International Institute for Higher Education Research & Capacity Building

Professor (Dr.) Rhonda L. Lenton

Rhonda L. Lenton became York University’s eighth President and Vice-Chancellor on July 1, 2017. Before joining York, Dr. Lenton was an associate dean and professor at McMaster University. A sociologist by training, she earned her PhD from the University of Toronto in 1989. Her areas of teaching and research expertise include gender, family conflict, sexual harassment, research methods and, more recently, higher education. She has published peer-reviewed book chapters and articles in a broad array of academic journals. In 2019, she co-authored a landmark study of the Canadian Jewish community with colleagues from the University of Toronto and the Environics Institute for Survey Research.

In addition to her roles at York, Dr. Lenton serves on Universities Canada’s Board of Directors and its Research Committee, the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) Government and Community Relations Committee, and she is both Chair of the COU Relationships Committee and Co-Chair of the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT) Board of Directors. In recognition of her leadership and service as a senior executive in higher education, Dr. Lenton was named one of the top 100 most powerful women in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network (WXN) in 2015.