Leslie Cohen Berlowitz
Doctor of Humane Letters
As president and William T. Golden Chair of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, Leslie Cohen Berlowitz has helped advance major
initiatives on such issues as energy policy, the federal funding of science and
technology research, the independence of the judiciary, and new norms for
business practices.
Ms. Berlowitz was named president of the academy in 2010, having served as its chief executive officer since 1996. Recently, she oversaw the organization’s most successful fundraising effort to date.
Earlier this year, in response to a request from the U.S. Congress, Ms. Berlowitz announced the creation of the academy’s Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. The commission will recommend specific steps that government, schools and universities, cultural institutions, businesses, and philanthropies can take to bolster teaching and research in the humanities and the social sciences, fields that are critical to culture, education, and America’s economic competitiveness.
A national leader on humanities policy, Ms. Berlowitz led the creation of the academy’s Initiative for Humanities and Culture and its widely cited Humanities Indicators, the first-ever comprehensive source of data on the state of humanities education in the United States.
Before joining the academy, she served as a vice president at New York University, where she was responsible for policy formulation, academic planning, and major new institutional initiatives.
Ms. Berlowitz is a published author and the coeditor of numerous books. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy in 2004.
She was educated at New York University and Columbia University.