The First Woman to Chair the Board of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has appointed Cynthia Shapira as the fifth chair of the board of governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PSSHE). The board oversees the operations of 14 state universities that combined enroll more than 100,000 students. (The campuses of Pennsylvania State University and not part of the PSSHE.) Shapira is the first woman named to chair the board of governors since the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education was established in 1983.

Shapira is president of the David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation. Earlier she worked as a management consultant to educational and nonprofit institutions. Shapira is the chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Area Jewish Federation and sits on the board of trustees of Point Park University in Pittsburgh and Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Shapira is a summa cum laude graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts and holds a master’s degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.