Heather Tookes
Dr. Heather Tookes stands as a distinguished figure in academia, marked by her deep-rooted dedication to institutional leadership, rigorous scholarship and teaching excellence. Having joined the Yale School of Management in 2004, Tookes has built a remarkable legacy spanning over two decades at the Ivy League institution. Her journey reached a milestone when Provost Scott Strobel announced her appointment as the university’s inaugural vice provost for faculty and academic affairs.
In this groundbreaking capacity she provides strategic, university-wide leadership for programs and services that empower Yale’s exceptional faculty to advance their research, scholarship and pedagogy.
An accomplished scholar, Tookes earned her bachelor of arts in economics from Brown University and her Ph.D. in management and finance from Cornell University. Her academic research lies at the intersection of capital markets and corporate finance, with a specific focus on security issuance, credit, mergers and acquisitions and product market spillovers. Her pioneering work investigates how market liquidity, leverage and trading frictions impact firms and financial markets.
Beyond her research, Tookes is a celebrated educator who teaches corporate finance to MBA and Executive MBA students, earning numerous awards for her classroom instruction.
“It is an honor to serve my faculty colleagues and Yale in this way,” said Tookes. “After 22 years at Yale, I am amazed every day by our faculty and the impact of their work, which inspires students in the classroom and improves our understanding of the world around us.”
Tookes brings profound administrative expertise to the provost’s office, heavily informed by her tenure as the deputy dean for faculty at the Yale School of Management from 2022 to 2025. In that role, she oversaw critical operations including faculty recruitment, development, promotion, and retention. Her institutional footprint extends across numerous campus entities, having served on the university’s Budget Advisory Group, the Gift and Grant Risk Assessment Committee and as chair of the President’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility.
Her influence reaches far beyond Yale’s campus. She previously chaired the Academic Female Advisory Committee of the American Finance Association, contributed to the association’s Committee on Racial Diversity and was an associate editor for prominent journals such as the Review of Financial Studies and Management Science. Her advisory impact also includes service on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Financial Advisory Round Table and the FINRA Economic Advisory Committee. She currently serves as a trustee of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.
Stepping into her new role, Tookes remains committed to enhancing the silent supports — such as robust policies, programs and administrative structures — that allow faculty to thrive. Working closely with campus partners and deans across professional schools, she oversees faculty workforce planning, mentorship, academic procedures and data stewardship.
As Tookes embarks on this exciting chapter, her extensive institutional knowledge, unwavering commitment to shared governance and fierce advocacy for academic excellence ensure that Yale’s faculty will continue to shape and improve our understanding of the world.
