Susan Herbst

Susan Herbst is an American political scientist and academic administrator who served as the 15th president of the University of Connecticut. She was named president on December 20, 2010, and took office on June 1, 2011. She succeeded Michael J. Hogan and was the first woman to be selected as the University of Connecticut's president since the school's founding in 1881. In August of 2019, Herbst was succeeded by Thomas C. Katsouleas. Herbst was born in New York City and raised in Peekskill, New York. Herbst received her B.A. in political science from Duke University in 1984 and her Ph.D. in communication theory and research from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles in 1989. Herbst has two brothers: Jeffrey, president of the American Jewish University and Steve, vice president of broadcasting and global media strategy for NASCAR. Prior to her appointment to the presidency, Herbst served as executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer at the University System of Georgia, where she led 15 university presidents and oversaw the academic missions for all 35 public universities in Georgia. She also worked closely with the system's Board of Regents on all aspects of finance and higher education policy for the state. At the time, the system had more than 311,000 students, roughly 10,000 faculty members, and a budget of more than $6 billion a year. Herbst also held a faculty appointment as a professor of public policy at Georgia Tech. Herbst was previously provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at University at Albany, SUNY from 2005 to 2007, and also served as acting president of the school for a year. She also served as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University from 2003 to 2005. Herbst joined Northwestern University as an assistant professor in 1989 and remained there until 2003. She became Professor of Political Science and Communication Studies in 1999, and eventually chaired the Department of Political Science.