Four new members have been elected to the Board of Trustees, and each will serve a four year term. The new trustees, Fran Bermanzohn ’78, Bram Shapiro, Cynthia Berenson and Jayne Beker joined the board on Wednesday, Sept. 26 according to a BrandeisNOW article.
Bermanzohn was the Deputy General Counsel of Goldman Sachs prior to her retirement. In the company, she was a part of various committees across the firm, including the Capital Committee (which oversaw different global underwriting commitments of the company), the Investment Policy Committee (which supervised the balance sheet investments) and the Partnership Committee (which worked towards stronger leadership development and partner selection).
Bermanzohn, who was a Brandeis Trustee from 2011 to 2014, was also the senior vice president and general counsel of Public Securities Association, a trade association that represents firms in the global fixed-income market, before going to Goldman Sachs in 1992. She has worked at various law firms, while specializing in structured credit transactions.
Along with Brandeis, Bermanzohn is also on the Board of Trustees at Brooklyn Academy of Music and DreamYard.
Shapiro is a corporate partner at Mintz Levin law firm in Boston. He focuses on mergers and acquisitions with his clients. Outside of the office, Shapiro is also a member of the Board of Overseers of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and previously served as a Board member for Jewish Vocational Service, a Trustee at the Rashi School and a Trustee at Temple Israel of Boston.
Shapiro‘s grandfather, Abraham Shapiro, was one of the founding Brandeis Trustees in the 1940s. His father, Robert Shapiro ’52, was not only a member of the first graduating class at Brandeis, but also a Brandeis Trustee, who oversaw the construction of the Abraham Shapiro Academic Complex.
Shapiro’s mother, Valya Shapiro ’61, was a Wien International Scholar during her scholarship at Brandeis, is currently a University Fellow and a member of the National Board for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. The Robert and Valya Shapiro Fund for Eastern European and Sephardic Jewish Studies is named after Shapiro’s parents.
Berenson is a board member for the Women’s Studies Research Center, Women and Gender Studies Program and the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. She is a nationally-recognized philanthropist who has been involved with Brandeis as a University Fellow since 2000.
Theodore Berenson, Berenson’s husband, is also a University and the two of them together co-launched the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Her family also created the Allen/Berenson Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Women’s Studies at Brandeis and the Cynthia L. and Theodore S. Berenson Chair of Fine Arts along with establishing the Director’s Office in the Women’s Studies Research Center in 1995.
Beker P’99, P’04, P’15 is a University Fellow who has, along with her family, supported numerous Brandeis programs, which include the Parents Fund, Hillel and various university scholarships.
Along with her husband, Harvey Beker, Beker created The Beker Foundation in 1983 to support different philanthropic interests and acts as the director of the foundation.
Beker was a Consulting Psychologist for the Family Center at Bank Street College of Education for 20 years as well as a wellness coach, certified in the psychology of eating and mind/body nutrition, according to a BrandeisNOW article.
