Heather Kristin Gerken (born February 19, 1969) is an American legal scholar. She has been the president of the Ford Foundation since November 2025. She was the 17th dean of Yale Law School from 2017 to 2025.
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Early life and education
Gerken grew up in Bolton, Massachusetts. She was educated at Nashoba Regional High School, graduated in 1987, and received a Presidential Scholarship.
In 1991, Gerken graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in history after completing a 123-page long senior thesis titled "Stepping Out of the Bounds of Womanhood: An Analysis of the Popular Image of Women and Women's Experiences during World War II". She was the recipient of the university's Dodds Prize, given to top seniors, and the Kenneth C. Harris Award for research.
After college, Gerken enrolled in the University of Michigan Law School on a full-tuition scholarship. She graduated in 1994 with a Juris Doctor, summa cum laude, and membership in the Order of the Coif. She was editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review and was named the commencement speaker of her class.
Gerken was a law clerk for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1994–1995, and then for Justice David Souter at the U.S. Supreme Court from 1995–1996.