Retiring Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg leaves lasting impact

After nearly 50 years at the University, Pitt Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg will retire on June 30.

Nordenberg will step down from his current positions as chair of the Institute of Politics and director of the Dick Thornburgh Forum for Law and Public Policy. Through his time at Pitt, Nordenberg started many core Pitt initiatives while forging positive mentor relationships with students.

Nordenberg joined Pitt in 1977 as a visiting assistant professor at the School of Law before rising to dean of the school in 1985, and eventually chancellor of the University in 1996. Nordenberg stepped down from the chancellorship in 2014 and began his work at the IOP and Dick Thornburgh Forum. 

Following Nordenberg’s retirement, Samantha Balbier, the current director of the IOP and Elsie Hillman Civic Forum, will continue to lead the IOP. Paul Supowitz, who retired from Pitt in 2024 as special assistant for strategic initiatives and worked 16 years as vice chancellor for community and government relations, will take over as director of the Dick Thornburgh Forum.

Nordenberg will also be the 2026 spring commencement speaker on May 3. 

Nordenberg said some of the initiatives he pushed forward as chancellor were the Outside the Classroom Curriculum with the help of current Carlow University President Kathy Humphrey, free public bus transportation and the PITT ARTS program. 

“Those things feed off of each other, and we began to attract stronger students, so the faculty got more excited about teaching,” Nordenberg said. “It was a lot of things happening at once, but when you look at the application trends, they seem to have worked.”

Nordenberg said that while he was chancellor of the University, his accomplishments included strengthening the academics and research capabilities of Pitt. 

“We made it a far more attractive institution for students and particularly for undergraduate students,” Nordenberg said. “We also rose dramatically within the ranks of American universities in terms of research strengths. Those things generated much stronger feelings of pride and institutional ambition, and that was important to me.”

Nordenberg plans to stay involved with the University into his retirement. He said he has been working on programs and speakers through the IOP and Dick Thornburgh Forum for next fall, which he will see through.

“I have the kind of relationships with both [Balbier] and [Supowitz] that they won’t hesitate to call on me, and I will help in any way that I can,” Nordenberg said. “We’ve already been putting programs in place for next fall, and I’ve been recruiting speakers and so it actually would be kind of inhospitable if I just walked away and didn’t help follow through on some of those things.”

Nordenberg also supports the Nordenberg Leadership Scholar Program through his engagement and connection with the students who are a part of the program. The four-year program awards Pennsylvania high school students who exhibited leadership with a full-tuition scholarship to Pitt. 

Claire Tierney, a senior economic and political science major and recipient of the scholarship, said she believes her relationship with Nordenberg shows his commitment and care for Pitt students. 

“His consistent presence with the Nordenberg scholars by interacting directly with us just shows how much he cares about the university as a whole,” Tiernay said. “He wants to reach all students across all disciplines, and I think that’s inspiring.”

Kim Le, a 2024 Pitt graduate and current student in the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, participated in the scholar program and gives credit to the program and her relationship with Nordenberg for helping her find her current career path. Le said her time with Nordenberg allowed her to feel supported while she was an undergraduate student.

“I’ve worked with a lot of people who have big reputations who are not as thoughtful and considerate as him,” Le said. “He took great time to invest in my personal and professional journey in a way he didn’t have to, but did anyway.”

Caleb Buzard, a 2025 Pitt graduate and current student in the Columbus Law School at Catholic University of America, was also a Nordenberg Leadership scholar during his time at Pitt. Buzard said throughout his undergraduate years at Pitt, he had a close relationship with Nordenberg and could see the impact Nordenberg had on the students he interacted with.

“He gives back in terms of his actual time, his effort, his dedication to the institution itself and to the students,” Buzard said. “He embodies what I think represents the best of Pitt as an institution and as a community.”

Nordenberg said he feels a “deep sense of pride” for Pitt as an institution, through the faculty and staff that he has met at the University.

“I have always thought that Pitt students were special. There is a regional personality, I think, where people take their work seriously but don’t take themselves too seriously,” Nordenberg said. “That’s a wonderful combination of human qualities and I think we see that in our students.” 

Nordenberg said it felt “right” to retire now because of the “terrific” successors in place, and is grateful for the time he has been able to spend in Pittsburgh and at Pitt.

“[Pitt students] are not a group that thinks they’re entitled to anything except a chance. I think people want an opportunity to work hard and prove themselves here,” Nordenberg said. “I could not have asked for a better professional home than Pitt, and I couldn’t have asked for a better home in the more personal sense than Pittsburgh.”