Jonathan Fanton is the Interim Director and Franklin Roosevelt Visiting Fellow at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. Immediately prior to this position he was President of the MacArthur Foundation from 1999-2009. Dr. Fanton served as President of the New School for Social Research for seventeen years and also held the position of Vice President for Planning at the University of Chicago. Dr. Fanton has taught at Yale University and was Chief of Staff to Yale’s President Kingman Brewster. Dr. Fanton is the author of Foundations and Civil Society, Volume I and II and The University and Civil Society.
Dr. Fanton has served on numerous nonprofit boards. Currently he is Chair of the Africa Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch, Chair of Scholars at Risk, Co-Chair of the Research Alliance, and on the Boards of the Asian Cultural Council, The World Policy Institute and the Benjamin Franklin House. Dr. Fanton is past Chair of Human Rights Watch, Security Council Report, The Union Square Development Corporation and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in New York.
Dr. Fanton received his Ph.D. in history from Yale University.