Amy Gutmann (1949-) served as Princeton’s 12th dean of the faculty from 1995 to 1997. She is one of the world’s leading scholars in democratic political theory and the ethics of public life, having worked in the public and private sectors throughout her career.

The daughter of a German immigrant, Gutmann was the first member of her family to graduate college when she earned her Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1971. She earned a Master of Science in political science from the London School of Economics in 1972 and a Doctor of Philosophy in political science from Harvard University in 1976.

In 1976, Gutmann joined the Princeton faculty as an assistant professor of politics. She progressed to associate professor in 1981 and full professor in 1987. Gutmann held the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship from 1987 to 1990 and became the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics in 1990. Concurrently, she was the director of graduate studies in the politics department from 1986 to 1988 and director of the program in political philosophy from 1987 to 1989. In 1990, Gutmann became the founding director of the University Center for Human Values. She served as director until 1995 and again from 1998 to 2001.

As dean of the faculty, Gutmann presided over an expansion of the office's duties. She also served as the president’s academic adviser from 1997 to 1998 before serving three years as University provost from 2001 to 2004.

In 2000, she won the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton. She also received the Bertram Mott Award “in recognition of outstanding achievement toward advancing the goals of higher education”; the Ralph J. Bunche Award “for the best scholarly work in political science that explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism”; the North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award; and the Gustavus Myers Human Rights Award for the “outstanding book on the subject of human rights in North America.” In 2003, Gutmann was awarded the Centennial Medal by Harvard University for “graduate alumni who have made exceptional contributions to society.”

In the fall of 2004, Gutmann began an 18-year tenure as president of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2009, President Obama appointed her to chair the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, a role she held concurrently with her role as president of Penn. Gutmann was named one of the “150 Women Who Shake the World” by Newsweek in 2011 and one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune magazine in 2018.

In 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Gutmann as the United States Ambassador to Germany, a position she held from 2022 until 2024.

Written by Shane B. Black for the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.