Joan Gabel is Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, where her leadership focuses on student success, impactful research, and the public mission of higher education.
Under Gabel's leadership, Pitt adopted the Plan for Pitt, a framework for transparent and measurable progress. During her tenure, the University has set records in research funding, student demand and enrollment, graduation rates, postgraduation placement, and student belonging, alongside growth in patents filed and invention disclosures. Pitt has expanded support for research and scholarship, including through its academic health sciences enterprise and longstanding partnership with UPMC. Pitt has also launched academic programs in emerging fields, including artificial intelligence, and strengthened pathways connecting education to careers. New approaches to affordability include the Regional Campus Tuition Pledge and Finish Line Grants, and Pitt received the C. Peter Magrath Community Engagement Scholarship Award for community-engaged research.
Before joining Pitt, Gabel served as President of the University of Minnesota System and Twin Cities campus, where she introduced the system's first comprehensive strategic plan and achieved record graduation rates and research expenditures. She previously served as Provost at the University of South Carolina and Dean of the Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri. She also held the DeSantis Professorship of Legal Studies at Florida State University, where she served as a department chair.
Gabel's academic background is in corporate governance, ethics, risk management, and international business law. Her scholarly recognitions include the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Distinguished Career Achievement Award and the Holmes-Cardozo Award for Excellence in Research.
Gabel chairs the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the Fulbright Scholar Advisory Board, serves as Academic Vice Chair of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness and Vice Chair of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and participates in National Academies initiatives, including the Science and Innovation Fund for Ukraine.
She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, named to the Forbes 2026 50 Over 50: Impact list, listed as a "shining star" by The Wall Street Journal, and received the American Council on Education Mentor Award.