THE UNIVERSITY
2013-14 PITT BASKETBALL
LEFT: Current Arizona Cardinals football player/former Pitt great Larry Fitzgerald and Chancellor Nordenberg with his wife Nikki prior to a Pitt basketball game. BELOW CENTER: Chancellor Nordenberg speaks at graduation. LOWER LEFT-PAGE 204: Chancellor Nordenberg and Jamie Dixon spent a women’s basketball game cheering in the Oakland Zoo.
Chancellor Nordenberg has received many important forms of recognition. In recent years, he has been named Pittsburgh’s Person of the Year by Pittsburgh Magazine and a History Maker in education by the Senator John Heinz History Center. He also was awarded the Homer S. Brown Law Association’s Spirit Award, Community College of Allegheny County’s Legend in Leadership award, the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Committee’s Community Impact award, and the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership’s Exemplary Leader award. He is a past Chair of both the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education and the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Universities and is a member of the executive committee of the Association of American Universities. Reflecting his role as a regional leader in higher education, he has been awarded honorary degrees by Carnegie Mellon University, the Community College of Allegheny County, LaRoche College and Thiel College. To celebrate the remarkable progress achieved during his first decade as Chancellor, University Trustees, alumni leaders and special friends contributed $2.5 million to endow a faculty chair in his name. At the time of that announcement, the late Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy, then the Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, stated: “This endowed chair indicates the extraordinary esteem in which we hold Mark Nordenberg, not only as an individual and a leader who has brought the University to an unprecedented level of success and achievement but also as a true academic at heart.” Eight years later, in October 2012, Chancellor Nordenberg was again honored when the Board announced the naming of the Mark A. Nordenberg residence hall and the creation of the Mark A. Nordenberg Scholarship Fund. At the time that announcement, Trustees and other friends of the University had contributed more than $5 million to create an endowment to support the scholarship program, which will aid the University’s efforts to recruit, enroll, retain, and graduate highly motivated and academically superior undergraduate students, who will be known as Nordenberg Scholars. That announcement came as Pitt celebrated its success in raising more than $2 billion through its historic capital campaign. In 1995, Pitt attracted less than $40 million in private philanthropy. The University raised more than $100 million in cash received per year for eight straight years, including the years of the Great Recession. Through generous gifts received from more than 188,000 donors, the University was able to create more than 1,500 new
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endowments, including more than 600 for student scholarships and fellowships and nearly 150 for new faculty chairs and professorships. During his time in office, Chancellor Nordenberg has been very active in civic affairs. He served as co-chair of a special legislative commission charged with studying the problems facing Pennsylvania’s urban schools, chaired a working group that developed an action plan for regional workforce development, chaired a record-setting United Way campaign, chaired a committee that examined issues of leadership and governance in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, and chaired a citizen’s committee examining the efficiency and effectiveness of City and County government. He also served as cochair of Governor Corbett’s education transition team and as a member of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Postsecondary Higher Education. In addition, he is a director and executive committee member of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and of UPMC, is a director of Bank of New York Mellon, and serves as Great Britain’s Honorary Consul for the Pittsburgh region. Chancellor Nordenberg is a strong supporter of Pitt athletics and has long recognized that a vibrant athletic program not only serves as a unifying force within the University but provides a critical link to the broader community. Among noteworthy forms of athletic progress made during Chancellor Nordenberg tenure have been the move of football games to Heinz Field and the construction of the Petersen Events Center, Duratz Athletic Complex, and Petersen Sports Complex. The combination of those top-flight facilities, strong coaching and the University’s move to the Atlantic Coast Conference should ensure the strength and vitality of Pitt’s athletic programs for years to come. Chancellor Nordenberg recognizes that success in competition is just one measure of a program’s worth. Pitt student-athletes also are a source of pride because of the way that they represent our University, contribute to the broader community through public service initiatives, and are strong academic achievers. This past spring, 350 student athletes were honored for achieving a grade-point average of at least 3.0. Chancellor Nordenberg has been married to Dr. Nikki Pirillo Nordenberg, who earned her PhD from Pitt, for more than 42 years. The Nordenbergs are parents to three adult children and are grandparents to three young grandsons. The Chancellor is an honors graduate of North Allegheny High School, Thiel College and the University of Wisconsin Law School.