Trinity College Hires Rich Majerus as Vice President for Strategic Planning and Marketing and Communications

Trinity College has appointed Rich Majerus as vice president for strategic planning and marketing and communications. He will join the Trinity community on April 27, 2026.

Trinity President Dan Lugo said, “Rich is a leader with deep experience in higher education, data, and operational strategy. He brings a breadth of expertise across institutional strategic planning, marketing and communications, enrollment, advancement, and operations—a unique combination that will help us guide Trinity’s next chapter.”

Majerus comes to the College from the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), where he serves as vice president of expeditions. In this role, he leads a global team across 12 campus locations and oversees a wide-ranging portfolio that includes wilderness courses, alumni programs, custom education, and youth initiatives.

Prior to NOLS, Majerus served as vice president of planning and strategy at Queens University of Charlotte, where he led the development and execution of the university’s institution-wide strategic framework. This work advanced a set of interconnected priorities: expanding economic mobility, strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration, investing in employee success, and elevating brand visibility to position Queens for long-term impact and sustainability.

Prior to Queens, Majerus served as assistant vice president for advancement strategy and donor relations at Colby College, where he played a key role in the launch of the Dare Northward campaign, the largest campaign undertaken by a liberal arts college. Originally set at $750 million and ultimately expanded to $1 billion, the campaign helped elevate Colby’s national profile and led to the launch of a new institutional brand of the same name.

Majerus began his career in enrollment at his alma mater, Carleton College, before leveraging his expertise in enrollment data and modeling as a founder of Third Coast Analytics (TCA), a higher education data science and strategy firm that was acquired in 2016. At TCA, he advised university leaders and boards across the country on using data and technology to drive institutional improvement.

“I am looking forward to joining the Trinity and Hartford communities and to working together to articulate our shared vision for the future of the College,” said Majerus. “I am honored to have this opportunity to collaborate with Trinity faculty and staff to lift up the exceptional work, teaching, and scholarship that is happening on campus.” He added, “The liberal arts have had a profound impact on my life and worldview, and I look forward to rejoining a campus community to help advance the power and impact of the liberal arts in action.”

Majerus holds a B.A. in sociology and anthropology with a concentration in educational studies from Carleton and an M.A. in sociology from the University of Notre Dame.