Susan Herbst is an American political scientist and academic administrator who served as the 15th president of the University of Connecticut.

She also worked closely with the system's Board of Regents on all aspects of finance and higher education policy for the state.

[3] Herbst has authored many scholarly journal articles and monographs, including her most recent book, A Troubled Birth: The 1930s and American Public Opinion (University of Chicago Press, November, 2021).

A previous work, Rude Democracy: Civility and Incivility in American Politics (Temple University Press), was released in September 2010.

Page, Lawrence R. Jacobs and James N. Druckman, she edits the University of Chicago's Chicago Studies in American Politics On May 21, 2018, Herbst announced that she would step down from her role as president when her contract expired on July 1, 2019, but would remain on the faculty, teaching political science at the Stamford campus.