Faculty
John Witt (chair)
Yale College ’94, ’99 J.D., ’00 Ph.D., Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law and Professor of History
John Fabian Witt is currently writing the story of the men and women behind the Garland Fund: the 1920s foundation that quietly financed the efforts that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education. He is a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his book on the laws of war in American history won the 2013 Bancroft Prize. Read John Witt’s full biography.
David Blight (advisor)
Class of 1954 Professor of History, professor of African American Studies and American Studies; director, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition
David Blight is a teacher and scholar of American history who works in many capacities in the world of public history, including on boards of museums and historical societies, and as a member of a small team of advisors to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum team of curators. He is currently writing a new, full biography of Frederick Douglass that will be published by Simon and Schuster. Read David Blight’s full biography.
Beverly Gage
Yale College ’94, Professor of History
Beverly Gage is a professor of American history, specializing in U.S. Gilded Age and 20th-century history, political history, government and political development, and ideology and social movements. In 2009, she received the Sarai Ribicoff Award for teaching excellence in Yale College, and in 2015, she was elected as the first chair of Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Senate. Read Beverly Gage’s full biography.
Jonathan Holloway
’95 Ph.D., Dean of Yale College; Edmund S. Morgan Professor of African American Studies, History, and American Studies
Jonathan Holloway specializes in post-emancipation United States history with a focus on social and intellectual history. Prior to his appointment as dean, he served as head of Calhoun College from 2005 to 2014, chair of the Council of Heads of College from 2009 to 2013, and chair of the Department of African American Studies from 2013 to 2014. Read Jonathan Holloway’s full biography.
Sharon Oster
Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship; Dean, Yale School of Management (2008-11)
Sharon Oster, dean of the Yale School of Management from 2008 to 2011, is a specialist in competitive strategy, microeconomic theory, industrial organization, the economics of regulation and antitrust, and nonprofit strategy. She has written on the regulation of business and competitive strategy, and consulted widely to private, public, and nonprofit organizations. Read Sharon Oster’s full biography.
Stephen Pitti
Yale College ’91, Professor of History and of American Studies; director, Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration; Head of Ezra Stiles College
Stephen Pitti is a professor of history and American studies and the inaugural director of Yale’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration. Since 2008 he has served as head of Ezra Stiles college. A member of the National Park Service Advisory Board, he chairs the National Historic Landmarks Committee, and he works in the fields of public history and Latina/o studies. Read Stephen Pitti’s full biography.
Alumni
G. Leonard (Len) Baker, Jr.
Yale College ’64, P’97, P’03
Len Baker is managing director of the venture capital firm Sutter Hill Ventures and a director of a number of public and private companies. His service to Yale has included membership on the advisory board of the School of Management, the Development Board, the Investments Committee, and the AYA Board of Governors. He was a successor trustee of the Yale Corporation from 2000 to 2012. Read Len Baker’s full biography.
Tom A. Bernstein, Esq.
Yale College ’74, ’77 J.D., P’14, P’18
Tom Bernstein is president and co-founder of Chelsea Piers, L.P., which developed and operates the Chelsea Piers sports and entertainment complex. He serves as chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In 1989, he helped to launch the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School. Read Tom Bernstein’s full biography.
Wilhelmina M. (Mimi) Wright
Yale College ’86
Mimi Wright was appointed by President Barack Obama as a federal judge for the U.S. District Court of Minnesota and took her oath in February 2016. Prior to her appointment, she was an Associate Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court. Before her judicial service, Mimi was an Assistant United States Attorney, receiving the United States Department of Justice Special Achievement Award and the United States Department of Justice Director’s Award for Public Service during her tenure. At Yale, she has served as a member of the University Council since 2010. Read Mimi Wright’s full biography.
Staff
Lalani Perry
Director of Communications, Human Resources
Lalani Perry is the director of communications for Human Resources, where she oversees the strategic direction and development of staff engagement communications. Throughout her career she has held high-level marketing and communications positions, from heading an employee communications team to leading corporate philanthropic initiatives for Fortune 100 companies. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Delaware and a master’s in integrated marketing and communications from the University of Hartford.
Students
Wendy Xiao
M.D./Ph.D. candidate (Neuroscience)
Wendy Xiao, an M.D./Ph.D. student in neuroscience, is actively engaged in student advocacy, with service on the Graduate and Professional Student Senate and the steering committee of the Graduate Student Assembly. Her current projects focus on childcare access for student families. Wendy also served on the advisory committee for the creation of the Schwarzman Center. Read Wendy Xiao’s full biography.
Dasia Moore
Yale Undergraduate, ‘18
Dasia Moore is a junior in Pierson College studying Ethics, Politics, and Economics. Her academic interests include urban planning, the welfare state, and political enfranchisement of poor rural and urban citizens. Read Dasia Moore’s full biography.