Senior succession

Len Shustek

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It had escaped our notice, and probably yours, that the last three senior trustees on Yale’s Board of Trustees were women. Indeed, they are the only three women in Yale’s 320-year history who have held that office. The senior trustee—previously known as the senior fellow—presides over trustee meetings in the absence of Yale’s president and, with the president, sets the board’s agenda and appoints committees. Last summer, Donna Dubinsky ’77 (right), a tech executive who was senior trustee from 2016 to 2018, invited both her predecessor and successor to dinner when they were all in Vermont. At left is former Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice Margaret Marshall ’76JD, who served from 2013 to 2016; in the center is former Vassar College president Catharine Bond Hill ’85PhD, who served from 2018 until this summer. The streak ended with Hill: the new senior trustee is Bain Capital cochair Joshua Bekenstein ’80.