Judith Rodin

Judith Rodin (born Judith Seitz, September 9, 1944) is a philanthropist with a long history in U.S. higher education. She was the president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 2005 until 2017. From 1994 to 2004, Rodin served as the 7th permanent president of the University of Pennsylvania, and the first permanent female president of an Ivy League university. Early life and education Rodin was born Jewish in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the younger of two daughters of Morris and Sally Seitz. She graduated with honors from the Philadelphia High School for Girls and won an undergraduate scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, Rodin majored in psychology and graduated from the university's College for Women with a B.A. in 1966. She was the president of Penn's Women's Student Government and led the groundwork for the merger with the Men's Student Government that ultimately formed the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education (SCUE) in 1965 that led to the co-education of the College of Arts and Sciences. She went on to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University, which she received in 1970. Rodin also completed some postdoctoral research at the University of California at Irvine in 1971. Academic career After teaching briefly at New York University, Rodin became an associate professor at Yale University, where she was to become well known among students as a popular lecturer. She held various professorial and other positions at Yale from 1972 to 1994, including dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, chair of the Department of Psychology, and provost. In 1994, Rodin was appointed president of the University of Pennsylvania, becoming the first permanent female president of an Ivy League institution and the first graduate of the university to take on its highest leadership role. Her immediate predecessor was Dr. Claire M. Fagin, who served in 1994 as Interim President. As president, Rodin guided the university through a period of unprecedented growth and development that transformed Penn's academic core and dramatically enhanced the quality of life on campus and in the surrounding community.