Anita K. Sinha named Chair of Board of Governors

Sinha, the first woman to serve in this role, will succeed Cary D. McMillan

The Board of Governors of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) elected Anita K. Sinha to serve as its new Chair, effective November 14. Sinha is the first woman to occupy the position and will succeed Cary D. McMillan as the leader of SAIC’s governing body.

“I have had the privilege of working with Anita since 2013 through her service on the Board of Governors, and I have seen firsthand her commitment to helping the school provide a world-class art and design education,” said SAIC President Elissa Tenny. “Her dedication to diversity and a holistic student experience are aligned with SAIC’s commitment to inclusion and the education of citizen artists. We are pleased to welcome Anita as the new Chair of the Board of Governors, and I look forward to our continued collaboration.”

Sinha and her husband, Prabhakant Sinha have been long-time supporters of SAIC and its museum, the Art Institute of Chicago. Sinha currently serves on SAIC’s Student Affairs Committee and is a member of the museum’s Sustaining Fellows Program Committee. She served on the SAIC 150th Gala Planning Committee during the 2015–16 academic year and remains involved with the school’s Visiting Artist Program. In 2016, she and her husband established the Kikeri-Sinha Travel Scholarship, a need-based award that enables SAIC students to participate in faculty-led study trips.

“I am looking forward to working with my fellow board members, Elissa, and her team to help guide the school as its new chair, especially as we near our fundraising goal in this final year of the school’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign, Beautiful/Work: The Campaign for SAIC,” said Anita Sinha. “I am grateful for my predecessor Cary McMillan’s instrumental leadership in strengthening the school’s financial health, improving enrollment, and growing scholarship opportunities during his nine-year tenure as chair of the Board of Governors.”

Sinha serves on the board of the Chicago Humanities Festival and has been involved with several not-for-profit organizations, including the Chicago Foundation for Women and the Chicago Leadership Council of the American Indian Foundation. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For more than 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program consistently ranking among the top programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, Jeff Koons, and LeRoy Neiman.