Executive Leadership Team

Ben Anderson

Vice President for Advancement

Ben Anderson has been appointed as vice president for advancement and will join the Trinity community on September 2, 2025.

Ben comes to Trinity College from Boston College where has worked in advancement at Boston College for 13 years. Since 2022, he has served as associate vice president (AVP) for principal giving and campaign director of “Soaring Higher: The Campaign for Boston College,” an initiative with goals of raising $3 billion and 60 percent alumni participation. Under Ben’s direction, the campaign has reached $1.8 billion so far thanks to the participation of more than 82,000 alumni. In the decade prior to his current position, he was promoted to several roles at Boston College including AVP for major gifts and director of parent development.

Before his time at Boston College, Ben was a leadership giving officer at Habitat for Humanity International from 2010 to 2012. Stewarding more than 120 donors, he enjoyed bringing philanthropy to bear on the growth and impact of the organization. From 2006 to 2010, he worked at Skidmore College, serving as a gift officer and coordinator of the Friends of Skidmore Athletics.

A graduate of Bates College, Ben majored in economics with a concentration in Spanish and served as captain of the men’s lacrosse team.

David Andres ’04

Associate Vice President and Chief Data and Analytics Officer

David Andres serves as Trinity’s first chief data and analytics officer. In this role, he leads the Analytics and Strategic Initiatives Center (ASIC), which provides analysis, research, and curated data to support a strengthened culture of planning and evaluation across the college. The ASIC team is responsible for the College’s institutional research functions and the development of its next-generation data warehouse and analytics platform. Through this work, the team shares insights and analyses that inform decision making at all levels of the college’s leadership and support the implementation of its strategic initiatives.

Andres also serves as Trinity’s accreditation liaison officer to the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), the College’s regional accreditation agency. In that capacity, he shared a leadership role in facilitating the College’s self-study report and the decennial comprehensive evaluation by the Commission in 2016 and the fifth-year report in 2022.

In prior roles at Trinity, Andres was special assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff, and before that, served as director of strategic projects for the student life division. He earned a B.S. in biology from Trinity.

Sonia Cardenas

Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Scott M. Johnson ’97 Distinguished Professor of Political Science

As vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, Sonia Cardenas is Trinity College’s chief academic officer. She is responsible for academic leadership and planning; curricular direction and innovation; academic resources and budgeting; and faculty appointments and promotions–all foundational to Trinity’s mission of engaged teaching and scholarship.

Among the many academic programs and co-curricular initiatives in Cardenas’ portfolio are more than a dozen academic centers and institutes, including most recently a college-wide Center for Entrepreneurship. In addition to supporting faculty and students in navigating the pandemic, she succeeded in increasing the diversity of the faculty and introducing creative programs to advance equity in workloads alongside launching the new Trinity Plus curriculum. Engaged in raising funds for Trinity’s academic priorities, Cardenas has also expanded opportunities and enrollments in Summer Sessions, Graduate Studies, the college-wide Grants Office, and a January Term that she has overseen since its inception in 2013.

Cardenas continues today the work she started as vice president for strategic initiatives and innovation in 2018. This includes programming at the Trinity Innovation Hub, a 13,000 square-foot facility in downtown Hartford, whose development she spearheaded. Notably, she is the founder of an innovative workforce development partnership with Infosys, the global technology company, focused on business analysis and digital transformation. Beyond her Hartford-based leadership, Cardenas oversees the Trinity College Campus in Rome, a renowned global learning center.

Her broad experience includes key institutional initiatives. For example, in 2017, Cardenas co-chaired Trinity’s successful accreditation process, serving as principal author of the college’s self-study. She also played a leading role in designing and launching the Bantam Network, a program for all incoming students offering an integrated living-learning experience.

Cardenas joined the Trinity College faculty in 2001 and has been a dean since 2013. Currently the Scott M. Johnson ’97 Distinguished Professor of Political Science, she held a Charles A. Dana Research chair from 2011 to 2013 and is former director of Trinity’s signature Human Rights Program. She is the author of more than 50 publications, including four books from the University of Pennsylvania Press. Her op-eds and essays on academic freedom, faculty diversity, design thinking, academic innovation and the liberal arts can be found in the Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times, Hechinger Report, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, among other publications.

Cardenas earned a B.A. in international relations and French from Tulane University, an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Virginia, and a certificate in international human rights law from Oxford University. Before joining Trinity, she held visiting appointments at the University of Cambridge, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and the University of Notre Dame.

 

Anita Davis

Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Anita Davis began serving as Trinity’s inaugural vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion in September 2018. In this role, she provides strategic leadership to advance institutional goals that promote and enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the community. Under her leadership, the Office of DEI is composed of four departments: Multicultural Affairs, the Queer Resource Center, the Women and Gender Resource Action Center, and Title IX. She co-directs the Office of Human Resources and serves as co-chair of the Task Force on Campus Climate and vice chair of the Campus Climate Incident Response Team. Davis is also the senior administrative liaison to the Board of Trustees DEI subcommittee, the Task Force on the Status of Women, and the Non-Exempt Staff Council.

