Meet President Krislov

Biography

Marvin Krislov has served as the eighth President of Pace University since August 1, 2017. He is deeply committed to Pace’s mission of Opportunitas—providing all students, regardless of economic background, access to the transformative power of education. Under his leadership, Pace is developing innovative new interdisciplinary programs, continuing the transformation of its New York City Campus, and delivering on its experiential education model, the Pace Path, that produces superior career outcomes. He is personally committed to initiatives supporting student mental health and wellbeing, ensuring college access for all students, and advancing priorities for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Before coming to Pace, Krislov spent 10 years as the president of Oberlin College, where he led collaborative, consensus-driven efforts to make the college more rigorous, diverse, inclusive, and accessible. Earlier, he was vice president and general counsel at the University of Michigan, where he led the legal defense of the University’s admission policies that resulted in the 2003 Supreme Court decision recognizing the importance of student body diversity. Prior to entering academic life, he served as associate counsel in the Office of Counsel to the President under President Bill Clinton and later as acting solicitor and then deputy solicitor of national operations in the US Department of Labor. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated, and the Senate confirmed, Krislov to serve on the National Council on the Humanities, where served until the summer of 2019.

Krislov earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, at Yale University in 1982, and he was named a Rhodes Scholar. He earned master’s degrees at Oxford University and Yale and a juris doctor degree at Yale Law School in 1988.