chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg
Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and wife Dr. Nikki Nordenberg
Mark A. Nordenberg
Chancellor of the University and Distinguished Service Professor of Law
Mark A. Nordenberg joined the faculty of Pitt’s School of Law in 1977, where he quickly built a reputation as an outstanding teacher. He was the initial recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award now presented annually by the Law School’s graduating class. He also was one of the first faculty members to receive the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, which recognizes teaching excellence university-wide. His area of academic specialty is civil litigation, and he has served as a member of both the U.S. Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Civil Procedural Rules Committee. Earlier in his career, Chancellor Nordenberg served as Dean of the School of Law and Interim Provost of the University. He has long been an active leader in the broader community, leading efforts focused on such key issues as the proposed consolidation of the city and county governments, the challenges facing the state’s urban schools, the work force development needs of the region, and issues of governance in the city’s public schools. He served as the founding chair or co-chair of such technology-driven economic development initiatives as the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, the Robotics Foundry, and the Technology Collaborative. He also is a member of the board of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and a Director of Bank of New York Mellon. Among many other forms of recognition, Chancellor Nordenberg has been named Pittsburgh’s Person of the Year by both Vector’s Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh magazine. To celebrate the remarkable progress achieved during his first decade as Chancellor, University trustees, alumni leaders and other special friends contributed $2.5 million to endow a faculty chair in his name. This past year, he was named a History Maker in Education by the Senator John Heinz History Center. This past year also was Mark Nordenberg’s 14th year of service as Chancellor. It was a year of great challenge, as the talented and committed people of Pitt worked to maintain the University’s extraordinary momentum in the face of the unrelenting financial pressures brought by what now has been called the Great Recession. According to Chancellor Nordenberg, some of our greatest satisfactions ultimately will come from knowing that, even in the face of historic challenges, we continued to craft a record of excellence in an institution that is contributing so much to the common good as a leader in education, a pioneer in research and a partner in regional development. In the face of serious pressures to many of its revenue streams including those associated with the steep decline in the stock market and significant mid-year cuts to its state appropriation the University implemented a series of fiscally prudent steps. These included budget cuts to both academic and support units, the implementation of centralized controls over all new and replacement hiring, a deliberate slowing of the pace of construction projects on all five campuses, and the imposition of an institution-wide salary freeze. According to Chancellor Nordenberg, what distinguishes Pitt from many other organizations engaged in their own budgetary struggles is that demand for the principal products of the University the highest quality higher education and cutting-edge research has not diminished as a result of the recession but continues to grow. And during the past year, well informed observers, both at a distance and close to home, publicly advanced what has long been one of the Chancellor’s main messages that Pitt’s progress is essential to the economic health and social vitality of the entire region.
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