Kymberly Pinder

Yale School of Art Dean Kymberly Pinder wants her Master’s of Fine Arts students to graduate debt-free. In her five years steering the most prestigious art school in the U.S., Pinder has raised $13 million towards an ambitious goal: to create what she calls an “ethical MFA” program that would ensure students don’t have to go into debt to pursue their art education, and can continue their practices after graduation without enormous loan repayments. Pinder says she hopes to nurture the “compulsion artists [have] to make work to help themselves understand how they're living in the world, and to help other people.”

Pinder, an eminent scholar of race and public art, is keenly aware of the realities facing working artists, and has endeavored to make sure students are prepared, pioneering financial literacy and grant-writing curricula at Yale and embedding students in the broader New Haven art community. Under her leadership, the school converted an underutilized Yale-owned space into a student-run gallery that highlights local artists and led art projects in a local women’s prison. This spring, Pinder was reappointed as dean for a second five-year term, giving her more time to fully realize her dream of making a top MFA program debt-free for those who need it.