Dear Members of the Peabody Museum Community,
We write to share that following a decade of service, Professor David Skelly will take a one-year sabbatical from his role as director of the Yale Peabody Museum. Beginning July 1, 2025, he will step away from this position, while remaining a member of the faculty. He will return to the directorship on July 1, 2026.
During his leave, David will pursue research on the evolutionary responses of biodiversity to a changing climate. The project draws on twenty-nine years of data he has collected at the Yale-Myers Forest.
We are pleased to announce that Erika Edwards, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, will serve as acting director of the Peabody during David’s leave. As curator of botany at the Peabody Museum since she joined Yale in 2017, Erika is well-versed in the museum’s community and collections. As director of Yale’s Marsh Botanical Garden, she is also experienced in steering plans to support a university-wide resource for research, instruction, and education. Her own research focuses on plant evolution, using a wide range of biological data to understand the many ways plant species have adapted their form and function over time.
We wish David a productive year of research, beginning in July, and look forward to welcoming him back to his post. We are also grateful to Erika for stepping in to lead the museum at such an exciting time in its history. The Peabody’s recent reopening has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors to Yale and New Haven and expanded the museum’s capacity for transformational research and education.
Sincerely,
Maurie McInnis
President
Professor in the History of Art
Scott Strobel
Provost
Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry