Sarah C. Mangelsdorf

President, University of Rochester

Mangelsdorf is the 11th president of the University of Rochester and the school’s first female president. She served as provost at the University of Wisconsin before taking the helm in Rochester in July 2019.

She has been faced with numerous challenges early in her presidency as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, she had to make the decision to furlough employees and cut some employees’ pay to help the university get through the initial COVID-related shutdowns.

“I was tortured over it because it was my first year as president,” she told the RBJ last year. “I never thought this is what I want to do my first year as president.”

But almost all of the employees who were furloughed returned to work at the university, and employees whose pay was cut saw their salaries restored at the beginning of 2021.

Mangelsdorf also moved UR to a $15 per hour minimum wage ahead of the New York deadline to do so.

“We don’t just want to be the biggest employer in Rochester; we want to be a good employer,” Mangelsdorf told RBJ last year. “We want to provide people with meaningful work and benefits and pathways to advancement.”

This profile is part of Rochester Business Journal's Power 100 list for 2022. Information used in this profile was sourced from the honoree. View the full list at rbj.net.