Judith Rodin (born Judith Seitz, September 9, 1944) is an American research psychologist, executive, university president, and global thought-leader. She served as the 12th president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 2005 to 2017. From 1994 to 2004, Rodin served as the 7th president of the University of Pennsylvania, and the first permanent female president of an Ivy League university. She is known for her significant contributions to the fields of behavioral medicine and health psychology, higher education, and philanthropy, as well as championing the concepts of impact investing and resilience.

Rodin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 9, 1944, as Judith Seitz. She grew up in a middle-class Jewish family and was the younger of two daughters of Morris and Sally Seitz. She graduated with honors from the Philadelphia High School for Girls and won an undergraduate scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania.

At Penn, Rodin majored in psychology and graduated from the university's College for Women with a B.A. in 1966. She was the president of Penn's Women's Student Government and led the groundwork for the merger with the Men's Student Government that ultimately formed the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education (SCUE) in 1965 that led to the co-education of the College of Arts and Sciences. She went on to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University, which she received in 1970. Rodin completed postdoctoral research at the University of California at Irvine in 1971.

In 1972, after teaching briefly at New York University, Rodin became an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale University, where she was to become well known among students as a popular lecturer. Specializing in research on obesity, eating disorders, stress and aging, she would become the Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology and a professor of medicine and psychiatry while serving in a succession of leadership positions from 1972 to 1994: director of graduate studies, chair of the Department of Psychology, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and provost.

In 1994, Rodin was appointed president of the University of Pennsylvania, becoming the first permanent female president of an Ivy League institution and the first graduate of the university to take on its highest leadership role. Her immediate predecessor was Dr. Claire M. Fagin, who served in 1994 as Interim President. As president, Rodin guided the university through a period of unprecedented growth and development that transformed Penn's academic core and dramatically enhanced the quality of life on campus and in the surrounding community. She encouraged revitalization in University City and West Philadelphia through public safety; the establishment of Wharton School alliances for small businesses; the development of buildings and streetscapes that turned outward to the community; and the establishment of a university-led partnership school, the Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School.

Under Rodin's leadership, Penn invigorated its resources, doubling its research funding and tripling both its annual fundraising and the size of its endowment. It also created Penn Medicine, the unified organization comprising the university's medical school and hospital; attracted record numbers of undergraduate applicants, creating Penn's most selective classes ever; and rose in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of top national research universities from 16th in 1994 to 4th in 2002.

Rodin became president of the Rockefeller Foundation in March, 2005, succeeding Gordon Conway and becoming the first woman to serve as the foundation's president. Her leadership was characterized by a strategic focus on resilience as a guiding framework for addressing complex global challenges, including environmental sustainability, urbanization, healthcare access and economic inequality. She encouraged collaboration with governments, nonprofits, academia, and the private sector to scale innovative solutions and drive systemic change.

In 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Rockefeller launched the first of many urban resilience initiatives to help rebuild New Orleans and prevent future disaster. In 2007, the Rockefeller Foundation helped to shape the space around impact investing when a group of philanthropists, investors and entrepreneurs discussed the topic at the foundation's Bellagio Center in Lake Como, Italy. One year later, the Rockefeller Foundation's board of trustees approved $38 million in grants for initiatives in the field of impact investing such as the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). Following the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Rodin was appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to co-chair NYS 2100, a commission charged with finding ways to improve the resilience and strength of the state's infrastructure in the face of natural disasters and other emergencies. Central to her leadership was the launch of the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) initiative in 2013, aimed at helping cities around the world prepare for and withstand the challenges of the 21st century. Under her guidance, 100RC provided technical assistance, funding, and a global network of experts to cities, fostering comprehensive resilience strategies tailored to local needs.