Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will join Columbia University as a global affairs professor at its School of International and Public Affairs (Sipa), it was announced on Thursday.
The university president’s Lee Bollinger announced the new position for Clinton, who was secretary of state for Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013.
“Given her extraordinary talents and capacities together with her singular life experiences, Hillary Clinton is unique, and, most importantly, exceptional in what she can bring to the University’s missions of research and teaching, along with public service and engagement for the public good,” Bollinger said in a statement.
Clinton, who will assume her new position on 1 February, will work alongside the Sipa dean, Keren Yarhi-Milo, and other senior faculty members on a “variety of major initiatives,” Bollinger said.
“Secretary Clinton will help us deliver on our mission to educate a new generation of principled policy leaders and generate innovative ideas grounded in research,” Yarhi-Milo said.
“Starting in the 2023–24 academic year, students will have the opportunity to engage with and learn from her in the classroom, benefiting from her unparalleled experience in foreign and domestic policy,” she added.
According to Yarhi-Milo, Clinton will help lead a “major new Sipa effort to convene the best policy minds from around the world for robust debate and collaboration aimed at developing innovative policy solutions”.
Clinton will be joining Columbia World Projects, a university-wide initiative that aims to link the university’s research capabilities with various global needs.
Specifically, Clinton will help Columbia Global, the university’s international research outposts, as well as CWP in exploring “fundamental questions” on how to advance the renewal of democracy and foster more engagement with women and youth across the country and the world.
In response to her upcoming appointment, Clinton said that she is honored to be joining the university. “Columbia’s commitment to educating the next generation of US and global policy leaders, translating insights into impact, and helping to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges resonates personally with me. I look forward to contributing to these efforts,” she said.
In 2022, Columbia University conferred an honorary doctors of law degree to Clinton.