Columbia University’s Board of Trustees has announced the appointment of **Jennifer L. Mnookin** as the next President of Columbia University, effective July 1, 2026. President-designate **Mnookin** is a nationally recognized scholar and academic leader whose work and institutional leadership are grounded in a deep, sustained commitment to public-minded research, teaching, and stewardship. She currently serves as Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her appointment concludes a careful and extensive national search led by a committee of trustees and faculty, shaped by broad input from students, faculty, staff, alumni, and members of the wider Columbia community. President-designate **Mnookin** is among the nation’s most influential and widely cited scholars in the field of legal evidence. Her research examines the relationship between evidence, science, and the law, with particular attention to wrongful convictions, forensic practices, and visual evidence; areas in which questions of truth, responsibility, and public accountability are inseparable from institutional and material practices. She holds an AB from Harvard University, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, her scholarship reflects a sustained commitment to ensuring that rigorous, interdisciplinary knowledge informs public decision-making and serves the broader public good. These are values that resonate strongly with GSAPP’s own intellectual agenda and civic commitments. As Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, President-designate **Mnookin** has led a public research university serving more than 50,000 students across 13 schools and colleges, with more than 25,000 faculty and staff. Her tenure has been marked by significant investments in faculty hiring and research infrastructure, the launch of cross-campus interdisciplinary initiatives, and careful leadership through complex times. She has also advanced initiatives to increase affordability and reinforcing the role of the public university as both an engine of knowledge and a vehicle for social responsibility. Prior to her current role, President-designate Mnookin served for seven years as Dean of the UCLA School of Law, following nearly two decades on the UCLA and University of Virginia law faculties. From GSAPP we welcome President-designate Mnookin as she prepares to assume this role.