Margaret McKenna was named the tenth president of Suffolk University in Boston. The university enrolls about 5,600 undergraduate students and 3,000 graduate students. Women make up 55 percent of the undergraduate student body.
McKenna was president of Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1985 to 2007. She served as under-secretary at the U.S. Department of Education and as a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice. From 2007 to 2011, McKenna was president of the Walmart Foundation. Most recently, she has been serving as a visiting professor and acting director of the Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
McKenna is a graduate of Emmanuel College in Boston, where she majored in sociology. She holds a law degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.