Daryl Levinson, David Boies Professor of Law, and NYU School of Law alumni Rita Hauser and Anthony Welters ’77 are among 220 new members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. One of the oldest and most prestigious honorary societies in the U.S. as well as a leading policy research center, the AAAS counts among its members a global array of leaders in academia, business, public affairs, the humanities, and the arts.
Levinson, who taught at NYU Law from 2002 to 2005 and returned to the Law School in 2010, is considered one of the most original scholars of constitutional law and theory in the legal academy, challenging conventional wisdom in the field. He is also a leading public law expert. In 2009 Levinson, who has taught at Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law, was an inaugural fellow at NYU Law’s Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law & Justice. He joins 27 other NYU Law faculty who are AAAS members.
Hauser, an international lawyer and president of the Hauser Foundation, served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board during President George W. Bush’s first term. She played a significant role in helping to persuade Yasir Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel. For more than two decades Hauser, a member of the Law School's Board of Trustees, was a senior partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. She and her husband, Gustave Hauser (LL.M. '57), were the principal benefactors of the Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU Law, and also established the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University.
Welters, executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group and president of its Public and Senior Markets Group, chairs the Law School’s Board of Trustees. With his wife, Beatrice, Welters started the AnBryce Foundation to foster the social and educational development of disadvantaged children. Among the Welters’ beneficiaries are recipients of NYU Law’s AnBryce Scholarships, which fund the education of students from disadvantaged backgrounds who, like Welters, are the first in their families to attend graduate school. In 2008, the Welters won the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship.
Also joining the AAAS this year are Hillary Rodham Clinton, Clint Eastwood, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Paul McCartney, film director Terrence Malick, sculptor Kiki Smith, Amazon.com founder Jeffrey Bezos, philanthropist Melinda Gates, and Walt Disney president and CEO Robert Iger. New members will be inducted during an October 6 ceremony at AAAS headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Posted on April 17, 2012