Ford Foundation selects Yale dean and democracy scholar Heather Gerken to succeed Darren Walker
Jul 1, 2025, 7:13 AM | Updated: Jul 2, 2025, 9:52 am
FILE - Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, participates in the Gobal Citizen NOW conference in New York, Friday, April 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The Ford Foundation has settled on its next leader.
Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken will succeed Darren Walker as the president of one of the largest U.S. charitable organizations, the Ford Foundation announced Monday. A leading expert on constitutional law and democracy, Gerken takes the helm of its $16 billion endowment as the philanthropic sector navigates challenges to the tax-exempt status of nonprofits opposed by President Donald Trump’s administration and its sweeping orders targeting trillions of dollars in federal funding for civil society groups.
“I am deeply grateful for this opportunity and look forward to working with Ford staff and the board of trustees to protect democracy and the rule of law and further our mission to create a more just and fair world for everyone,” Gerken said in a statement.
Gerken brings an extensive legal background that includes voting rights experience at Washington, DC law firm Jenner & Block and clerkships with Supreme Court justices. The Ford Foundation noted that she prioritized increasing access for underrepresented students as the dean of Yale Law School. She is also a trustee of Princeton University, where she completed her bachelor’s degree, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Her tenure begins in November, making good on Walker’s promise last year to exit the stage by the end of 2025. She called it a “profound honor” to build upon the legacy of those who preceded her, “particularly the astonishing Darren Walker.” Since 2013, Walker has focused the foundation’s mission around social justice and overseen major investments in gender equity and disability rights.
“Her experience and dedication to philanthropy and the field of law will undoubtedly propel the foundation’s mission forward,” Walker said in a statement.
The Ford Foundation was created in 1936 by the brothers Henry and Edsel Ford, pioneers of the automobile, and funded with stock in the Ford company. It supported civil rights litigation starting in the late 1960s and helped seed the field of public interest law in the United States.
Before becoming vice president, then-Sen. J.D. Vance called out the Ford Foundation specifically for supporting progressive causes and accused them of using charitable funds for partisan ends.
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