Prior to coming to Trinity, Davis served as the director of diversity and inclusion at the Associated Colleges of the South, a consortium of 16 liberal arts colleges and universities, supporting member institutions in advancing their diversity and inclusion goals on campus and in their communities. Before that role, she served for five years as the inaugural director of what now is known as the Africana Studies Program at Rhodes College. In addition to being a tenured faculty member at Rhodes, she also served for seven years as the associate dean of academic affairs, with responsibilities including accreditation, curriculum and program assessment, faculty evaluation and mentoring, and supporting diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Davis has more than 20 years of experience helping institutions assess and build capacity to address social justice issues. As a clinical-community psychologist, she brings a strengths-based, collaborative, and action-oriented approach to her work. She is a member of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education and of the Executive Board of Liberal Arts Diversity Officers. Davis received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in clinical-community psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a B.A. from Rhodes College.

Joseph DiChristina

Vice President for Student Success and Enrollment Management

A member of the Trinity community since July 2015, Joseph DiChristina oversees Trinity’s newly formed Student Success and Enrollment Management Division, which represents a strategically holistic approach to the student experience and spans the entire student life cycle, from the prospective student to the graduate launching into life beyond Trinity.

The division comprises undergraduate and graduate admissions; financial aid; Posse scholars; career development; student success and retention; the Individualized Degree Program; dean of student life, community life, and standards; campus life and social houses; campus safety; athletics and recreation; the Bantam Network residential learning community; counseling and wellness; health center; housing; spiritual and religious life; accessibility; student involvement and leadership; and international students and scholars.

DiChristina was named to this position after serving for five years as Trinity’s dean of campus life and vice president for student affairs, responsible for all areas of student life and involvement. He came to Trinity from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, where he had served as dean of students since 2001 and was the founding director of that college’s award-winning Center for Experiential Learning. Previously, he served at Oberlin College in Ohio in several areas, including residential life, campus safety and security, and student activities, before being appointed associate dean of students.

DiChristina earned a B.S. in biochemistry from Beloit College and a master’s degree in higher education from the University of Akron.

Kristen Eshleman

Vice President for Library and Information Technology Services

Kristen Eshleman joined the Trinity community in July 2021 and is responsible for leadership of Trinity’s merged Library and Information and Technology Services. Prior to her arrival at Trinity, Kristen was at Davidson College in North Carolina, where she served a 20-year career, most recently as director of innovation initiatives.

At Davidson, Kristen was responsible for operational leadership of innovation strategy, processes, and projects for the college, leading through deep collaboration on complex institutional initiatives that address needs and seize opportunities. Prior to her tenure at Davidson, Kristen worked in two start-up companies.

Kristen holds a master’s degree in social anthropology from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has written numerous articles on topics such as complexity, innovation, and change management in higher education for Inside Higher Ed, EDUCAUSE Review, and other outlets, and she co-authored, with Joe Eshleman, Richard Moniz, and Karen Mann, the 2016 book Librarians and Instructional Designers: Collaboration and Innovation.

Hellen Hom-Diamond

Vice President for Strategic Marketing and Communications

Hellen Hom-Diamond was appointed the vice president for strategic marketing and communications in January 2022. Hellen oversees the Communications Office and the College’s integrated strategic marketing and communications plan.

For more than 25 years, Hellen has led marketing and communications teams at educational institutions. Prior to Trinity, Hellen served as the chief communications officer at Sidwell Friends School where she wrote a strategic plan to elevate and promote the institutional storytelling and reputation through: an integrated digital and social media strategy; branding and DNA messaging; redesigned magazine; community-building events and campus communications; the alignment of Advancement and Admissions communications; crisis communications; and media relations. Prior to Sidwell Friends, she led communications and marketing strategies at The Hotchkiss School as the chief communications officer.

The majority of her career was spent at Yale University and UCLA. As the director of campus communications in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications at Yale University, Hellen worked to align internal and campus communications with institutional storytelling on YaleNews and through effective campus partnerships. As the director of online communications at the UCLA Alumni Association, she created digital strategies to engage alumni globally for the third largest alumni association in the country.

Hellen earned her bachelor’s degree in architecture from Columbia University and serves on the Communications and Marketing Commission of the Council for the Support and Advancement of Education (CASE).

Matthew S. Hyde

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid

Matthew S. Hyde joined the Trinity community in July 2022 and is responsible for the College’s vision for recruitment, enrollment, and financial aid. He is also a member of the leadership team of the Student Success and Enrollment Management Division.

Prior to his arrival at Trinity, Matthew served as the assistant vice president for enrollment management and dean of admissions at Lafayette College. Under his leadership, Lafayette grew the size of its applicant pool by 82 percent and increased other important recruitment benchmarks, including selectivity, student diversity, secondary/tertiary market growth, and yield rates.

Prior to his time at Lafayette, Matthew served as an associate director of admissions at Tufts University from 2004–11, where he directed the Tufts Alumni Admissions Program and connected more than 3,400 alumni volunteers with prospective students. Additionally, he worked closely with the Athletics Department to support the recruitment of student athletes in 28 NCAA Division III programs.

