PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — At its Commencement week meeting from May 25 to May 27, the Corporation of Brown University authorized architect selection for a new Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs building and for the renovation of Wilson Hall, elected new members to its Board of Trustees and Board of Fellows, and officially accepted gifts in support of the BrownTogether campaign, which to date has raised $1.06 billion toward its comprehensive goal of $3 billion.

The Corporation also named 23 faculty members to endowed chairs and approved recommendations to establish a certificate program in clinical and translational research, an executive master’s degree in science and technology leadership, and a master’s degree in data science.

As Brown University’s governing body, the Corporation comprises a 12-member Board of Fellows and a 42-member Board of Trustees. The University’s Charter of 1764 reserves certain powers, including the actual awarding of Brown degrees, for the Board of Fellows. At its meeting this week, the Board of Fellows approved the awarding of more than 2,550 degrees for the University’s 248th Commencement on Sunday, May 29, 2016.

During the week, members of the Corporation engaged in informal discussion groups with students on topics including the student work experience at Brown and diversity in the curriculum.

Campus planning

In authorizing architect selection, the Corporation paved the way for the expansion of the Watson Institute announced last fall and funded by a generous group of donors. The new space will allow for the continued growth of the institute, including the addition of new faculty members and research and teaching initiatives.

The renovation of Brown’s historic Wilson Hall, which also will move forward with planning given the approval of architect selection, will make this centrally located classroom building fully accessible. The Corporation’s Committee on Budget & Finance also authorized architect selection for the renovation of locker room and training facilities in the Olney Margolies Athletic Center.

Election of fellows and trustees

Jerome C. Vascellaro, a 1974 graduate and current vice chancellor, and Brian T. Moynihan, a 1981 graduate and current trustee, were elected to the Board of Fellows. Current fellows Theresia Gouw, a 1990 graduate, and Samuel M. Mencoff, a 1978 graduate, were elected to the Board of Trustees due to their election in February as treasurer and chancellor, respectively, of the Corporation, effective July 1, 2016.

These new trustees were elected by the Corporation at its May 27 business meeting:

• John Ehrenkranz, a 1987 Brown graduate who concentrated in business economics and a current member of the the President’s Leadership Council at Brown, is the chief investment officer of Ehrenkranz Partners, a wealth management firm based in New York City. Previously, he served as managing director at Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, the independent private equity investment group of Morgan Stanley. Ehrenkranz serves as treasurer of the board of New York Cares and a board member for the New York Genome Center, the Hospital for Special Surgery and the Abaarso School. He earned an M.B.A. in 1991 from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
   
• Charles Giancarlo, a 1979 Brown graduate and a Brown parent, served as a trustee from 2008 to 2014. He is an entrepreneur, investor and Fortune 50 senior executive with more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor, communications and networking industries. He is currently the chair of the Engineering Development Committee at Brown, and his service to the University has included roles as a member and former chair of the Advisory Council on Engineering, co-chair of 30^th Reunion Gift Committee, member of the Engineering 150^th Anniversary Campaign Committee, BRUnet volunteer, and vice chair of Brown’s previous Boldly Brown fundraising campaign. In 2002, he was awarded the Brown Engineering Alumni Medal. In addition to his electrical engineering degree from Brown, Giancarlo earned a master’s in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
   
• Pamela Reeves, a 1987 Brown graduate who concentrated in international relations, advises international organizations, foundations and companies on building public-private partnerships and developing gender strategies to achieve both business and public purpose results. She is the senior advisor for gender strategy to the executive office of Melinda Gates and the former director of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s International Fund for Women and Girls at the U.S. Department of State. Reeves has advised the Nike Foundation and the United Nations Foundation’s Data 2x program and served as the U.N.’s human rights officer in Liberia during that country’s civil war. She holds board appointments at Women for Women International, the Kakenya Center for Excellence in Kenya, Georgetown Day School and ONE.org. At Brown, Reeves is a member of the President’s Leadership Council and served recently as a senior fellow at the Watson Institute. A frequent speaker at the Aspen Institute, she holds a master’s in international relations from Yale University.
   
• Mya Roberson is a 2016 Brown graduate who will serve as a young alumna trustee. In Fall 2016, she will begin graduate studies in the master of science in public health to doctor of philosophy (MSPH-Ph.D.) program in cancer epidemiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She is interested in the intersection of scientific research and public service and hopes to use her passion for cancer research and interest in health care systems to better the health of black women and train the next generation of scientists. A public health concentrator at Brown, Roberson was involved with First-Gens@Brown, Women in Science and Engineering, the Meiklejohn program, Quest Scholars at Brown, the Curricular Resource Center and CareerLAB. She received a Brown Royce Fellowship, national Truman Scholarship, Jin Prize and American Association for Cancer Research Thomas J. Bardos Science Education Award. 
   
