Following several months of service as acting president, Yvonne Zimmerman is officially the 20th president of Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. The university enrolls about 800 undergraduate students and roughly 150 graduate students, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Women represent 47 percent of the undergraduate population.
Dr. Zimmerman has been a senior administrator at Clarke University since August 2023. She began her tenure as vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty and was appointed acting president in October 2025. Before coming to Clarke, Dr. Zimmerman spent 15 years with Methodist Theological School in Ohio, where she ultimately served as a professor of Christian ethics and associate academic dean.
As a scholar, Dr. Zimmerman has dedicated her career to the movement to end human trafficking. She has published extensively on this topic, including her book Other Dreams of Freedom: Religion, Sex, and Human Trafficking (Oxford University Press, 2012).
An alumna of Goshen College in Indiana, Dr. Zimmerman holds a master of theological studies degree from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and a Ph.D. in religious and theological studies from the University of Denver in Colorado.