Margaret Warner ’71 has been elected by Yale alumni worldwide to serve as an Alumni Fellow on the Yale Corporation, University officials said.
Warner, whose six-year term begins on July 1, will replace current Alumni Fellow Janet Yellen GRD ’71, whose term ends this June. The announcement was made at an alumni reunion event on Saturday, Yale Associate Secretary Patricia Zandy said.
Yale President Richard Levin said he believes Warner will be a positive addition to the University’s highest decision-making body.
“Margaret Warner will bring a valuable perspective to the Corporation,” Levin said in an e-mail. “She is extraordinarily well informed about public issues in Washington and around the globe. She’s keenly interested in the University’s internationalization efforts, and equally interested in how Yale prepares students for public service.”
Warner serves as one of three senior correspondents on the public television weeknight program “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” where she has worked since 1993, and is a co-anchor of “America Abroad,” a radio program focusing on foreign affairs. Prior to joining “The NewsHour,” Warner worked at Newsweek for 10 years. Warner was a 2004 Poynter Fellow in Journalism at Yale and was appointed last year to the President’s Council on International Activities, which advises Levin on Yale’s international activities.
Warner said she is looking forward to her term on the Corporation despite the challenges of the position.
“I’m thrilled to have been elected to the Yale Corporation,” Warner said in an e-mail. “Every former or current member I’ve spoken to tells me it’s by far the most stimulating, involving and demanding board they’ve ever served on.”
Warner said she thinks the University’s efforts at internationalization are essential for students’ future success.
“I think President Levin’s push to internationalize the University is an exciting and essential new direction for Yale,” she said. “We simply can’t graduate well-educated young men and women who are prepared for today’s world without making sure they have first-hand knowledge of and experience in another culture.”
Undergraduate, graduate and professional school alumni voted in the election either online or with hard-copy ballots sent by mail. The beginning of Warner’s term coincides with the start of terms by trustees Jefrrey Bewkes ’74 and Donna Dubinsky ’77.
Since membership on Corporation subcommittees is currently undergoing a review process, the subcommittees on which Warner and the other new trustees will serve is unknown, Zandy said.
The Corporation is composed of 10 successor trustees and six alumni fellows. A new alumni fellow is elected to the Corporation every year. Alumni usually choose from the slate provided by an alumni fellow nominating committee, and nominees do not run public campaigns.
The nominating committee consists primarily of members of the Association of Yale Alumni Board of Directors. One fellow of the Corporation appointed by its Trusteeship Committee also serves on the committee, according to the online “Miscellaneous Regulations of the Yale Corporation.”