Leadership Transitions
Dec. 23, 2024
To the Brandeis Community,
As the semester winds down and we look ahead to the new year, I am writing to share some important updates to Brandeis’ leadership team. We are fortunate to have many talented leaders at this institution and these changes are designed to provide a seamless transition into 2025.
I would first like to thank Steve Locke, who has been at the university for more than 19 years, and who has served as the General Counsel for the past 11. He is the longest serving General Counsel in university history, overseeing the university’s legal affairs and advising the Board of Trustees, the faculty, the leadership team, and me, on a wide variety of legal matters. He also managed all other matters, including litigation that are handled by outside counsel. Steve is retiring from his post in April 2025. During his tenure, he has served as a steady hand, advising and guiding the university through challenges large and small. I am grateful for Steve’s extraordinary work.
I am very pleased to announce that upon Steve’s retirement, Meredith Ainbinder will assume the position of General Counsel and Senior Advisor to the President. Meredith has been Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the President since she joined Brandeis in 2022.
Meredith is a seasoned attorney who joined Brandeis after serving as Vice President and General Counsel at Emerson College. As the chief legal officer for the institution, she oversaw legal services provided to the college for its operations in Boston, Los Angeles, and the Netherlands. She dealt with all areas of law, including Title IX, FERPA, labor and employment, business arrangements, litigation, governance, accessibility, and intellectual property. Before her time at Emerson, she was Senior Litigation Counsel for Osram Sylvania, with responsibility for managing litigation for the company’s units in North and South America. Previously, she spent nine years at boutique intellectual property firm Sunstein (formerly Bromberg & Sunstein), where she was a partner in the litigation department.
A longtime fixture in the local legal community, Meredith was on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts for more than a decade, including serving a term as President of the organization. She has held a number of leadership positions in the Boston Bar Association and is involved in the National Association of College & University Attorneys.
I am delighted that Meredith has agreed to this important position, and on a personal note, I am grateful that she has agreed to continue to advise me, a role I have come to rely on her for. Beginning in January, Meredith will dedicate some of her time to work in the General Counsel's office to facilitate her transition.
Niles Sorensen, who has been our Interim SVP for Institutional Advancement since July, will be leaving Brandeis in early 2025. Niles is a seasoned advancement leader and has given me insightful advice on best practices and on how we might approach the next phase of our philanthropic efforts. I thank him for coming to New England and leaving his home in North Carolina to help Brandeis transition to its new Advancement leadership. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Niles and wish him well in his next endeavor.
Lastly, I am thrilled to share that in January we will welcome Jordan Tanenbaum ’72 as our next SVP of Institutional Advancement. Not only is Jordan a proud Brandeis alum, but he is also a seasoned advancement professional who most recently successfully led a more than $1 billion capital campaign at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington. I will share more details about Jordan and his experience as his arrival draws closer after the first of the year — until then you can learn about him and his work in this article published by Brandeis in 2022. I am confident that Jordan will lead Brandeis into a successful capital campaign and welcome him wholeheartedly.
These changes will help Brandeis’ move into what will be a very exciting and important year.
Please join me in congratulating our colleagues on these career milestones.
Sincerely,
Arthur Levine ’70
Interim President