Leadership Lab - Linda G. Mills
About This Episode
In this episode of the Leadership Lab series, Susanna Kempe, CEO of the Laidlaw Foundation, speaks with Professor Linda G. Mills, 17th President of New York University, scholar of social work, public policy and law, founder of the Center on Violence and Recovery, and the first woman and first Jewish person to lead NYU in its history.
Mills traces her leadership journey back to her grandfather, and the story he told her as a child of his escape from a train after being seized on Kristallnacht, a story that left her with a lesson she has carried ever since. She reflects on the instinct that took her from practising law into social work, on what she saw when she returned to NYU as president after 26 years on its faculty, and on the conviction that has come to define her tenure, one none of her predecessors had reached.
She is candid about the weight of being the first, and about the difficulty of leading through a period of rising antisemitism and mounting pressure on universities. She talks about the alchemy of global education, why student flourishing matters as much as research, and why character, not just career, is what a university should be built to shape. For emerging leaders, her message turns on the leadership trait she believes is most underrated, and on what it takes to act when it counts.
Hi! I'm Amanda, a third year Neuroscience student and Laidlaw alum from UCL. I'm Swedish-Persian and grew up in Sweden before moving to London for uni. These days, alongside my studies, I work for the Foundation as a Marketing Assistant.
For my first year research project, I worked on optimising alginate hydrogels for 3D astrocyte culture systems. In simpler terms, I was figuring out the best way to prepare a jelly-like scaffolds so that star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes could grow in three dimensions rather than flat on a dish. This matters because 3D environments mimic the brain more realistically, which could help researchers develop better treatments for neurological disorders!
For my Leadership-in-Action project, I co-created Beyond the Books, a resource designed to help students from underrepresented backgrounds navigate the unwritten rules of university life, from internships and networking to professional opportunities that aren't always obvious if you're the first in your family to go to uni.
Always happy to connect, whether you want to chat about neuroscience, widening access, the Laidlaw experience, or just say hello! One of my favourite things about this community is getting to meet people from different universities and backgrounds, so please do reach out! 🌟
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