Senior Vice President for International Programs and Academic Operations
Steven Bennett joined the University as Senior Vice President for Academic Operations in 2017. He works closely with the Provost and their leadership team on academic unit budgeting, personnel management, communications, advancement and strategic planning.
Bennett comes to Syracuse University from the Brookings Institution, where he served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In this position, he supervised the interactions among the research programs in one of the nation’s largest and most influential think tanks. At Brookings, Bennett helped develop and implement the institution’s strategic plan and institution-wide interdisciplinary collaborations.
Prior to his career at Brookings, Bennett served as Executive Director for several nongovernmental organizations focusing on the intersection of trade and development. He was co-founder and executive director of the Global Fairness Initiative, an international leadership effort to advance innovative models of economic engagement in impoverished countries. He also has served as Executive Director of Witness for Peace, an international human rights/economic justice advocacy organization, and as interim executive director and program director for National Neighbors, promoting growth and opportunity for urban neighborhoods.
Bennett, who grew up in Syracuse, earned a BA from Colgate University and a master’s in public policy from Georgetown University. He returned to Syracuse for post-graduate study at the Institute for Creative Conflict Resolution in 1995.