Mark A. Nordenberg has held many key leadership positions during his career at the University of Pittsburgh, including dean of the School of Law and chancellor of the University. During his nearly two decades of service as chancellor, Pitt achieved dramatically higher levels of quality and impact on virtually every front, and the higher education and healthcare sector played a critical role in the rebirth of the regional economy. He currently serves as chair of Pitt’s Institute of Politics and director of its Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law & Public Policy and holds the title of chancellor emeritus and the special faculty rank of Distinguished Service Professor of Law.
For nearly 40 years, Pitt’s Institute of Politics has provided a neutral, nonpartisan forum for the development of policies that benefit the people of Western Pennsylvania. Among many other projects, Nordenberg has served as cochair, with former U.S. Attorney Frederick Thieman, of a decade-long initiative designed to reduce both the population of the Allegheny County Jail and racial disparities throughout Allegheny County’s criminal justice system. In directing the Thornburgh Forum, he has shaped an array of impactful programs focused on good governance and preserving democracy.
Nordenberg has received many honors, including recognition as a History Maker by the Senator John Heinz History Center and, with the late Carnegie Mellon University President Jared Cohon, as Pittsburghers of the Year by Pittsburgh magazine. He also received the Elsie Hilliard Hillman Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Public Service and the Lifetime Achievement in Governance Award from the National Association of Corporate Directors Three Rivers Chapter in recognition of his long board service at The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, the BNY Mellon Foundation of Southwestern Pennsylvania, Manchester Bidwell Corporation, Pitt, Thiel College, and UPMC and his work as founding cochair, with Cohon, of the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, and Pittsburgh Robotics Foundry, all technology-based economic development initiatives.
To honor his many accomplishments, Pitt trustees, alumni leaders, and other donors personally endowed both a professorship and an undergraduate scholarship program in his name. Pitt’s newest residence hall also was named for him. Pitt’s University Senate and Staff Council dedicated two marble benches to honor Nordenberg and his wife, Nikki Pirillo Nordenberg, PhD, for their contributions to the University. The Pitt Alumni Association named him a Distinguished Alumni Fellow, Pitt students named a social space in the William Pitt Student Union in his honor, and he was named both an honorary letter-winner and an honorary letter-winner of distinction by Pitt’s Department of Athletics.
Following the 2020 Census, Nordenberg was named chair of Pennsylvania’s Legislative Reapportionment Commission by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The commission produced a plan that was responsive to significant population and demographic shifts and was adopted by a bipartisan commission vote, unanimously upheld by the state Supreme Court, and widely praised by good government groups.
Nordenberg served on the special independent committee created by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh to fairly disburse more than $6 million of undesignated donations made to its online Fund for Victims of Terror following the deadly 2018 attack at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue. He and Cohon worked together to lay the foundation for the creation of the Collaboratory Against Hate, a joint research initiative of Carnegie Mellon and Pitt. He is the founding cochair, with Laura Ellsworth, of the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, recognized as the most comprehensive anti-hate initiative in the world.
For this work, Nordenberg and Ellsworth were awarded the 2024 Pursuer of Peace Award by the Rodef Shalom Congregation and were among the 2023 Righteous Among the Neighbors honored by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and the LIGHT Education Initiative. For their broader public service contributions, in 2025, Nordenberg and Ellsworth were named the inaugural recipients of Jim Roddey Leadership Awards. In that same year, Nordenberg was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, which was founded in 1780 to honor excellence and convene leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas and address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and was honored as an inaugural community champion by The Hear Foundation, which was founded in Pittsburgh to create a safe and thriving community for all.
Nordenberg is a graduate of North Allegheny Senior High School, Thiel College, and the University of Wisconsin Law School. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Carnegie Mellon, the Community College of Allegheny County, Duquesne University, La Roche University, Thiel, and Pitt. He and his wife have been married for 55 years, and they have three adult children and four wonderful grandsons.
