The election of Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, and Ana Palacio, member of the Spanish Parliament, to the board of Carnegie Corporation of New York was announced today by Corporation president, Vartan Gregorian. “We are proud to have these two outstanding women as the newest members of our board,” Gregorian said. “Their achievements in the world of higher education and public policy are extraordinary, and their many strengths—leadership, scholarship, international perspective and passion for democracy—will be immeasurable assets in Carnegie Corporation’s challenging work.”
Gutmann, a respected political philosopher, became the eighth president of the University of Pennsylvania in 2004 and holds faculty appointments in the School of Arts and Sciences, the Annenberg School for Communication and the Graduate School of Education. She previously had a distinguished 20-year career at Princeton University where she was founding director of the University Center for Human Values. Among her numerous awards are the Centennial Medal from Harvard University, the President’s Distinguished Teaching Award from Princeton and the Bertram Mott Award for outstanding achievement in higher education from the American Association of University Professors.
Gutmann has published extensively throughout her academic career, including her most recent books Ethics and Politics (4th edition, 2005, with Dennis Thompson) and Why Deliberative Democracy? (2004, with Dennis Thompson). She is past president of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, a fellow of the National Academy of Education and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Philosophical Society. She holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard-Radcliffe College, a M.Sc. in political science from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Palacio, who served as the first woman foreign minister of Spain, has been recognized for strengthening relations between Spain and the United States and for focusing on fighting terrorism and building ties with the Middle East and among Mediterranean countries. She currently chairs the Joint Committee for European Union Affairs of the Spanish Parliament. As a member of the European Parliament from 1994 - 2002, she chaired the Justice and Home Affairs Committee and the Conference of Committee Chairmen, the senior legislative body. She is also a consultant for the World Bank, reporting for the Presidency on the High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.
As a member of the European Parliament from 1994 – 2002, she chaired the Justice and Home Affairs Committee and the Conference of Committee Chairmen, the senior legislative body. An attorney by profession, Palacio is a member and past executive president of the Academy of European Law. She has held senior positions in the governing body of European lawyers and is an honorary member of the Bar of England and Wales. Palacio is a member of the international advisory boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she serves on the steering committee for the center’s Initiative for a Renewed Transatlantic Partnership. She has been awarded the American Jewish Committee Ramer Award for Diplomatic Excellence in recognition of her role in upholding democracy and the values of an open society.
Palacio is a member of the governing boards of Fundación Española del Instituto Weizmann de Israel and the Fundación para el Análisis y los Estudios Sociales in Madrid, and she is on the faculty of the European College in Parma, Italy. Named one of the Wall Street Journal’s top 75 global opinion leaders, Palacio is a regular columnist for various newspapers and a frequent contributor to journals of international politics includingForeign Affairs, Géopolitique and the Revue de Droit de l’Union européenne, where she is on the editorial board. Palacio received a baccalaureate degree with honors from the Lycée Français, and holds degrees in law, political science and sociology.
Carnegie Corporation of New York was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote “the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.” As a grantmaking foundation, the Corporation seeks to carry out Carnegie’s vision of philanthropy, which he said should aim “to do real and permanent good in this world.” The Corporation’s capital fund, originally donated at a value of about $135 million, had a market value of $1.9 billion on September 30, 2004. The Corporation awards grants totaling approximately $80 million a year in the areas of education, international peace and security, international development and strengthening U.S. democracy.