Trinity College Fund Leaders: “Passionate Advocates for Trinity”
Trinity College Fund (TCF) Chair James W. “Jim” Cuminale ’75, P’09, and TCF Vice Chair Diane “Dede” DePatie Consoli ’88, P’19, ’22, are enthusiastically committed to encouraging fellow alumni and families to participate in annual giving that has an immediate impact on the educational experiences of Trinity students. Shortly after the fiscal year wrapped up on June 30, 2022, Trinity Trustee N. Louis Shipley ’85, who served as Trinity College Fund Chair since fall 2019, passed the baton to Cuminale and Consoli, describing them in a letter to TCF volunteers as “passionate advocates for Trinity” and “exactly the right people to lead this robust group of volunteers into Trinity’s next century.”
Cuminale, who serves on Trinity’s Board of Trustees, was a history major who went on to earn his J.D. from Vanderbilt University. He served as general counsel and is now a senior advisor at PJT Partners, a financial services and mergers and acquisitions advisory firm in Manhattan. He was one of the first supporters of the Summit Scholarship initiative, which provides current-use, merit-based aid to some of Trinity’s highest achieving students. Cuminale also established an endowed scholarship, the Cuminale Family Scholarship Fund, to further support students at Trinity. He and his wife, Cynthia A. Cuminale, P’09, are residents of Darien, Connecticut. Their daughter, Jennifer Cuminale ’09, is a Trinity College alumna.
Consoli, who majored in economics, hails from a multigenerational Trinity family, beginning with her father, the late Thomas DePatie ’52, a former trustee of the college. Consoli began her career in the garment industry, including running the women’s division of Nautica Sportswear. Today, she runs her own business, Boxtree Interiors, serving both residential and commercial clients. She has served in numerous Trinity volunteer roles, including with the Trinity College Alumni Association Executive Committee, the Board of Fellow (two terms), and the Parents Leadership Council. She and her husband, Victor Consoli ’87, are residents of New Canaan, Connecticut, and Quonochontaug, Rhode Island, and they are Trinity parents to two daughters, Olivia ’19 and Grace ’22.
Together, Cuminale and Consoli look forward to continuing to build on the fundraising success of the past year, when 6,418 Trinity College Fund donors gave nearly $9 million—unrestricted dollars providing essential support for students. Donors also contributed an additional $2.5 million in current use support for athletics, financial aid, the student emergency and equity fund, and other initiatives, bringing the total raised for current operations in fiscal year 2022 to $11.5 million.
