About Jennifer Mnookin

Jennifer L. Mnookin is the 30th leader in the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s 177-year history, and one of the nation’s top legal scholars.

Chancellor Mnookin is dedicated to pushing boundaries to bring the university to new levels of excellence in research and education, and to energizing and expanding the Wisconsin Idea, UW–Madison’s commitment to innovating for the public good.

As Chancellor, she has grown educational opportunities and research at UW–Madison through Wisconsin RISE, which significantly expands the university’s work around significant, complex challenges affecting Wisconsin and the world, and has inaugurated The Wisconsin Exchange to advance civil dialogue and cultivate a community where diverse viewpoints are expected and respected.

She also has launched  major efforts to advance sustainability and entrepreneurship across campus. And her commitment to increasing access to the university through Bucky’s Pell Pathway and Bucky’s Tuition Promise has significantly expanded the number of in-state students receiving funding to cover their full financial need.

During Chancellor Mnookin’s tenure, the university has risen in the rankings to become the #12 best public university in the U.S. and been recognized as a Best Value school.

Prior to coming to Wisconsin, Chancellor Mnookin served as dean of the UCLA School of Law, where she spent 17 years on the faculty. Before that, she was a professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law and a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School.

Chancellor Mnookin is a nationally recognized scholar on the intersection of law and science, and recently co-chaired an expert report on facial recognition technologies for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

She received her AB from Harvard University, her JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD in history and social study of science and technology from MIT. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

She and her husband, political scientist Joshua Foa Dienstag, have two adult children.