Deputy Secretary
Martha C. Highsmith
Ms. Highsmith oversees emergency management for the University, and with Linda Lorimer, is the University’s primary resource for crisis management. She supervises Commencement and other major events; and she assists with leadership for the Sustainability Office, Broadcast Studio, AYA and policy and other governance issues. Ms. Highsmith has undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina and a doctorate from Harvard. In 1995 she graduated summa cum laude from Yale Divinity School. Prior to coming to Yale in 1994, she held positions in state government, including chief of staff for the Connecticut Department of Economic Development and assistant commissioner in the Department of Higher Education. She is an ordained Presbyterian minister and has held a variety of pastoral positions, including serving as the Pastor of the University Church of Yale in 2007–08.
