Honoring GSV 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient Arthur Levine

We’re proud to present the 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award to Arthur Levine—President, Brandeis University; Former President of the Teachers College, Columbia University—honoring his lifelong commitment to revolutionizing learning so that ALL people can flourish.

As President of Brandeis University, Arthur Levine is championing a new academic model that fuses practical skills with traditional theoretical learning in four new academic schools—as well as establishing a competency-based secondary transcript to showcase students’ abilities to future employers. With strong faculty and student support, Levine’s remarkable work as interim president earned him a full-time appointment to continue this historic transformation.

“Arthur is an avid student of history and a deep thinker about what’s coming. He’s a smart, warm, and bold leader who’s able to convince his faculty to move with him, a famously difficult feat in elite schools. Finally, he’s a warrior, always willing to don the armor and take on one more campaign.”– John Katzman, Founder & CEO of Noodle

Previously, as President of the Teachers College at Columbia University, Levine reoriented the school’s mission with a focus on closing the equity gap, launching what became the Center for Educational Equity. He also spent 13 years expanding the reach and impact of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, including collaborating with 31 universities to recruit and prepare STEM teachers for high-need schools. A nationally respected researcher, Levine’s groundbreaking examinations of preparation programs for K-12 educators and administrators have sparked a re-evaluation of training and support.