Israeli Businesswoman Funds Endowed Professorship at GMU

Shari Arison Image by Getty Images

By Anne Cohen July 10, 2013

George Mason University has announced that a new endowed professorship has been created thanks to a substantial donation by American-Israeli businesswoman Shari Arison.

The recipient of the Arison Group Endowed Professor of Doing Good Values will work under the purview of George Mason’s New Century College and “will be dedicated to research and education that focuses on the application of fundamental human values to global business and a strong global ‘moral economy,’” according to a statement released by the university.

As the owner of the Arison Group, a global umbrella of business and philanthropic organizations, Arison has been listed by Forbes as one of the World’s Greenest Billionaires in 2010 and ranked on the Forbes Most Powerful Women list in both 2011 and 2012.

“The Doing Good Model is all about making the circles of good grow in the world. It captures the approach of making a positive difference, bringing fundamental values into the hearts of people, communities, businesses, and organizations,” she said in a statement. “This model, and the academic research involved, practically bridge between values and organizational structures, to enable decision making processes to be foremost values-based, for the benefit of society, the economy, and the environment.”

George Mason University president Ángel Cabrera added that his institution was “committed to making a positive difference in the global economy, and this professorship melds perfectly with the university’s mission to create a more just, free, and prosperous world.”

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO