CLINTON — A man who once served as a professor and associate dean at Cornell Law School is returning to Central New York to assume the top leadership role at a different school.

The Hamilton College board of trustees has named David Wippman as the school’s 20th president. 

The appointment is effective July 1, 2016, Hamilton College said in a Dec. 11 news release.

Wippman, 60, currently serves as the dean of the University of Minnesota Law School.

“I am honored to be asked to lead one of the oldest and finest liberal arts colleges in the United States,” Wippman said in the release.

He will succeed Joan Hinde Stewart following her retirement on June 30, 2016, after 13 years as president.

Stephen Sadove, chairman of the school’s board of trustees, introduced Wippman to students, faculty and staff on Friday afternoon in the College Chapel.

“David Wippman emerged as the top finalist from a strong and diverse pool of well-qualified candidates because of his intelligence, warmth and enthusiasm for the liberal arts,” Sadove said in the release. “He personifies many of the objectives of a Hamilton education: He is a strong and collaborative leader, an effective communicator and a person committed to active citizenship. Hamilton is in a strong and stable position with a growing reputation. It will be difficult to follow Joan Stewart, but we believe we’ve found the perfect person to do so.”

Prior to becoming dean at Minnesota, Wippman was professor and associate dean at Cornell Law School and served as vice provost for international relations at Cornell University, where he oversaw efforts to enhance the university’s international programs, according to the Hamilton College release.

A Minnesota native, Wippman earned a bachelor’s degree at Princeton University in 1976; a master’s degree through a fellowship in the graduate program in English literature at Yale University in 1978; and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1982, the release stated.

Wippman is a recognized authority in international law, the school added. He has taught public international law, international criminal law, international human rights and ethnic conflict, and is “often called on to provide expert commentary,” Hamilton College said. 

Throughout his career, he has traveled to areas dealing with conflict, including Nicaragua, the Philippines, Liberia, Kosovo, and Sierra Leone.

Former Vice President of the United States Walter Mondale, a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, knows Wippman well, according to Hamilton College.

“As an expert in international law, David Wippman is an inspired choice to lead a college named for Alexander Hamilton and that counts among its distinguished alumni the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize winner Elihu Root, Civil Rights leader Bob Moses and former U.S. ambassadors Sol Linowitz, Bill Luers and Ned Walker,” Mondale said in the news release. “I commend Hamilton College and its trustees for choosing as its next leader someone who personifies the democratic values that Hamilton seeks to instill in its graduates.”