SIPA’s Women’s Initiative Enters a New Era with a Transformational $15-million Gift

hero-image
Ann F. Kaplan (second from left) receives the 2022 Columbia Alumni Medal, joined by fellow Columbia Alumni Association Board members Teresa Saputo-Crerand '87CC, '92BUS, Mary Kuo '92CC, and Michelle Estilo Kaiser '87CC, '92PH, '97SPS.

Columbia SIPA has announced the renaming of its Women’s Initiative at the Institute of Global Politics (IGP) as the Ann F. Kaplan Women’s Initiative, in recognition of a transformational gift from Ann Kaplan’s family honoring her decades-long impact at Columbia University and her commitment to advancing women’s rights and opportunities. 

Jennifer Klein, professor of professional practice, and Rachel Vogelstein, associate professor of practice, will direct the Ann F. Kaplan Women’s Initiative. The gift also endows a faculty chair at SIPA, and Jennifer Klein will serve as the inaugural holder of the Ann F. Kaplan Women’s Initiative Professorship. 

With this significant gift, and under the direction of IGP cofounders Columbia SIPA Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Ann F. Kaplan Women’s Initiative will continue to produce rigorous scholarship, inform and influence domestic and foreign policy – from women’s health, to economic security, to safety and security, human rights, and democracy – and support students to become the next generation of women leaders. The Initiative has published several in-depth reports, including an influential report last September titled, Beijing+30: A Roadmap for Women's Rights for the Next Thirty Years. Most recently, the Initiative published a major report titled, Accelerating Efforts to End Child Marriage. These reports have been accompanied by high-level events at Columbia that bring together students, faculty, Columbia alumni, and the general public.

“Ann's profound connection to our vision for the Women's Initiative was palpable from the first moment we met,” said Yarhi-Milo. “She had spent so much of her life – professional, personal, as a Columbia Trustee – focused on women. How, why, and when women succeed, what barriers they face, how women drive innovation and change, how the economic empowerment of women benefits society overall.”  

“She intuitively knew that all these issues, in the end, boiled down to policy,” Yarhi-Milo added. “The family’s generosity reflects Ann’s deep belief in equity and empowerment, and in the Women’s Initiative’s singular position at the intersection of the academy, public policy, and women’s rights.”

“This endowment is both a vote of confidence in the work of the Women’s Initiative and a commitment to its future,” said Klein. “It will enable us to build sustained, ambitious programming, deepen our partnership with faculty at other Columbia schools, and drive research that connects academic insight to real-world policy challenges facing women around the world.” 

 

Editor's note: A version of this article was originally published by SIPA’s Institute of Global Politics.