Donna Shalala

Donna E. Shalala became the fifth President of the University of Miami on June 1, 2001. She is also Professor of Political Science, Education and Public Health.

President Shalala received her A.B. in history from Western College for Women and her Ph.D. degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. A leading political scientist, she has held professorships at Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the University of Wisconsin. She served as president of Hunter College of CUNY, 1980 to 1987, and as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1993.

In 1993 US President Clinton nominated her Secretary for Health and Human Services (HHS) where she served for eight years. At the end of her tenure, The Washington Post described her as "one of the most successful government managers of modern times."

In 2001 she was elected to the board of directors for Gannett Co., Inc. (an international news and information company in the print, television, and Internet industries), United Health Group (a diversified health and well-being enterprise), and the Lennar Corporation (one of the largest homebuilders in the United States). She also serves as a member and director of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

President Shalala has more than three-dozen honorary degrees and a host of other honors, including the 1992 National Public Service Award and the Glamour magazine Woman of the Year Award in 1994. She has been a Johan Simon Guggenheim Fellow and has been elected to the National Academy of Education, the National Academy of Public Administration, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Iran from 1962-64. In 1987, Dr. Shalala lived in Japan as a Japan Society Leadership Fellow.