Donna E. Shalala was appointed interim president of The New School in New York City. Dr. Shalala was the president of the University of Miami from 2001 to 2015.
The New School is a private university with more than 7,000 undergraduate students and nearly 3,000 graduate students, according to the latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 77 percent of the undergraduate student body.
“I am deeply honored by the opportunity to join this extraordinary institution,” said Dr. Shalala. “The New School has a unique and distinguished role in American higher education, developing students who will have an impact on the world and boldly address the most pressing social issues of our time. I am excited to join the university and look forward to what we will accomplish together.”
During the Clinton administration, Dr. Shalala served as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services for eight years. Earlier in her career, she was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and president of Hunter College of the City University of New York.
Dr. Shalala has been elected to seven national academies: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Education, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Public Administration, and the National Academy of Social Insurance. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Dr. Shalala is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, and earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the Western College for Women, now part of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She holds a Ph.D. from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.