Brandeis celebrates 2026 Alumni Achievement Award recipients for contributions to film and television, sports business and philanthropic leadership, and cancer research

Brandeis Stories

Brandeis celebrates 2026 Alumni Achievement Award recipients for contributions to film and television, sports business and philanthropic leadership, and cancer research

April 15, 2026 • Alumni

Brandeis University has announced that award-winning actress Loretta Devine, MFA '76, Philadelphia Eagles Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie, Ph.D. '87, and pioneer in cancer research Sheila Efron Taube '63 will receive the Alumni Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to their fields and society.

The Alumni Achievement Award is among the university's highest alumni honors, given to leaders in business, science, medicine, education, government, the arts and humanities, journalism, law, sports, and real estate. The award recipients will be celebrated Sunday, April 19, on the Brandeis campus.

"Alumni remain vital members of the Brandeis community long after they graduate, and we are delighted to recognize these three exceptional people," says Brandeis president Arthur Levine '70. "Their accomplishments and impact on their professions and communities are a wonderful testament to the power of a Brandeis education."

Loretta Devine has earned more than 300 Broadway, film, and television acting credits, including starring in the original Broadway production of the Tony-award-winning "Dreamgirls" and alongside Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, and Lela Rochon in the groundbreaking film "Waiting to Exhale," the first film with an all-Black female cast to attain top box-office success, and for which she won an NAACP Image Award.

Devine has had more than 160 television roles, including "Grey's Anatomy," "Boston Public," and the animated children's series "Doc McStuffins." She won NAACP Image Awards for all three performances, and received an Emmy for her work on "Grey's Anatomy." Devine has won numerous other awards, including lifetime achievement awards from the NAACP Theatre Awards and the Pan African Film Festival as well as a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation and a Vanguard Award from Hollywood Confidential.

Over the years, Devine also has advocated for and supported various causes and foundations associated with diabetes, health, and the creative arts.

She credits her time at Brandeis with helping her develop a strong work ethic, gain confidence, and better understand character development. These traits came from her studies, but were also honed while she worked as a residence hall director.

"I was very introverted and shy. But I could sing. I sang in church my whole life, so I had this big voice that I could use to impress people. I learned how to use that, which became important when I was working in New York. I learned how to do a lot of things and deal with people, which also helped me add flavor to my characters," she said. "We were taught everything by all these incredible people…It gave me a great amount of confidence."

"I was very introverted and shy. But I could sing. I sang in church my whole life, so I had this big voice that I could use to impress people."

Loretta Devine, MFA '76

Jeffrey Lurie is a man of many passions and motivations-sports, movies, philanthropy-and each connects back to his family.

He traces his love of sports back to his father, who died when Lurie was nine years old. Now, as Chairman and CEO of the Philadelphia Eagles, Lurie has led the professional football team to 12 division titles, four trips to the Super Bowl, and two World Championships.

Lurie's zeal for watching and making movies links back to his grandfather, who founded General Cinema, once a major theater chain with locations across the country. Over the years, Lurie has executive produced numerous films including three Academy Award-winning documentaries: "Inside Job" (2010), "Inocente" (2012), and "Summer of Soul" (2021).

Lurie credits his desire to give back to the lessons and examples of his parents. His brother has autism, and solving the riddle of the developmental disability has been a major driver behind his philanthropy. In 2018, Lurie started the Eagle Autism Foundation. In 2025, he and his family launched the Lurie Autism Institute in partnership with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine. At Brandeis, his family established the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy in 2007 to advance multidisciplinary research on the needs, experiences, and policy priorities of people with disabilities.

Even though sports and movies have always been a huge part of Lurie's life, he chose to study social policy at Brandeis because it offered one of the few programs that took an interdisciplinary approach to the subject and looked at human needs on a global scale. "I wanted to understand from a needs basis where one could make an impact in the world, and what was happening around the world in terms of health, education, socioeconomic issues, virtually anything," Lurie said.

"I wanted to understand from a needs basis where one could make an impact in the world, and what was happening around the world in terms of health, education, socioeconomic issues, virtually anything."

Jeffrey Lurie, Ph.D. '87

Sheila Efron Taube studied biology as an undergrad at Brandeis and earned her doctorate in microbiology and immunology, focusing on virology, from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School.

Eventually, Taube joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, becoming chief of the Cancer Diagnosis Branch and then associate division director of the Cancer Diagnosis Program. During her 30-plus-year career, she helped change how scientists approach cancer diagnosis research so that it better aligns with developing treatments. For her work, Taube won the NIH Director's Award, the institute's most prestigious award given to employees for exceptional performance, for moving the field of cancer diagnosis into the age of modern technology.

She also led efforts to significantly improve diagnoses, treatments, and outcomes for early-stage breast cancer. Much of her work in the division of cancer treatment and diagnosis focused on a long-term, multifaceted clinical trial related to the diagnosis and treatment of early-stage breast cancer.

"It took 18 years to develop and conduct the early-stage breast cancer trial. I had recently retired by the time it was done. But it became absolutely clear that a large percentage of patients would have just as good an outcome without chemotherapy. It saved a lot of pain and suffering on the part of patients and hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatments," Taube said. "It's also a great example of how the critical thinking that I learned at Brandeis can make an impact."

Science often was a theme to her volunteer and philanthropic contributions as well. For 10 years after retiring, Taube helped teach science to sixth-grade students through an American Association for the Advancement of Science program. Taube and her husband also created the Drs. Sheila Efron '63 and Steven L. Taube Endowed Science Scholarship fund, which provides financial assistance to undergraduate Brandeis students majoring in the sciences. Their goal: to keep the pipeline of future scientists healthy by helping these students with college costs.

"It took 18 years to develop and conduct the early-stage breast cancer trial. I had recently retired by the time it was done. But it became absolutely clear that a large percentage of patients would have just as good an outcome without chemotherapy. It saved a lot of pain and suffering on the part of patients and hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatments. It's also a great example of how the critical thinking that I learned at Brandeis can make an impact."

Sharon Efron Taube '63