New Yale University president is a former Knoxvillian and Webb School graduate | Ashe
Yale University has announced its new president, Maurie McInnis, current president of Stony Brook University on Long Island in New York.
It turns out she spent 14 years in Knoxville, graduating in 1984 from Webb School.
Her parents are Jackie and Malcolm McInnis, who both taught at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. McInnis, 56, an only child, was born in St Petersburg, Florida. Her family moved here in the early 1970s and lived in Suburban Hills. She attended Cedar Bluff Elementary School and then went to Webb. She was honored in 2018 by Webb as a distinguished alumna.
After Webb, she went to the University of Virginia on a Jefferson scholarship and graduated. She entered graduate school at Yale in 1989 in the Department of Art History.
Meanwhile, her mother, Jackie McInnis, was associate dean of the UT College of Human Ecology and her father, Dr. Malcolm McInnis, worked for the dean of students, who at the time was Charlie Burchett, the late father of U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett. McInnis then transferred to the UT Athletics Department, where he was compliance attorney under AD Doug Dickey.
In 2022, they moved from Farragut to Ponte Vedra, Florida.
After her graduation from Webb, Maurie McInnis no longer lived here but frequently visited her parents. She is married and has two boys. Her husband, Dean Anderson, is a retired businessman.
After securing her graduate degree in art history at Yale, she spent 30 years in higher education. Her posts included vice provost at the University of Virginia and provost at the University of Texas in Austin. At Stony Brook, she heads the flagship campus of the New York state higher education system.
She is a member of the Yale Corporation (board of trustees). It is unusual to have a member of the board – which chooses the president – to also be a candidate. This would appear to have given her a huge advantage. The search was led by the Spencer Stuart firm, and they say all candidates were treated the same. But the optics were clearly in McInnis’s favor.
McInnis has been on the Corporation since 2022, chosen by the existing trustees. The prior year she was one of two nominated by the Yale Alumni Association for an alumni seat on the board, but she was defeated.
As president beginning July 1, she will chair the board. This, too, is most unusual. Randy Boyd, UT system president, is not board chair or even a member.
In full disclosure, I am one of two alumni who have sued Yale to restore the petition process to nominate alumni trustees. The lawsuit is now in the Connecticut appellate courts.
Landowners who made the Urban Wilderness possible in South Knoxville will be saluted June 13. The reception with food and beverages will be 5-7 p.m. at Ijams Nature Center. The public is invited.
The Urban Wilderness started with William Hastie Park. Hastie, who grew up in Knoxville, was the first African American to serve as a governor in the United States when President Harry Truman appointed him governor of the Virgin Islands.
Today the Urban Wilderness provides walking and bike trails and has become an attraction for bikers across the country. It is an economic generator for Knoxville. When then-Mayor Madeline Rogero persuaded the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization to remove the James White Parkway extension from its roads priority list, it guaranteed the continuation of the Urban Wilderness and the demise of this road extension.
Birthdays
June 13: LMU professor Maha Ayesh is 43. Connor Coffey is 50. Businessman Mike Hatcher is 74. Christopher Hebert is 49. Kenan Smith is 66. Former county commissioner Randy Smith is 60. Journalist Tyler Whetstone is 32.
June 14: Cindy Atchley is 61. Stan Atkins is 71. County Trustee Justin Biggs is 41. Mary Alice Callaway is 59. Christopher Corwin is 53. Greg Gheen is 65. Carney Ivy is 63. Jo Lynch is 57. Former president Donald Trump is 78.
June 15: Attorney Jerrold Becker is 80. Steve Brewington is 68. Dick Coffey is 70. Gay Lyons is 69. China’s President Xi Jinping is 71.
June 16: Daniel Greene is 36. Bob Petrone is 76. David Piper is 90. Federal Magistrate Judge Debra Poplin is 58. Jay Schmid is 72. Thomas Siler is 82. Nancy Stewart is 88.
June 17: Lawrence Ashe is 84. Adrian Bailey is 79. Paul Bonovich is 61. Sean Claire is 57. Retired Sequoyah Hills principal Martha Hill is 78. Tim Hulsey is 62. Phil King is 61. Singer-songwriter Barry Manilow is 81. Chet Matsuura is 35. Former city law director Jon Roach is 80. Tom Satkowiak is 44.
June 18: John M. Kizer is 50. Circuit Court Judge Jerome Melson is 60. Daniel Odle is 43. Evetty Satterfield is 36. Chad D. Youngblood is 54.
Victor Ashe is a former Knoxville mayor and former ambassador to Poland. He is a columnist for Shopper News.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: New Yale president Maurie McInnis is Webb School of Knoxville graduate