• Zachary Schreiber, a 1995 Brown graduate who concentrated in international relations, is chairman, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of PointState Capital. In addition, he is responsible for portfolio management of investments across a wide variety of asset classes and sectors, including energy, commodities, currencies, equities, credit and rates. Prior to co-founding PointState in 2011, Schreiber was managing director and portfolio manager at Duquesne Capital. Previously, he was a senior analyst at SILCAP/Bass Brothers Trading from 1996 through 2002. Schreiber serves on the boards for the Dalton School, the Harlem Children’s Zone, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. At Brown, Schreiber is a member of the Investment Committee and President’s Leadership Council. As an undergraduate, he played on the varsity lacrosse team, which he continues actively support.
   
• Matthew Sirovich, a 1987 Brown graduate, is co-founder and managing partner of Scopia Capital Management LP, a fundamentals-based, value-oriented investment management firm. Before founding Scopia in 2001, he was a managing director at DLJ Merchant Banking, where he executed and monitored investments across a wide range of industries. From 1989 to 1990, Sirovich served as the financial manager for a camera manufacturing firm in Hong Kong. He began his career as an analyst at Drexel Burnham Lambert. At Brown, he a member of the Investment Committee and the President’s Leadership Council. He also serves on the boards for BRC, which provides services to homeless individuals in New York City, and Shining Hope for Communities, which combats gender inequality and poverty in Kenya. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Members of the Board of Trustees customarily serve six-year terms, with young alumni trustees serving for three years. Fourteen of the 42 trustees are nominated by the Brown Alumni Association; the remaining 28, including young alumni trustees, are nominated by the Corporation’s Committee on Trustee Vacancies. Brown student representatives — undergraduate, graduate and medical — participated in a campus process that helped identify recent graduates for consideration for the position of young alumni trustee and for other positions of University service. All trustees are elected to office by the Corporation and are formally engaged in October at the first Corporation meeting of the academic year.

Acceptance of gifts

The Corporation discussed progress on the BrownTogether campaign, which was formally launched in October 2015 and to date has raised $1.06 billion toward the comprehensive goal of $3 billion. University policy requires that the Corporation formally accept gifts of $1 million or more. At its business meeting, the Corporation accepted a number of gifts toward the $3 billion goal, including those listed here, along with others that will be announced publicly in the coming weeks.

• From Brown parents Elie Hirschfeld, a 1971 graduate, and Sarah S. Hirschfeld, a gift of $3.5 million to support renovations and maintenance at 163 George Street;
• From anonymous donors, a gift of $2.5 million to establish the Wealth and Income Inequality Project within the Department of Economics;
• From John G. Berylson, a 1975 graduate, a gift of $2.6 million to support the football locker room renovation project and to establish the John G. Berylson ’75 and John Heisman Football Prize;
• From anonymous donors, a gift of $2 million to support the baseball field project and the baseball program;
• From an anonymous alumnus from London, a gift of $1.5 million to endow a post-doctoral fellowship within the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs;
• From anonymous alumni of the Class of 1993, a gift of $1.25 million to support the Brown Annual Fund and other priorities pending donor designation;
• From Michael P. Esposito III, a 1986 graduate, a gift of $1 million to establish the Michael P. Esposito III ’86 Endowed Scholarship Fund and to support the Brown Annual Fund;
• From anonymous international parents, a gift of $1 million to support the Brown Annual Fund and other priorities pending donor designation.

The Corporation also approved the naming of 163 George St. as the Elie Hirschfeld House in honor and recognition of the 1971 graduate’s support of the Judaic Studies program and its faculty, students and scholarship.

Professorships

The Corporation appointed 23 faculty members to named professorships:

• Edward Akelman, Vincent Zecchino, M.D. Professor of Orthopaedics;
• Mary Fennell, C.V. Starr Professor of Commerce, Organizations and Entrepreneurship;
• Philip Gould, Israel J. Kapstein Professor of English;
• Yannis Hamilakis, Joukowsky Family Professor of Archaeology and Professor of Modern Greek Studies;
• Maurice Herlihy, An Wang Professor of Computer Science;
• Sharon Krause, Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence and Professor of Political Science;
• Andrew Laird, John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics and Humanities;
• Nitin Padture, Otis Everett Randall University Professor of Engineering;
• Eric Patashnik, Julis-Rabinowitz Professor of Public Policy;
• Amy Remensnyder, Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence and Professor of History;
• Patricia Rose, Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies;
• Shouheng Sun, Vernon K. Krieble Professor of Chemistry;
• Eliezer Upfal, Rush C. Hawkins Professor of Computer Science;
• Akilah Dulin Keita, Manning Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences;
• James Kellner, Peggy and Henry D. Sharpe Jr. Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies;
• Stephen Kidd, Robert Gale Noyes Assistant Professor of Classics;
• Brandon Marshall, Manning Assistant Professor of Epidemiology;
• Monica Muñoz Martinez, Stanley J. Bernstein Assistant Professor of American Studies;
• Kristina Mendicino, Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Humanities;
• Sreemati Mitter, Kutayba Alghanim Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern History and International and Public Affairs;
• Nicola Neretti, Vartan Gregorian Assistant Professor of Biology;
• Jayanti Owens, Mary Tefft and John Hazen White Sr. Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs and Sociology;
• Bryce Steinberg, Stephen Robert Assistant Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs.

The Corporation will hold its next regular meeting in October.