Biography of Arthur Levine
Arthur Levine
Photo Credit: Dan Holmes
Arthur Levine ’70 is Interim President of Brandeis University.
A 1970 Brandeis graduate, Levine has dedicated his career to advancing higher education and building institutions so that they might fulfill their mission and benefit society. As a leader and researcher, he is a nationally sought expert on addressing the challenges facing colleges and universities.
Levine has a history of being a transformational leader.
Serving as President of Teachers College, Columbia University, from 1994 to 2006, Levine reoriented the school’s mission with a focus on closing the equity gap in American education and launched what became the Center for Educational Equity. He oversaw the largest and most successful capital campaign conducted by a school of education to date, as well as significant investments in the campus, a reorganization of the academic departments, and faculty growth.
As President of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (now the Institute for Citizens & Scholars) from 2006 to 2019, Levine greatly expanded the organization’s reach and impact. Under his leadership, the Foundation launched a fellowship program that collaborated with 31 universities in six states to recruit and prepare STEM teachers for careers in high-need schools.
He previously served as President of Bradford College in Massachusetts and chaired the Higher Education Graduate Program and the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
In addition to his leadership roles, Levine is a nationally respected education researcher. His groundbreaking examinations of preparation programs for teachers, principals, and superintendents sparked a re-evaluation of how educators should be trained and supported.
He has authored 13 books, most recently co-authoring “The Great Upheaval: Higher Education’s Past, Present, and Uncertain Future” with Scott Van Pelt. He has been featured in scores of outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Politico, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Education.
Levine earned his PhD in sociology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Among other honors, Levine has been named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and been awarded fellowships by the Carnegie, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Rockefeller Foundations. He has received honorary doctorate degrees from 26 universities.
