Louise Mirrer

President and CEO, New-York Historical Society

Louise Mirrer joined the New-York Historical Society as President and CEO in June 2004. Under her guidance, the institution has reinvigorated its commitment to greater public understanding of history and its relevance today, as well as to the support and encouragement of historical scholarship, and the education of young people. Mirrer holds a double Ph.D. from Stanford, a graduate Diploma from Cambridge, and a BA magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. 

Under Mirrer’s direction, the New-York Historical Society has launched groundbreaking exhibitions such as Slavery in New York, Nueva York, Chinese American: Inclusion/Exclusion, and The Vietnam War 1945-1975. As president and CEO she oversaw a $100 million capital campaign, completed in 2011, and the inauguration, in 2017, of the first-ever Center for Women’s History within the walls of an American museum.  She has also initiated special projects on Citizenship and the Presidency, and has overseen the expansion of the institution’s visitorship to nearly 500,000 annually.

Mirrer’s research focuses on historical narrative and she has authored four books and numerous articles. Her most recent book is Women, Muslims, and Jews in the Texts of Reconquest Castile, published by the University of Michigan Press. Mirrer has been a professor at Fordham University, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and the CUNY Graduate Center, where she continues to hold a faculty appointment. As Vice Provost for Arts, Sciences and Engineering at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, she oversaw key initiatives in liberal arts education. As Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the City University of New York, she designed the CUNY Honors College, introduced American history as a graduation requirement for all 200,000 undergraduate students, and established a major hiring initiative to increase the number of American history faculty throughout the CUNY system. 

Dr. Mirrer was inducted into the Crain's New York Business Hall of Fame in 2018, and became a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations in 2017. In recent years, she has been honored with the Officer's Cross in the Order of Civil Merit, Spanish Crown, 2017; Beacon Award, The Trustees' Council of Penn Women, 2017; Medal of Merit, Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, 2016; Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa, Marymount College, 2016; Chinatown Partnership Historic Trailblazer Award, 2013; Woman of Distinction Medal, League of Women Voters, 2007; Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge University, 2007; Dean’s Medal, CUNY Honors College, 2005; Education and Student Advocacy Award, Hostos Community College, 2005; President’s Medal, CUNY Graduate Center, 2004; Leadership Award, Asian-American Research Institution, 2003; New York Post’s “50 Most Influential Women in New York,” 2003; Citation of Honor, Queens Borough President’s Office, 2001; Women Making History Award, Queensborough Community College, 2001; and the YWCA “Women Achievers” Award, 2000. 

Read a Q&A with Louise Mirrer for Thirteen here.