Matthew holds a B.A. from Bowdoin College in history and environmental studies and an Ed.M. from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

 

Scott Jordan

Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Scott Jordan has been appointed as vice president and chief financial officer. He will join the Trinity community on August 14, 2025.

A Connecticut resident, Scott comes to Trinity from Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the largest faculty of Harvard University and the academic administration for undergraduate and graduate education. Beginning in 2021, Scott served as the dean of finance and administration and led operations with a focus on long-term financial sustainability, managing the return to in-person work following the pandemic, and recruitment and retention of staff, which currently sits at 3,000. His portfolio included responsibilities for FAS finance, human resources, research administration, facilities, museums, animal care, and educational support services.

Prior to Harvard, Scott served as executive vice president for administration and chief financial officer for the University of Connecticut. His work in the role of chief operating officer for the university included oversight and executive responsibility for UConn’s $1.3 billion operating budget; all campuses, including UConn Law and the medical campus; buildings and grounds; human resources and labor relations; emergency operations; real estate; and the campuswide master plan.

Before entering higher education, Scott spent two decades in public finance leadership roles for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, serving under five governors. In his most recent role as undersecretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance, Scott oversaw the preparation and management of a $17 billion, five-year statewide capital plan, including higher education campuses, highways, bridges, state buildings, public housing, water infrastructure, and information technology. He also managed a $2 billion, 10-year capital finance program for Massachusetts public higher education, providing new and renovated buildings on each of the 29 campuses of the state college, community college, and University of Massachusetts systems.

Scott received an undergraduate degree in economics, cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a master’s in public administration from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government as a Bradford Fellow.

Dickens Mathieu

General Counsel and Secretary of the College

Dickens “Deke” Mathieu is the general counsel and secretary of the College for Trinity College. As general counsel, Mathieu provides legal advice and counsel to Trinity College’s Board of Trustees and to the College leadership, covering the full breadth of legal and compliance issues that abound in higher education today, including personnel matters, faculty affairs, student affairs, litigation, and Title IX, to name a few. As secretary of the College, Mathieu provides advice and support to the Trinity College Board of Trustees, and facilitates the work of board members in discharging their fiduciary duties to the College.

Mathieu has more than two decades of legal experience in higher education, private law firm practice, and public service. He previously served as general counsel for Syracuse University and senior legal counsel for Tufts University. He worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Boston, MA, in the Criminal Division, prosecuting narcotics trafficking and money laundering. He began his legal career in 1993 at the law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, in Washington, D.C.

Mathieu earned a B.A. in political science from Amherst College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.  He is active in the National Association of College and University Attorneys; is a founding director of Discovering Justice, The James D. St. Clair Court Education Project; and is a life member and former director of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association.

Carrie Pelzel ’74

Interim Vice President for Advancement
Executive Director of the All In Campaign

Carrie Pelzel ’74 was appointed executive director of the All In campaign on September 18, 2023. Succeeding the late Vice President for Advancement Michael Casey, Pelzel oversees the fundraising efforts of the Advancement Division and the All In comprehensive campaign. Prior to her appointment, she served for three years as campaign consultant and adviser to Trinity’s campaign. A recipient of the Alumni Medal for Excellence in 1989, Pelzel also previously served on Trinity’s Board of Fellows and Board of Trustees.

Pelzel, a seasoned fundraising professional, has launched and stewarded successful capital campaigns throughout her career. Prior to retiring in 2012, she served as senior vice president for advancement at Dartmouth College and led the $1.3 billion Campaign for the Dartmouth Experience through to its successful completion in December 2009. Before her time at Dartmouth, Pelzel spent 11 years at Harvard University as associate director of university development and director of external relations and helped to plan the launch of that institution’s $2.3 billion campaign, which was completed in 1999. Additionally, she held leadership roles at the National Association of Independent Schools and at her other alma mater, Northfield Mount Hermon School, where she was director of external affairs and led a capital campaign.

Pelzel earned a B.A. in philosophy and French from Trinity.

 

Jason Rojas M’12

Gavin Viano

Director of Athletics and Recreation

Gavin Viano joined the Trinity community as director of athletics and recreation on August 4, 2025.

Prior to Trinity, Gavin served as associate vice president for athletics and strategic programs at Wheaton College in Norton, MA, where he oversaw Wheaton’s Division III athletics and recreation program and contributed to the achievement of several institutional goals, including those centered on enrollment, student wellness, fundraising, and developing nontraditional revenue streams for the college.

Before joining Wheaton, Gavin worked as associate athletic director for development at Davidson College from 2015 to 2020. There he oversaw fundraising for the department and successfully completed a campaign that raised $60 million to improve facilities and to enhance the student experience. From 2010 to 2015, Gavin served as the senior managing director of athletics fundraising at Dartmouth College, where he increased annual giving and broadened the donor base for institutional support.

Gavin earned a B.A. in history from Clark University, where he competed as a Division III student-athlete, serving as captain of the men’s swimming and diving team. He also earned an M.S. in sports management from Drexel University.