Academy of Arts and Sciences Report Blisters Ex-Leader

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences issued a highly critical report Monday asserting that its former president, Leslie Berlowitz, exaggerated her credentials while leading the prestigious scholarly society and gamed the compensation process to boost her pay by more than $2-million during her tenure, writes The Boston Globe.

Ms. Berlowitz resigned under a cloud of suspicion in July after 17 years heading the Cambridge, Mass.-based group. Investigators said her resume and some academy grant applications listed a nonexistent doctorate and misstated her work history. Proposals that included false information secured $2.4-million in grants from federal agencies and private groups, according to the report.

The review, assembled by the academy’s board with the help of outside law firms and a special panel, also alleges Ms. Berlowitz exercised “undue influence” in determining her pay, which reached $598,000 in 2012—for example, by handpicking a list of much larger nonprofit groups for the board to consider as peer institutions in setting her salary.

Ms. Berlowitz, who is 70 and undergoing cancer treatment, declined to talk directly to investigators due to ill health, but in a statement Monday she called the report “incomplete and unfair” and said it ignores or misrepresents information “in order to reach a set of preconceived conclusions.”