As a very young girl, Cynthia Shapira, the daughter of a dentist father and a traditional homemaker mother, was certain that girls could do anything boys could do. And academic achievement was a high priority in her home growing up.

“Our parents placed the highest expectations on me, and on my brothers,” she said. Report cards were scrutinized; parent-teacher conferences solemnly attended. Cindy loved school and took it seriously—to the point where her parents, concerned that she was a bit too zealous about grades, once offered her a dollar for every “C” she would bring home.

“I declined the offer,” she says.

Her dad encouraged her to become a dental hygienist. It was a great profession, but Saturdays and summer vacations spent in her father’s dental office, assisting him at the chair, didn’t convince her.

Ms. Shapira had other ideas—her love of history, culture, and politics driving her to other pursuits.

Years later, after graduating from top-level east coast universities, she applied for a prestigious internship program in Washington, D.C., and was accepted. Then she interviewed with the CIA—better fitting her passion for government work—with an eye toward foreign service.

“I had a great interview at Langley and was offered a job right on the spot,” she said. “But my parents said no—this was only five years after Watergate. I was 22—I listened to my parents in those days.”

So she took a management-consulting job with Peat Marwick (now KPMG) in its public service division instead, and soon was working on some groundbreaking initiatives that eventually brought her into contact with the world of higher education. In July, she was elected chair of the Board of Governors of Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education; the fifth in its history, the first woman.

Ms. Shapira's career journey began in the nation’s capital, a long way from her childhood home in southern California. Shapira's career journey began in the nation’s capital, a long way from her childhood home in southern California.

“My parents were born and raised in Pittsburgh. My mother was second generation; my father a first-generation American,” she said. “My father’s parents didn’t speak much English—he actually didn’t learn English until he started public school in Pittsburgh.

“He was the first in his family to go on to higher education. For him, college was the opportunity to learn a profession and escape from poverty. He went to the University of Pittsburgh and then Pitt Dental School on scholarships. He believed that the highest thing you could achieve was to be a professional.

“He paved the way for his two younger brothers, who also attended Pitt and became pharmacists. My mother graduated from Pitt with highest honors and was one of the few women in her class accepted into law school—which she turned down to get married. I think she always regretted not going to law school.”

Ms. Shapira’s parents relocated to Carmel, California, when her father was drafted as an Army dentist, and decided they weren’t going back to Pittsburgh.

“They wanted to stay in Carmel, but in those days it was ‘restricted’—Jewish people couldn’t buy houses in many neighborhoods. My father couldn’t get a dental practice started. So, they moved to Los Angeles. Their priority was to keep ‘trading up’ as my father became more successful so that we kids could attend public schools with the best reputations.”

When it was time for college, Ms. Shapira decided she wanted to head east, even though she had never been farther in that direction than Flagstaff, Arizona.

“I applied to Wellesley and Smith (colleges), and I managed to get in,” she said. “Back then your parents didn’t necessarily take you to college and settle you in. I got on a plane from L.A. to Boston and somehow found my way to the Wellesley campus some 16 miles away that night. I was so late that I missed orientation.”

“That education was a privilege and a gift from my parents,” she pointed out.

After graduating from Wellesley with a bachelor’s degree in political science, she enrolled in Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, then was accepted into the first class of the President’s Management Internship Program, which was created to encourage bright, young graduate students to go into government service. The first class included about 200 members from across the country.

“You had a choice of different agencies to go into. I wanted to work for the CIA,” she said. “I would have been a great spy.”

Going to work at KMPG turned out to be fascinating. One of Shapira’s first major projects involved studying the role of the federal government in regulating day care and funding pre-school.

“It was a few years after Head Start, but the general area of early childhood care and education was still somewhat unchartered,” she said. “After that, I was assigned to a project working with a really fascinating man by the name of Dr. Fenwick W. English. He was a former public school superintendent who came up with the idea that—just as you could do a financial audit of a school system—you could also do a performance audit.

“What is the school system supposed to do, or produce, and what is it actually doing? What should be the student outcomes? What is the gap between the two? How do you map together the curriculum—what is actually being taught in the classroom, and how the students are performing—to promote the best results?”

It was groundbreaking work that sent her all over the country.

She met her first husband, a neurologist and Pittsburgh native, and moved to Pittsburgh. Later, divorced for many years, she met her husband of almost nine years, David Shapira. Her passion for government service, civic engagement and the community led her to become a very active volunteer, including currently serving as chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Federation.

She also serves or has served as a board member of Brandeis University, the Allegheny County Airport Authority, the United Way, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the Pittsburgh Promise and Point Park University, among others. She served as vice-chair of Governor Tom Wolf’s Transition Team.

