Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility

The mission of the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) is to develop strategies for incorporating consideration of social, environmental, and corporate governance (collectively "ESG") issues into the management of The New School's investments. Issues under consideration include but are not limited to: human rights, labor standards, environmental sustainability, equity, diversity, discrimination, and corporate governance and disclosure. Authorized by the university Board of Trustee's policy and procedures on Investment Responsibility, the ACIR presents recommendations on ESG issues that arise in the management of the university's endowment to the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Committee Members

Committee members are appointed by the New School president to serve staggered two-year terms. The ACIR consists of two faculty members, two students, and two staff members and two members of the investment committee of the New School. Faculty and student nominations come from the Faculty and Student Senate, respectively, or through self-nomination. All candidates are asked to submit their résumés and cover letters describing relevant interests and background.

Faculty Members

Charles H. Allison, Jr., Chair

Charles is an associate professor of professional practice at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School for Public Engagement. He was previously a visiting senior lecturer at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University, and is a Fellows program mentor at The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT. Since 2005, he has been chief executive officer of Commonwealth Biofuels (CWBiofuels). Earlier he founded Vision Consulting Associates. Charles earned an AB from Dartmouth College, majoring in geography with a concentration in environmental studies, before earning his MBA at Harvard Business School. He currently serves on the board of directors of WE ACT for Environmental Justice and the Executive Committee of the Dartmouth Alumni Association of New York City, and he is a member of The Partnership for a New American Economy and the Admissions Board at Harvard Business School.

Joel Towers

Joel Towers is a professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at Parsons School of Design, the Co-Director of The Tishman Environment and Design Center, and a University professor at The New School. From 2009 to 2019 he was the Executive Dean of Parsons School of Design. Towers is a member of the Urban Climate Change Research Network, and a lead author in the 2018 “Climate Change and Cities Second Assessment Report” as well as the upcoming Third Assessment (2023). He has published on sustainable design throughout his career as an architect and academic and completed award-winning built projects that advance sustainable design practices in the field. He is currently a Co-Chair of The New York City Panel on Climate Change, working on the 4th NPCC report (2024). NPCC is an independent panel mandated, by Local Law, to provide the Mayor and the City Council with authoritative, actionable information to help New York City adapt to climate change, take actions to mitigate its future impact and build a more equitable and resilient future.

Student Members

Noor Lima Boudakian


BA Candidate, Global Studies and Economics, Eugene Lang College

MA Candidate, Economics, New School for Social Research


Noor Lima Boudakian (she/her) is a student of political economy, and a third-generation New Schooler who is adamantly in support of maintaining the university's mission for fearless progress towards justice and resistance to the status quo. She believes strongly in challenging structures as they exist, and making resources that demystify economics more widely accessible. Her current research is on gender relations in Armenia's economy, and how ongoing colonial structures are impacting social progress in the region.


In her time at Lang and NSSR, she has made a valiant attempt at doing everything, including serving as the former Chair of the University Student Senate, and debating competitively on the policy debate team. She has worked as a Research Assistant, Civic Liberal Arts Teaching Fellow, Orientation Leader, Co-Lead Peer Connector, First Year Fellow, been in the Dean's Honor Symposium, worked with a Eugene Lang Opportunity Award, in addition to completing two internships and being a CESJ summer fellow.


Noor grew up between Yerevan, Armenia and Rochester, New York.


Members of the Investment Committee of the New School


Bevis Longstreth

Bevis Longstreth serves on the board of the New School University as a trustee and is a retired partner with Debevoise.

He is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In July 1981 he was appointed as the 60th Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 1984, after his resignation from the SEC, Longstreth returned to Debevoise and the practice of corporate, finance, banking and securities law. Longstreth served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University Law School from 1994 to 1999. He is a frequent speaker and has lectured on various securities and corporate law topics, has written numerous articles on business-related subjects and is the author of Modern Investment Management and the Prudent Man Rule, a book on law reform published by Oxford University Press in 1986. Longstreth serves on the Boards of Directors of College Retirement Equities Fund and AMVESCAP. He is a former member of the Board of Governors of the American Stock Exchange and of the National Adjudicatory Council of NASD. He served on the Panel on Audit Effectiveness appointed by the Public Oversight Board. For many years he served on the Pension Finance Committee of The World Bank. He serves as Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Rockefeller Family Fund and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, where he is also a trustee. Longstreth also serves on the Investment Committee of Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation.

Scott M. Pinkus

Scott Pinkus serves on the Board of Governors of the Eugene Lang College at the New School, and is also a member of the Investment Committee of the University. He is a former General Partner at Goldman Sachs, having joined in 1986 to help build the firm’s Mortgage Securities business. He subsequently founded and headed up the Fixed Income Research and Strategies Group and then the Credit Derivatives business before retiring in 2000. Scott currently focuses much of his attention on investing in and advising various new business ventures, with a particular focus on Sustainable and Impact Investing. He is an Advisory Board member and Investment Partner at Gratitude Railroad, an early-stage impact investment organization. He is also on the Senior Advisory Board of the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley where, among other things, he has been helping to develop the school’s Sustainable and Impact Finance Initiative. Scott received a BS in Economics and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Staff Members

Travis Dickison

Assistant Registrar for Degree Conferral

Adrienne Perovich

Assistant Director at Tishman Environment and Design Center

Advisory Members

Tokumbo Shobowale, Executive Vice President for Business and Operations

Tokumbo became chief operating officer of The New School in November 2013. Prior to that, he served the City of New York as chief business operations officer, the Bloomberg administration’s lead official for implementing business-friendly practices. Earlier he was director of infrastructure and the built environment for the city’s Initiative on Rebuilding and Resiliency, a response to Hurricane Sandy. Tokumbo also served as chief of staff to the deputy mayor for economic development, overseeing more than a dozen agencies, and as COO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. In both roles, he facilitated the city’s economic diversification and in particular the applied sciences initiative, which attracted Cornell-Technion to New York City and facilitated NYU-Poly’s creation of the Center for Urban Science and Progress. He holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, an MA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and an AB from Stanford University.


Larry Woods, Compliance and Risk Analyst

Larry has served as a support staff member to the ACIR since he was hired in the Finance and Business Office as the compliance and risk analyst in the summer of 2010. He has brought to The New School his experience in finance, operations, and contract management and academic background including a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University and a master’s degree in public administration from New York University.


Linda Hirst, Senior Director of Investments, Treasury, and Risk Management

Linda is the Senior Director of Investments and Risk Management at The New School. Before joining the University in 2008, she was a Managing Director at Depfa Bank, where she established the bank’s first U.S. Credit Risk Department and chaired its U.S. Credit Committee. Prior to Depfa Bank, Linda was a Managing Director at Moody’s Investors Service and a senior member of Moody’s Rating Committee and Credit Policy Committee. Linda received her MPA from New York University and her BA from the University of Pennsylvania.


Research Assistants

Marjan Fadavi Ardekani, PhD Candidate in Economics

Marjan is a PhD candidate at the Department of Economics of The New School for Social Research. She is specialized in microeconomic theory, development economics, complexity economics, mathematical economics and economic methodology. Her research is focused on the concept of power in economic theory and practice and the political economy of Big Tech's influence and economic power. She has been working for the ACIR since 2015.