdisciplinary programs. She led an effort to engage, support and build new relationships with the university's surrounding communities. She encouraged revitalization in University City and West Philadelphia through public safety, Wharton School alliances for small businesses, developing buildings and streetscapes that turned outward to the community, and establishing a university-led partnership school, the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School.

During her tenure at Penn, the University tripled its endowment and rose from 16th to 4th in the U.S. News & World Report college ranking. Rodin brought Bono, of the rock group U2, to address the university at the 2004 commencement.

Professional highlights

Rodin became president of the Rockefeller Foundation in March 2005.

She is on the Board of Directors of Citigroup, AMR Corporation (the parent company of American Airlines), and Comcast Corporation, where she served as the presiding director until 2006. Rodin has also served on the board of corporations, including Aetna, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.

Academic

She was Provost of Yale University from 1992 to 1994, when she moved to University of Pennsylvania. She held various professorial and other positions at Yale from 1972 to 1994, including Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Chair of the Department of Psychology. Rodin has published more than 200 articles and chapters in academic publications and written or co-written 12 books; most recently, The University & Urban Renewal: Out of the Ivory Tower and Into the Streets (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007).

Honorary Degrees

• University of Miami, Doctor of Humane Letters, 2008
• Dartmouth College, 2007
• University of Maryland, Doctor of Humane Letters, 2007
• University of Science, Doctor of Science, 2007
• University of Pittsburgh, 2006
• Franklin & Marshall, 2006
• Yeshiva University, 2006
• New York University, 2004
• University of Pennsylvania, 2004
• Brown University, 2004
• Arcadia University Doctorate of Humane Letters, 2001
• The Curtis Institute of Music Doctor of Music, 2001
• Lafayette College Doctor of Laws, 1996
• Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University Doctor of Humane Letters, 1995
• University of New Haven Doctor of Humane Letters, 1994

Awards and honors

Dr. Rodin has been the recipient of 16 honorary doctorate degrees and numerous additional honors. In 2004, Dr. Rodin received both the prestigious Philadelphia Award and the William Penn Awards 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.” In 2006 she was awarded the Pennsylvania Society’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement, which is bestowed upon “a prominent person in recognition of leadership, citizenship and contributions to the arts, science, education and industry,” and became the first person ever receive all three of these major Pennsylvania honors. Rodin has been named one of Crain's 50 Most Powerful Women in New York list three years in a row. Rodin has also been recognized as one of Forbes Magazine's World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2011, and the National Association of Corporate Directors' (NACD's) 2011 Directorship 100, in recognition of her work promoting the highest standards of corporate governance.

Personal

Rodin is married to the Honorable Paul R. Verkuil, a former president of the College of William and Mary, former dean of the Tulane University Law School, former professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and former CEO of the American Automobile Association. Verkuil currently serves as Chair of the Administrative Conference of the United States. They have three children.

Work at Penn

As president, Rodin guided the University through a period of unprecedented growth and development that has 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; created Penn Medicine; launched a comprehensive and widely acclaimed neighborhood revitalization program; attracted record numbers of undergraduate applicants, creating Penn’s most selective classes ever; risen in the U.S News & World Report rankings of top national research universities from 16th in 1994 to 4th in 2002; established new interdisciplinary institutes and created over a dozen groundbreaking interdisciplinary, multi-school, undergraduate and graduate degree programs throughout the University; planned or completed new buildings and major renovations in every school and center; and expanded its international programs and collaborations.

In 2003, she was named to the PoliticsPA list of "Pennsylvania's Most Politically Powerful Women".

Work at The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation supports work that promotes equitable growth and strengthens resilience to social, economic and physical challenges -- affirming its pioneering philanthropic mission since 1913 to promote the well-being of humanity. Dr. Rodin is the first woman to serve as the Foundation's president in its nearly 100-year history. During her first three years at the Foundation, Dr. Rodin recalibrated the Foundation’s focus for the 21st century, launching major initiatives around the world to bolster resilience to climate change in poor communities, strengthen global health systems, catalyze the field of impact investing, mobilize an agricultural revolution in Africa and shape smarter, more sustainable transportation policies in the United States. The Foundation’s systems-based approach is enabling innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, with a specific focus on basic survival safeguards such as secure food, water, housing, and infrastructure; global health including accessible, affordable, high-quality health services and systems; environment and climate change including sustainable growth and climate change resilience; urbanization, including solutions for fast-growing cities; and social and economic security.

Dr. Rodin is widely recognized as an international leader in academia, science and development issues, Dr. Rodin has actively participated in influential fora around the globe, including the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland. She was also a member of the African Development Bank’s High Level Panel, a Board member of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (co-created by The Rockefeller Foundation), and has served as a member of the Clinton Global Initiative’s Poverty Alleviation Track Advisory Board.

See also

• List of Ivy League university presidents

External links

Other biographical summaries

• Biography from the Rockefeller Foundation* Profile at Sourcewatch.org

Reviews of Rodin's tenure at Penn

• "Rodin legacy" at Penn
• Daily Pennsylvanian editorial board Evaluation of Rodin's era

Academic offices
Preceded by Claire Fagin interim	President of the University of Pennsylvania 1994–2004	Succeeded by Amy Gutmann