Amy Gutmann’s leadership has championed socioeconomic diversity and innovation, not just in the classroom but across campuses and around the world. As the University of Pennsylvania’s longest-serving president, she championed socioeconomic diversity by replacing loans with grants in financial aid packages for all undergraduates and bolstering financial support to low-income students. At Princeton University, Gutmann led an initiative to expand the undergraduate student body and founded the University Center for Human Values. Most recently the U.S. ambassador to Germany under President Biden, she has also served as chair of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues under President Obama and on the FBI’s National Security Higher Education Advisory Board.
Professional positions
- 2024–present: Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science and professor of communication, University of Pennsylvania
- 2022–2024: United States Ambassador to Germany (under President Joe Biden)
- 2004–2022: President, University of Pennsylvania
- 1976–2004: Assistant professor (1976–1981), associate professor (1981–1986), full professor (1986–2004), Andrew W. Mellon Professor (1987–1990), and Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics (1990–2004), Princeton University
Notable publications
- Gutmann, Amy, and Dennis Thompson. 2012. The Spirit of Compromise: Why Governing Demands It and Campaigning Undermines It. Princeton University Press.
- Gutmann, Amy, and Dennis Thompson. 2004. Why Deliberative Democracy? Princeton University Press.
- Gutmann, Amy, and Dennis Thompson. 1996. Democracy and Disagreement. Belknap Press.
- Gutmann, Amy. 1987. Democratic Education. Princeton University Press.
Degrees
- PhD, political science, Harvard University
- MS, political science, London School of Economics
- BA, Radcliffe College
