Date: Nov 01, 2011

Board of Trustees Elects Officers for 2011

Hofstra Law alum Janis M. Meyer tapped as new chairwoman

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY –  Hofstra University’s Board of Trustees has elected a new slate of officers, including law school alumna Janis M. Meyer as its new chair.

The trustees also tapped Peter Schiff, founder and president of Northwood Ventures LLC, and James Quinn, ’74, president and vice chairman of Tiffany & Co., as vice-chairs. Alumnus David S. Mack, senior partner in the real estate development firm The Mack Company, is the board’s new secretary.

Meyer, a partner and general counsel at the international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, previously served as the board’s vice chair. She has served the University as a member of the board of trustees, which she joined in 1993,  and teaching as a special professor of law.  She has also generously endowed a scholarship at the law school in the name of her late father, Raymond J. McKee.

She succeeds Marilyn Monter, also a law school alumna, as chair.

“Janis Meyer has been an enthusiastic advocate and longtime supporter of Hofstra – as an alumna, an adjunct faculty member and a member of our board of trustees for nearly 20 years,” said President Stuart Rabinowitz.

“Her wisdom, creativity and insight have helped this University become the world-class institution it is today,” Rabinowitz said, “and her guidance will be invaluable as we move forward with the launch of a new School of Engineering and Applied Science, and welcome our next classes of medical students to the new school of medicine.”

Said Meyer: “Hofstra has been an important part of my life since I started law school more years ago than I would like to remember. Being elected Chair is an honor I could never have dreamed of, and I look forward to working with the Board, the new officers, and President Rabinowitz and all of his wonderful staff  as we continue on Hofstra’s path of excellence.”

Vice Chairman Schiff has been a member of the Community Foundation of Oyster Bay and the Belmont Childcare Association, and has supported the Wildlife Conservation Society and North Shore-LIJ Health System. Vice Chairman Quinn, a Hofstra Alumni Achievement Award honoree in 2011, serves on the advisory committee for the Business Council of the United Nations, and is a trustee of the Museum of the City of New York and the Montclair (N.J.) Art Museum.

Trustee Mack serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations including the UJA of Greater New York, Long Island, North Shore-LIJ Health System, and Pratt Institute. In recognition of his support of Hofstra, the university arena was renamed in his honor in 2006. In addition, the University Club, the Student Center, the Physical Education Building and the Public Safety and Information Center bear his name. Last month, the University announced it had been chosen to host a second presidential debate in 2012 and that Trustee Mack had made a commitment to help underwrite the cost the event.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from about 145 undergraduate and 155 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied human services, and honors studies, as well as a School of Law and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 22 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis. Hofstra offers a faculty whose highest priority is teaching excellence.

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