Brandeis Magazine

Flora Cassen, GSAS MA’01, has been named the inaugural Lavine Family Director at the Brandeis Center for Jewish Studies and the director of the Sarnat Center for the Study of Anti-Jewishness. She also holds a faculty appointment in the Near Eastern and Judaic studies department, has an affiliation with the history department and serves on the provost’s leadership team. A native of Antwerp, Belgium, Cassen will help advance Jewish studies and strengthen Jewish intellectual and communal life on campus.

Lewis Brooks ’80, P’16, has been appointed the founding director of the university’s Center for Careers and Applied Liberal Arts, partnering with the Hiatt Career Center and the School of Business and Economics’ Career Strategies and Engagement Center to develop an integrated career-education and advising program. Brooks, who was a longtime advertising executive, also served as a Brandeis trustee.

Anna Scherbina, associate professor of finance at Brandeis, is the inaugural Janet L. Yellen Distinguished Chair in Business, a position endowed through a gift from Barbara Clarke, GSAS MA’91. Yellen, a former U.S. Treasury secretary and Federal Reserve chair, received the business school’s Dean’s Medal in 2019.

Brandeis trustee David Harris, P’05, H’22, is the author of “Antisemitism: What Everyone Needs To Know,” published by Oxford University Press in November 2025. Harris, now executive vice chair at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, led the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy organization dedicated to enhancing the well-being of the Jewish community worldwide, for more than 30 years.

Brandeis’ 2025 Creative Arts Award was presented to playwright/choreographer Larissa FastHorse at a ceremony in November. FastHorse, a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. She co-founded Indigenous Direction, a leading U.S. consulting firm for Indigenous arts and audiences. In conjunction with the award, the Brandeis theater department staged FastHorse’s satirical comedy “The Thanksgiving Play.”

In the Princeton Review’s 2026 Best Colleges rankings, released last August, Brandeis University was listed as one of the top-20 schools for community service and making an impact. The rankings are based on data from 170,000 students, covering dozens of topics at the 391 schools on the Best Colleges list.

Annie Campbell has been named head coach of Brandeis’ first varsity women’s lacrosse team, which begins competition in spring 2027. Women’s lacrosse will be the Judges’ 20th varsity sport and the first new varsity sport since 1980. As head coach of lacrosse at her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, Campbell expanded the team’s roster by more than 60% over two seasons.

Cultural anthropologist Ieva Jusionyte, GSAS MA’07, PhD’12, has been recognized as a 2025 MacArthur Fellow. Awarded to individuals who demonstrate exceptional creativity and promise in the arts and sciences, the fellowship includes an $800,000 “genius” grant. Jusionyte is the Watson Family University Professor of International Security and Anthropology at Brown University, where she directs the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies.

Michaela Sliney is the new diving coach for the Brandeis swimming and diving team. A Bradford, Massachusetts, native, Sliney graduated in 2020 from the University of Louisville, where she captained the diving team during her senior year, and was named to both the All-ACC Academic Team and the ACC Academic Honor Roll.