“We have such a vibrant community benefit sector that exists not to make profit, but to better life for everyone,” she said. “I love this work because it serves a really important purpose in our country. It creates tremendous opportunities for partnerships among government, community organizations, foundations and the private sector—to invest in people.”

Governor Wolf appointed Ms. Shapira to the Board of Governors in December 2015. Six months later, she was elected chair.

While she has plenty of experience in higher education—having worked in the past with public university systems in Georgia, Massachusetts and North Carolina, as well as with many private higher education institutions—she had never been involved with the State System before.

“In a way, I think that could be very beneficial,” she said. “I don’t come in with preconceived notions about what can or cannot be done. I start from a clean slate.”
So far, she said, she has been impressed with the experience.

“I think we have an outstanding board,” she said. “Such smart people who are dedicated to higher education, to the Commonwealth, and who love this system and these universities. We have such a positive group there. I believe we also have an outstanding administration. I have nothing but admiration for the chancellor and all of the executive staff I’ve met so far; also the university presidents. We have a really good foundation.”

“And we have fabulous students,” she added, noting her first encounter with students at the state Capitol during the System’s “advocacy days” event in April.

“I love to see students engaged,” she said. “They’re so altruistic. If they get involved now, it can become a lifetime service commitment.”

Pointing out the important work of the faculty and staff at the universities, she continued, “I am passionate about the State System access and quality education mission. We have the components of excellence. My goal is to capitalize on that, to look at the System as a whole as being excellent.

“What does that mean to us as a System? How do we define our criteria, or pillars of excellence? What are the hard decisions we have to make to get there? Most of all, how can we ensure our stewardship and fiduciary responsibilities to the students and taxpayers and to the other important stakeholders, the faculty and administration; the communities in which our universities reside?”

Yes, the System faces significant challenges, but Shapira said she looks at things differently than many others.

“Usually, it’s framed as a negative. I want to frame it in positive terms,” she said. “First, how can we be excellent as a System?; then look at everything else and see where all the pieces fall into place.”

Ms. Shapira said the System might need to take a more focused look at and place a greater emphasis on fundraising as an essential part of supporting the universities’ budgets.
“We talk about our budget based around tuition and state funding,” she said. “There’s a real big third pocket out there. I know we do fundraising and we have the apparatus in place. But I want to learn more to see if it is emphasized enough; as much as it could be.”

She also sees a need for more long-range planning for the System’s future, admitting the significant challenges given the universities’ long histories contrasted with the relative newness of the State System itself, which was founded in 1983.

“These schools came together relatively recently as a system, but were not born as a system,” she said. “There are different campus cultures. We have challenges and opportunities to do more things than we are doing now. Let’s get the conversations started.”

Her broad range of experience might be the greatest benefit she brings to the table, she said.

“What I mostly bring is some different experience—and my own successes and failures— in a lot of areas,” she said. “There are many different models and ways to do business. There isn’t just one way to do things. We shouldn’t be afraid to take some risks. And so much can be learned from other systems, even if they aren’t the same as ours. A lot of them struggle with the same issues we do.”

She said she is “committed to doing the best I can for the System.”

While her passion and commitment to civic engagement comes through clearly in her words and actions, it is just as clear she has even more on her plate.

“I’m a mom, which I take very seriously,” she said. And, she added, with a little laugh, “I am a domestic goddess—and you can say that. I love cooking and doing family parties and organizational events. I very much enjoy it, and I’m good at it.”

Along with her husband at home, she has two grown children, three adult stepchildren and David’s six grandchildren. She and her husband watch every Pittsburgh Steelers game.

“I’m a California girl—I grew up following the Dodgers and the Lakers, but I’m also a huge Steelers, Pirates and Penguins fan. I love sports,” she said.

Doesn’t everyone?

Ms. Shapira recently visited Israel, and relayed this story:“I was in Jerusalem walking along the street and the person I was with pointed out a restaurant across the street. He said, ‘During American football season, that’s the Steelers bar.’ "

They really are everywhere.

Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth, with more than100,000 degree-seeking students and thousands more who are enrolled in certificate and other career-development programs. Collectively, the 14 universities that comprise the State System offer more than 2,300 degree and certificate programs in more than 530 academic areas. Nearly 520,000 State System university alumni live in Pennsylvania.

The State System universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The universities also operate branch campuses in Oil City (Clarion), Freeport and Punxsutawney (IUP), and Clearfield (Lock Haven), and offer classes and programs at several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and in Center City in Philadelphia.