Awards, Honors, and Leadership Roles
- In 2015, awarded the TIAA-CREF Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence, which recognizes outstanding leadership on the part of a college or university president or chancellor.
- In 2015, awarded the Institute of International Education’s Stephen P. Duggan Award for Mutual Understanding, which recognizes outstanding accomplishments in government and education.
- In 2012, awarded the NASPA President’s Award, which is given annually to a college or university leader who has, over a sustained period of time, advanced the quality of student life on campus by supporting student affairs staff and programs.
- In 2008, named a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur
- In November 2009, Time magazine named Sexton one of the 10 Best College Presidents.
- Since 2006, NYU has received the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction form the Corporation for National and Community Service six times.
Leadership Roles
- Chair of the American Council on Education
- Chair of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities
- Chair of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- Memberships:
- Council on Foreign Relations
- The Association of American Universities
- The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
- The Institute of International Education
- Council on Foreign Relations
- In 2008-09, co-chaired (with Rick Trainor, the principal of King's College London) the US-UK Study Group on Higher Education in a Global Environmental working group of university presidents constituted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Fellowships
- The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- The Foreign Policy Association
Honorary Degrees
- Asian University for Women (2020)
- Brooklyn Law School (2016)
- Drexel University (2016)
- Felician University, New York (2016)
- Fordham University (2005)
- Hamilton College (2011)
- Iona College, New York (2011)
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (2005)
- King’s College London, UK (2013)
- Miami Dade College (2014)
- Mount Aloysius College (2018)
- Northeastern University (2018)
- Saint Francis College (1996)
- Saint John’s University (2007)
- Saint Joseph’s College, New York (2010)
- Union College (2017)
- University of Rochester (2005)
- University of Strathclyde, UK (2013)
- University of Surrey, UK (2011)
- University of Warwick, UK (2011)
- Wake Forest University (2017)
- Yeshiva University (2011)