James “Jim” Weiss ’87 has a diploma from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, but he says he feels like he never really graduated: “I feel like I’m a perpetual college student! I get energy from being around students. The reverse mentoring that you get out of it is pretty incredible.”

That energy is a driving force behind Weiss’ recent $1.75 million gift to Syracuse University, with $1.25 million directed to enhancing programs at the Newhouse School to ensure that students are career-ready in the rapidly changing field of communications.

With a degree in public relations, Weiss “fell into” health care communications (he worked at Genentech a few years after graduating) and ultimately built a company that is now the largest public relations firm in the nation. Real Chemistry provides artificial intelligence-driven data, analytics, marketing and communications to advance the science of communications and the communication of science.

“Communications is leadership and leadership is communications,” Weiss likes to say, and he’s committed to ensuring that his business remains at the leading edge of the evolution in communications. He believes that Newhouse students can help him do that. “When I was building a firm, it made sense to me to go back to the school that gave me such amazing preparation for the world.”

It was 2012 when Weiss’ former professor and mentor Maria P. Russell G’72 invited him back to campus. Russell, now professor emerita in public relations, says that visit was life-changing for Weiss and the Newhouse School: “That walk down memory lane has led to a fully engaged commitment to philanthropy. Proud of the school’s educational foundation, Jim saw an opportunity to help current and future students be prepared for the world and a profession that was changing dramatically.”

Weiss and his late wife, Audra ’89, began making gifts that expanded experiential learning in social commerce, the use of data, AI and rapidly changing technologies to help communications and marketing students refine communication strategies. The Weiss Center was borne out of those meaningful conversations with Russell, an initiative that brings experts to Newhouse to meet frequently with students, run simulations, and review resumés and portfolios.

“Jim brought in Real Chemistry’s proprietary AI tool to a workshop that taught students  how to use AI to weed out bias and unfounded claims and how to segment audiences and customers for targeted marketing,” says Beth Egan ’88, co-director of the Weiss Center and associate professor of advertising. “In another workshop, they learned about influencer marketing and the science behind finding the right influencers for each market segment. For the students, these experiences have been a great opportunity to move at the speed of industry.” In turn, Real Chemistry has hired many Newhouse graduates.

“Jim has never forgotten his Orange roots and has championed initiatives to help students transition seamlessly into jobs in strategic communications, fields that are constantly evolving because of technology,” says Newhouse Dean Mark J. Lodato. “We are so thankful for Jim’s generosity and devotion to helping Newhouse students succeed.”

Where Theory Meets Practice

Now, with his latest gift to the school, the center has a new hub at Newhouse. A dynamic space for learning and collaboration is now called The Agency, Home of the Weiss Center. The space is meant to resemble the collaborative work environments found at leading professional advertising and PR firms. Egan says it’s “where theory will meet practice, where students come together and learn what it really means to work as a team. Innovation flourishes when curious minds have room to experiment, to fail safely, and to push boundaries together.”

Weiss says The Agency has a dual meaning. “It’s about taking agency, having more control over your career. We want students to feel empowered to go out there, take initiative, perhaps start their own business. We encourage and foster entrepreneurship and innovation that can make a big impact in the real world,” Weiss says. “Never has there been a better time to do what we do in our fields. It’s all changing so fast and is right for disruption and new approaches.” As the keynote speaker at Newhouse’s convocation last May, Weiss told the graduates: “Let’s take advantage of this chaos and change.”

“Jim Weiss doesn’t just support Syracuse—his generosity and vision help transform it,” Chancellor Kent Syverud says. “The Agency and the Weiss Center provide our students real-world experience that prepares them for success after Syracuse and sets them apart from others pursuing similar career paths. Jim shows us what it means to turn success into opportunity for others.”

“The Weiss Center’s depth and diverse lessons have transformed me into a more integrated version of myself—someone who understands how every experience, challenge  and lessons connect,” says Emily W. Friedman ’26, a senior public relations major and Weiss Center brand ambassador. “How amazing is it to see someone who once sat in our seats now creating opportunities for the next generation to dream just as big!”

Weiss is particularly interested in bringing more communications students into health and life science fields.  “Health care is the number one consumer product, and we want to make health care marketing as cool as sneaker marketing,” says Weiss. “Newhouse students have firsthand access to how we are changing the industry.”

But behind the fun and enlightenment lies a very serious purpose: Weiss wants to make all Americans healthier. He knows first-hand the despair created by disease. He lost his wife to cancer on Dec. 31, 2024. “Audra was the driving force in how Real Chemistry and all my business endeavors took shape,” says Weiss.

She used every tool available to research the most promising treatments, to mine the best minds, to combine Eastern and Western therapies to preserve quality of life, and to help other cancer patients along the way. In his eulogy, Weiss said: “She chose life, always making it the very best it could be, and that’s what she would want us to do: Get busy living because you’ve got to live life while you are alive.”

Delivering Accurate Information

Weiss is determined to shape generations of communicators who can help Americans better understand scientific discoveries, weed out myths and misinformation, and find the facts that can help them live better and longer. As science evolves with more precision targeting to fight disease, so must communications evolve to precision target audiences and deliver life-enhancing information.

“Accurate information is absolutely critical,” he says. “We are leveraging technology and data to tell a more precise story, just as in medicine where we will more precisely treat disease.”

His interest in health also motivated his gift to Syracuse Athletics in the new pledge.  He directed $500,000 of the $1.75 million gift to the Athletics Opportunity Fund and Athletics Competitive Excellence Fund. “A healthy athletics program is critical to a healthy school,” says Weiss. “People rally around sporting events and teams. Athletes are great influencers.”

“Jim’s passion for the Orange and his devotion to student success resonates on and off the field, across the campus and across disciplines,” says Athletics Director John Wildhack ’80.

“I’ve always said, ‘If you give, you get,’ and it’s really that simple,” says Weiss.