Lee C. Bollinger

Bollinger was born in Santa Rosa, California and raised there and in Baker, Oregon. He is married to artist Jean Magnano Bollinger, and they have two children and five grandchildren. After graduating from the University of Oregon and Columbia Law School, where he was an Articles Editor of Columbia Law Review, Bollinger served as law clerk for Judge Wilfred Feinberg on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Chief Justice Warren Burger on the United States Supreme Court. He joined the University of Michigan Law School faculty in 1973. Among Bollinger's signal achievements at Columbia are the development of a network of nine Columbia Global Centers on four continents and the creation of new venues on the University's home campus supporting global conversations and scholarship, including the World Leaders Forum and the Committee on Global Thought. From November 1996 to 2002, Bollinger was president of the University of Michigan, where he also served as a law professor and dean of the law school. He is widely published on legal and constitutional issues involving free speech and press, and his books include: Regardless of Frontiers: Global Freedom of Expression in a Troubled World, The Free Press Century, Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open: A Free Press for a New Century; Eternally Vigilant: Free Speech in the Modern Era; Images of a Free Press; and The Tolerant Society: Freedom of Speech and Extremist Speech in America. Bollinger has received the National Humanitarian Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice and the National Equal Justice Award from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund for his leadership on affirmative action. He also received the Clark Kerr Award, the highest award conferred by the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, for his service to higher education, especially on matters of freedom of speech and diversity. He is the recipient of multiple honorary degrees from universities in this country and abroad. Bollinger is a former director of Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company) and serves as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected in 1992), and the American Philosophical Society (elected in 2004). From 2007 to 2012, he was director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he also served as chair from 2010 to 2012.