News Briefs

---

Elbaum Named Trustees Co-Chair, Hamilton Medal Honoree

A

bby Black Elbaum ’92, BUS’94, a leading real estate executive, has been named co-chair of the University Board of Trustees. A trustee since 2016, she succeeds David Greenwald LAW’83 and will serve alongside Jeh Johnson LAW’82, who will continue as co-chair through the end of the year.

Elbaum also was recently named the 2026 recipient of the Alexander Hamilton Medal, considered the highest honor awarded to a member of the Columbia College community, which recognizes distinguished service to the College and accomplishment in any field of endeavor.

“Abby’s new leadership role with the Trustees is the latest example of her extraordinary commitment and long-standing service to Columbia,” says Dean Josef Sorett. “At the College, we have been especially fortunate to benefit from her generosity of spirit and thoughtful counsel through roles with the Columbia College Alumni Association and Board of Visitors. Between that and her work on behalf of other civic causes, she has had an impact in the lives of so many. Abby truly expresses the spirit of a Columbia College education and all that the Hamilton Medal aims to recognize.”

Elbaum is co-founder and principal of Ogden CAP Properties, a real estate investment and development firm. She began her career at J.P. Morgan Chase in its Private Bank.

For the Trustees, Elbaum formerly served on the Executive, Trusteeship and Health Sciences Committees and chaired the Physical Assets Committee. Throughout her tenure, she has played a central role in its work across governance, strategic planning and the Columbia University

Irving Medical Center. Elbaum received the Columbia College Young Alumni Achievement Award in 2002; she was a recipient of a John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement in 2015.

In addition, Elbaum serves on the boards of the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter, the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District, and the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District, where she is on the executive committee. Elbaum is also a governor of the Real Estate Board of New York, a Columbia-appointed trustee at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and VP and secretary of the Board of Trustees of Temple Emanu-El of the City of New York.

The 78th annual Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner will take place on Thursday, Nov. 19, in Low Rotunda.

---

Advising On AI

C

hris Wiggins ’93, associate professor of applied mathematics and systems biology at Columbia Engineering and an affiliated faculty member of the statistics department in Arts & Sciences, was named Adviser to the Dean for AI Strategy, Columbia College. The role will support the College in taking an informed approach to AI, one that speaks to the concerns of instructors (particularly those in the Core Curriculum), current and future students, staff and alumni.

“These people are all stakeholders here,” says Wiggins, who began the role this past Spring. “They want to have consensus; they want to be heard in terms of their own opinions on subjects; and they want to be in discourse with others, including academic leaders, about what they see and how to think about this.”

Wiggins is a member of the Columbia University Data Science Institute; a founding member of the University’s Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics; the author of two books about data; and the co-founder of hackNY, a New York City-based initiative seeking “to create and empower a community of student-technologists.” After serving as the chief data scientist at The New York Times for more than a decade, in April he assumed a newly created role as head of machine learning and AI science at CNN.