Teagle Foundation Names Delbanco Next President

The Teagle Foundation is announcing today that its next president will be Andrew Delbanco, the Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University. He will succeed Judith Shapiro, who is stepping down this summer after five years leading the foundation, whose grants support liberal education, with a strong emphasis on the teaching role of faculty members, collaboration among institutions and the importance of curricular choices.

Delbanco has served on the Teagle board since 2009 and has mixed scholarship in the humanities with a more public role in discussions of higher education. He has a new book coming out this fall, The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul From the Revolution to the Civil War, to be published by Penguin Press. Delbanco does not plan to leave Columbia, but to teach on a reduced schedule. He said his top goal is "to continue and deepen Teagle's support of people and programs committed to bringing the gift of liberal education to all students -- not just the privileged few."