The 19th president of the University of California, Mark G. Yudof, took office June 16, 2008 and served until September 1, 2013.

Yudof graduated with a B.A. in political science in 1965 and later earned an LL.B, both cum laude and both from the University of Pennsylvania. He was appointed assistant professor of law at the University of Texas at Austin in 1971, and dean of the law school in 1984. Yudof also taught as a visiting professor at the law schools of UC Berkeley and the University of Michigan, and conducted research at the University of Warwick in England as a visiting fellow.

From 1994 to 1997 he served as the executive vice president and provost of UT Austin, and then moved to Minnesota as president of the University of Minnesota. Five years later, he returned to Texas as chancellor of the University of Texas System, an institution with 15 campuses.

Yudof co-authored the book Educational Policy and the Law, now in its 5th edition. Besides educational law issues, he is also a distinguished authority on constitutional law and freedom of expression. He served for two years on the U.S. Department of Education’s Advisory Board of the National Institute for Literacy and in 2006 he was appointed to the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. He has lectured on the medieval Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides in synagogues.

Yudof’s wife, Judy, is the former international president of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. She also serves on the council of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in the nation’s capital and on the international board of Hillel. The couple have two children.

Official Biography (University of California)

New UC President Yudof Is Part of a Dynamic Duo (by Tom Tugend, Jewish Journal)