Maryana Iskander ’03 JD

Maryana Iskander is chief executive officer of the Wikimedia Foundation, where she oversees one of the top ten websites in the world—Wikipedia, an online, collaborative encyclopedia built on the idea that knowledge should be neutral, free, and widely accessible.

The desire to promote collective solutions and to build access for all has animated Iskander’s career—from helming the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a social enterprise in South Africa and Rwanda, to her role as chief operating officer of Planned Parenthood, to acting as an advisor to the president of Rice University.

Iskander’s service to Yale includes membership on the President’s Council on International Activities, where she worked to expand access to a Yale education for students across the African continent. In 2018, she was awarded the Yale Law Women Alumni Achievement Award. She has also served on several nonprofit boards, including Co-Impact, World Education Services, and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital. She is also a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Iskander earned a BA from Rice University, an MSc from Trinity College, Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a JD from Yale Law School.

Iskander was elected an alumni fellow of Yale’s board of trustees in 2023.