Tulane University has selected Michael A. Fitts, the dean and a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, as the successor to retiring president, Scott Cowen.
Fitts takes over at Tulane on July 1.
At a news conference Tuesday, Rick Rees, a co-chair of Tulane's presidential search committee, said the panel unanimously selected Rees.
Fitts is the Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law at Penn. A native of Philadelphia, Fitts earned a bachelor of arts from Harvard University in 1975. He enrolled in law school at Yale University. He became an editor of the Yale Law Journal and earned his juris doctor in 1979.
Fitts will be Tulane's 15th president. Tulane board president Darryl Berger called Fitts an outstanding scholar, and noted his reputation as a successful fund raiser.