Jennifer Mnookin, the dean of the University of California, Los Angeles law school, will become the next chancellor of Wisconsin’s flagship university this summer.
The UW System Board of Regents unanimously voted on Monday for Mnookin, 54, to take the top post at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
While the scale of the school Mnookin has led since 2015 — about 1,350 students, 130 full-time faculty and 150 staff — pales in comparison to UW-Madison’s 45,000 students and 20,000 employees, she brings deep familiarity with public university systems, having spent 17 years at UCLA and six years at the University of Virginia School of Law. She also said her background as a lawyer has primed her to lead.
“Lawyers have to listen carefully,” Mnookin said in a statement. “They have to think strategically. They are, fundamentally, trained as problem solvers, and sometimes have to persuade people that don’t necessarily see the world the way they do. They also have to be willing to engage across differences and think seriously about alternative points of view. I do think those are qualities that I will bring to this role as chancellor.”
Mnookin replaces Rebecca Blank, who departs at the end of this month to become president of Northwestern University. The search for Blank’s successor began late last year and yielded 37 candidates, seven of whom were women and 16 who self-reported as a person of color, according to the UW System.
Mnookin will earn a $750,00 annual salary, UW System spokesperson Mark Pitsch said. Blank earned about $600,000.
At UCLA, Mnookin earned $517,000 in 2020, according to University of California System payroll data.
During a recent visit to the Madison campus, Mnookin suggested using the “Wisconsin Idea,” a belief enshrined in state law that Wisconsin’s higher education system should provide benefits beyond the campus, as a model for why public universities matter.
While UCLA also prioritizes service to its state, Mnookin said her university lacks an elegant and descriptive phrase to explain its mission — “we don’t have a California Idea,” she said — in the way Wisconsin does.
Mnookin developed a deeply intimate understanding of the Wisconsin Idea in late 2020 when she donated a kidney to her dad, longtime Harvard Law School professor Robert Mnookin. The cross-country transplant was possible because of a solution developed at UW-Madison that extends the time that an organ can be safely stored outside of a body.
“I think UW-Madison has the chance to sell that vision for what a public university is and can be as a national and even global model,” she said at a public forum earlier this month.
Asked there how she would offset a decades-long decline in state funding to UW-Madison, Mnookin said she would boost philanthropy efforts, build on industry partnerships and create new degree programs.
“It would be a big mistake to just sit and wait for the state to be our answer,” she said.
UCLA interim provost Michael Levine said Mnookin diversified the law school’s faculty and staff, set fundraising records, established scholarship programs for students who overcame significant life obstacles and achieved its highest ever rankings.
Ann Carlson, a UCLA environmental law professor and chief counsel of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, couldn’t pinpoint just one of Mnookin’s strength.
“One of the hallmarks of her leadership, for me, is just how good she is at so many parts of the job,” Carlson told UW-Madison. “She’s a great manager, a great strategist, a great fundraiser, a great teacher, a great colleague, a great scholar, a great institution builder. I could go on and on.”
Mnookin drew praise in Wisconsin, too.
Regents president Ed Manydeeds called her energy “infectious” and her knowledge of Wisconsin and UW-Madison “impressive.”
UW-Madison engineering professor Susan Hagness, who served as vice chair of the search committee, said collaborative leadership is at Mnookin’s core.
“She brings vision, high energy, a deep appreciation of the Wisconsin Idea, a passion for students who are at the heart of all that we do, a genuine commitment to fostering an inclusive campus, and an impressive understanding of the opportunities before us,” Hagness said in a statement.
Mnookin grew up in the Berkeley and Palo Alto area of California. She earned her bachelor’s degree in social studies from Harvard, a law degree from Yale University and a doctorate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has published extensively on issues relating to forensic science.
Mnookin won out among four other finalists: Marie Lynn Miranda, a University of Notre Dame statistics professor and former provost; Ann Cudd, the University of Pittsburgh provost; Daniel Reed, a University of Utah computer science professor and former provost; and John Karl Scholz, the provost at UW-Madison.
Scholz will serve as interim chancellor until Mnookin starts Aug. 4.
Mnookin’s husband, UCLA political science professor Joshua Foa Dienstag, will join UW-Madison as a faculty member. They have two children, a daughter who recently graduated from college and a son who is still in college.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism