Leadership Transition at the Eagleton Institute of Politics
August 19, 2019
Dear Rutgers Faculty and Staff:
I am writing to share news of a leadership transition at the Eagleton Institute of Politics.
After 24 years of distinguished leadership at Eagleton, Dr. Ruth B. Mandel will step down as director on August 31, 2019. As many of you know, Dr. Mandel has served as Eagleton's director since 1995, and before that as a founding director of Eagleton's Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) from 1971 through 1994. Beginning in September, Dr. Mandel will take a one-year research leave before returning to her faculty role as Board of Governors Professor of Politics and Senior Scholar at CAWP. The university will forever be indebted to Professor Mandel for bringing both CAWP and Eagleton to national prominence, as valued venues for non-partisan research and engagement in the most important political issues of our time. Please join me in thanking Professor Mandel for her distinguished service as director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics.
I am pleased to announce that Professor Mandel will be succeeded by John J. Farmer Jr. who has been appointed director of the Institute effective September 1, 2019. A university professor of law and former dean of Rutgers School of Law–Newark, as well as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Rutgers and Special Counsel to the President of Rutgers, Farmer has been a faculty associate at Eagleton since 2014. In addition to his appointment as Eagleton director, Farmer will continue his leadership of the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience (CPR), which is housed at and affiliated with the Institute and Law School.
Mandel's Lasting Legacy: Growing an Institution, Building Communities
Mandel joined the Eagleton Institute of Politics in 1971 as a founder of its Center for American Women and Politics. There she built a national center with multi-faceted research, education, public service and information programs about women’s political participation, a subject previously unexplored.
Following her appointment as director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, CAWP's home institution, Mandel spent nearly a quarter-century shaping a distinctive, pathbreaking academic organization, widely known and respected as the Rutgers "Place for Politics." She nurtured existing strengths in an Institute established in 1956 and expanded Eagleton’s work into new arenas under the broad mandate of Florence Peshine Eagleton, whose founding bequest called for "the development of and education for responsible leadership in civic and governmental affairs and the solution of their political problems."
As Eagleton director, Mandel transformed the Institute’s education programs, recruiting students from every Rutgers division to benefit from unique offerings on the undergraduate and graduate levels that blend classroom learning with direct experience in politics and government. She has developed an outstanding faculty and staff community bringing together educators, scholars and practitioners who explore both perennial and underexamined themes in American politics and government, including women’s political participation, youth political participation, governors and state executives, immigration and democracy, science and politics, civic engagement and public service, and ethics and public leadership.
John Farmer, Incoming Director of the Eagleton Institute
John Farmer's career has spanned service in high-profile government appointments, private practice in diverse areas of criminal law, and teaching and law school administration.
Among other positions, Farmer has served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, as Chief Counsel to Governor Christine Todd Whitman and, from 1999-2002, as New Jersey's Attorney General. As senior counsel and team leader for the 9/11 Commission, Farmer led the investigation of the country's preparedness for and response to the terrorist attacks and was a principal author of the commission's final report. His book, The Ground Truth: The Story Behind America's Defense on 9/11, was named a New York Times notable book. In 2008, he served as Senior Legal Advisor to General James Jones, the Special Envoy for Middle East Regional Security. In 2011, he served as counsel to the commission that redrew New Jersey's legislative districts and, later that year, was appointed the independent, tie-breaking member of the commission charged with developing a new map of New Jersey's congressional districts. Farmer has served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct, as a member of the Governor’s Ethics Advisory Committee, and as a member of the Executive Commission on Ethical Standards.
Farmer was appointed dean of Rutgers School of Law–Newark in 2009, and served in that capacity until April 2013, when he became Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Rutgers University. He was named a University Professor in July 2014.
He has served as director of the Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience since its inception as the Faith-Based Communities Security Program in 2015, and will continue in that role. The Miller Center has provided assistance to vulnerable populations as diverse as the Muslim population of Brussels, Belgium and the Jewish communities of Whitefish, Montana and Malmo, Sweden. In addition, the Miller Center has partnered with the International March of the Living to immerse lawyers and deans of graduate schools in Holocaust history and genocide prevention strategies, and with Stockton University to facilitate the creation and strengthening of an international resilience network.
Please join me in thanking Professor Mandel for her distinguished service as director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. On the transition, I echo Mandel's sentiment, "I could not be more pleased that John Farmer will lead Eagleton into a new era," Mandel said. "An active scholar and highly respected member of the Rutgers faculty with notable leadership experience in New Jersey and national government, he is a thoughtful and forceful voice on behalf of our democracy and its institutions."
Sincerely,
Christopher J. Molloy, Ph.D.
Chancellor, Rutgers University–New Brunswick