Members of the Yale community gathered at New York’s Lincoln Center on January 13 to meet Maurie McInnis ’96 PhD, the renowned art historian and university trustee who began her appointment as Yale’s twenty-fourth president in July 2024. Joining McInnis on stage at the Wu Tsai Theater in Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall were diverse and distinguished speakers including a set designer, a lawyer, a doctor, and a Paralympic athlete—all Yale graduates whose accomplishments are shaping the world today. Even the venue, operating under the leadership of Mariko Silver ’99 and recently renovated by Billie Tsien ’71, highlighted Yale’s impact in the world.
The evening’s presentations were bookended by performances from Melissa Errico ’92, a Tony Award–nominated Broadway actress and singer. Afterwards, the 900 attendees, including alumni, parents, and friends of the university, mingled with the speakers at a reception.
“Yalies lead and serve in every sphere of human activity,” President McInnis said during her remarks. “We go out into the world, and we continue to carry forth the commitment to community and the pursuit of excellence that we cultivated on Yale’s campus.”
The presenters exemplified the four impact areas of Yale’s $7 billion For Humanity campaign: Arts & Humanities for Insight, Science for Breakthroughs, Collaborating for Impact, and Leaders for a Better World.
Riccardo Hernández ’92 MFA: For Imagination
Hernández, professor in the practice and co-chair of design at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, spoke about his family’s history of leaving Cuba and eventually arriving in the United States.
“I always tell my students to trust in simplicity,” Hernández said. As a designer, figuring out how to articulate that simplicity is the difficult and elusive part of the challenge.
Hernández said his most important mission is “guiding our students to discover what motivates and moves them.” In his case, he helps students transfer that passion onto the stage. But that goal runs through the pedagogy of every instructor at Yale.
Ania Jastreboff, MD ’12 PhD: For Compassionate Care
“When we’re treating obesity, we’re optimizing health,” said Jastreboff, the director of the Yale Obesity Research Center (Y-Weight) and an associate professor of medicine at Yale. “That’s the goal of obesity treatment.” At the Obesity Research Center, Jastreboff and her colleagues are running experiments and trials on the wave of new anti-obesity medications that have recently come onto the market as well as helping to develop new ones.
“We’re exploring these new medications, and we’re using them as probes to understand the physiology of obesity,” she said. This work can help treat not just obesity but many other diseases that are associated with it.
James Forman, Jr. ’92 JD: For Community
Just five percent of lawyers in America are Black. While this number is at an all-time high and represents steady growth, it’s not enough, said Forman, the J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law. “There is still gross underrepresentation.”
In 2020, Forman and a group of Yale Law students founded the Yale Access to Law School program, which aims to bring people into law careers from the New Haven area who are first generation, low-income, formerly incarcerated, racial minorities, or members of another group underrepresented in the field. Current Yale Law students mentor fellows in the program, helping them apply to law programs and prepare for careers in leadership and the law.
“If we want to change the law, we have to change the lawyers,” Forman said. “My dream is that in the future, when you go down to the New Haven courthouse, you will see a more diverse legal community.”
Ali Truwit ’23: For Leadership in the Face of Adversity
Truwit described the harrowing experience of a shark attack in 2023 that claimed her foot and part of her leg. A member of the Yale swim team, she wondered as she recovered whether she could still be an athlete and how she would be viewed by friends and family.
“I relied on the lessons that I had learned during my time at Yale to help me start grappling with those fears,” Truwit said.
Truwit overcame the trauma of that attack to compete in the 2024 Paris Paralympics, winning two silver medals.
“No matter what we’re going through, we can still be leaders,” Truwit said. After her Paris success, she founded Stronger Than You Think, a nonprofit focused on water safety, access to prosthetics, and the Paralympic movement.
A New Phase
During her remarks, President McInnis noted that she had held about one hundred events across campus as part of a listening tour that would help her to understand the perspectives and concerns of Yale students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
Now, she says, the next phase will include discussions around some of the themes that came up the most during those events: trust in institutions of higher learning; building on Yale’s academic excellence and collaborations; enhancing Yale’s undergraduate experience; partnering with the broader New Haven community; and ensuring operational excellence across campus.
“With the support of Yale alumni, parents, and friends, I know we can continue to solve great, global challenges,” McInnis said, “and carry light and truth with us into the world.”