Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg to give 2026 commencement address at Brandeis

Brandeis University announced that Sheryl Sandberg, former chief operating officer of social media giant Meta, will deliver the undergraduate address at its 75th Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 17. 

Sandberg is the founder and chair of the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization launched in 2013 that focuses on creating a more equal and resilient world through leadership, education and community initiatives.

Most recently, Sandberg narrated the 2024 documentary film “Screams Before Silence” that chronicled the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel. She is the author of three books including the bestseller “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.”

Author Isabel Wilkerson, who received the National Book Critics Circle Award for her 2010 work “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Greatest Migration,” will deliver the graduate commencement address. 

Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” was named by the New York Times as Nonfiction Book of the Year in 2020. In 1994, she became the first African American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism while working as the Chicago bureau chief for the New York Times. She has taught at Princeton University, Emory University and Boston University. 

In addition to hosting Sandberg and Wilkerson, Brandeis will confer four additional honorary degrees as part of its Commencement ceremonies:

• Former MIT President and higher education leader, L. Rafael Reif.
  
• Philanthropist and former executive, Toshizo Watanabe ’73.
  
• Attorney, philanthropist and former Brandeis trustee and chair, Meyer Koplow ’72, P’02, P’05.
  
• Private consultant and former Brandeis trustee and chair, Larry Kanarek ’76.
  

“We are thrilled to honor these six individuals for their outstanding contributions to society and the world,” Brandeis President Arthur Levine said. “Their work is inspiring to all of us.  And we celebrate each one of them, and their accomplishments, as part of our 75th Commencement ceremony.”

The undergraduate ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. at the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center. The graduate ceremony, also at Gosman, will be held at 3 p.m.

Brandeis University, located at 415 South St., is a private research university with a focus on undergraduate liberal arts education and a global reach. Founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community and named for Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, the university embraces the values of academic excellence, critical thinking, openness to all and a commitment to making the world a better place. Brandeis’ distinguished faculty are dedicated to the education and support of 3,600 undergraduates and more than 2,000 graduate students.