Sandhya L. Iyer, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Sandhya Iyer came to Dartmouth in July 2017, bringing extensive legal expertise in higher education. As Dartmouth’s chief legal officer, she serves as the legal advisor to the President, Board, senior leadership team, and faculty and staff members acting on behalf of Dartmouth. In that capacity, she advises on academic and business transactions and oversees litigation and administrative proceedings spanning Dartmouth’s undergraduate liberal arts program, graduate and professional schools, R1 Carnegie-classified research enterprise, and administrative operations. Since October 1, 2023, she has also served as the Secretary to Dartmouth’s Board of Trustees. In that capacity, and in collaboration with the President and Board leadership, she supports the Board’s timely, informed, and effective decisionmaking in accordance with Dartmouth’s mission and strategic priorities, by overseeing the planning and execution of all Board business, by helping to develop a high-performing Board, and by facilitating appropriate information flow to, from, and within the Board.
From 2008 to 2017, Sandhya was Oberlin College’s first General Counsel and Secretary. From 2005 to 2008, she was Chief Attorney for the U.S. Department of Education Cleveland Office for Civil Rights. Before that, in 2000, she joined the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section, ultimately serving as Special Counsel there. At both agencies, she received five performance awards for her work managing teams investigating and remedying federal civil rights violations by a range of public and private entities, including educational institutions. At the Justice Department, she also received a special achievement award and a special commendation for outstanding service. Preceding her federal government stint, she served as policy counsel for the National Partnership for Women and Families (formerly the Women's Legal Defense Fund) from 1998 to 2000. At the National Partnership, she worked to improve family and medical leave policies at the state and federal level, and she co-authored an amicus curiae brief for a U.S. Supreme Court case recognizing a Title IX cause of action for peer sexual harassment.
Sandhya earned a B.S. summa cum laude in Chemistry and Women's Studies from Yale College and a J.D. from Yale Law School. She clerked for the Honorable Sidney Thomas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She has served on the board of directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys and the board of the Yale Law Journal.