Brandeis announces keynote speakers, honorary degree recipients for 75th Commencement exercises
Sheryl Sandberg, entrepreneur, author and former Meta COO; Isabel Wilkerson, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author, to address graduates
February 12, 2026
Entrepreneur, author, philanthropist and former tech executive Sheryl Sandberg, and best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson will be the honored speakers at Brandeis’ 75th Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 17.
Sandberg, who will deliver the Undergraduate Commencement address, is the former chief operating officer of Meta, and founder of the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation, which works to build a more equal and resilient world through three initiatives: Lean In, Option B, and the Dave Goldberg Scholarship Program. She is also the co-founder of Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners (SBVP), an early early-stage venture investing in consumer, enterprise, climate, and health care technology. Most recently she led the 2024 documentary film “Screams Before Silence,” which documented sexual violence perpetrated during the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, and she is the best-selling author of three books including “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.”
Wilkerson will deliver the Graduate Commencement address. Heralded as one of the most important narrative nonfiction writers of our time, she is the author of two critically acclaimed books: the award-winning “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” (2010), and “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” (2020), named by Time magazine as the No. 1 Nonfiction Book of the Year. Wilkerson is the first Black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism and the first Black journalist to win for individual reporting. She has also taught at Princeton, Emory and Boston Universities.
The university will award honorary degrees to both Sandberg and Wilkerson, and to four additional recipients:
- Former Massachusetts Institute of Technology president and higher education leader L. Rafael Reif;
- Philanthropist and former executive Toshizo Watanabe ’73;
- Attorney, philanthropist and former Brandeis trustee and chair, Meyer Koplow ’72, P’02, P’05;
- Private consultant and former Brandeis trustee and chair, Larry Kanarek ’76.
Reif, who served as MIT’s 17th president from 2012-22, was a driving force behind the creation of the MITx and edX programs, oversaw the creation of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, and established the MIT Quest for Intelligence, an initiative that probes the boundary between natural and machine intelligence. An accomplished engineer, he is inventor or co-inventor of 15 patents, has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1980 and is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Watanabe, philanthropist and former president and CEO of Nikken Global, has implemented and funded many scholarship programs at universities in Japan and across the U.S, including at Brandeis, to support Japanese students' ability to study in the United States. As a Brandeis undergraduate student, he was a Wien International Scholar, which supported completion of his undergraduate degree. He was the recipient of the Brandeis 2019 Alumni Achievement Award.
Koplow, counsel in the litigation practice at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York City, is a former Brandeis trustee from 2006-21 and chair for four years, and was the principal negotiator of the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Koplow also played a key role in major class-action asbestos and disabled-persons settlements and in resolving claims against mortgage lenders after the 2008-09 financial crisis. He also is a board member for Our Generation Speaks, a program housed at the Heller School that brings 30 Israeli and Palestinian fellows together annually.
Kanarek, a member of McKinsey & Co. for 34 years, served as a senior partner for 23 of them. He helped in the management of Fortune 100 companies as they developed innovative strategies to restructure to boost corporate focus, customer satisfaction, product innovation, employment growth and investor returns. A member of the firm’s internal board of directors for 18 years, he also served as its first Chief Risk Officer. Following retirement he has continued consulting work on a pro bono basis in the education field.
“We are thrilled to honor these six individuals for their outstanding contributions to society and the world,” said President Arthur Levine. “Their work is inspiring to all of us. And, we celebrate each one of them, and their accomplishments, as part of our 75th Commencement ceremony.”
The undergraduate ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. The graduate ceremony, also at Gosman, will be held at 3 p.m.
