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<\/p>\nBy Andrew J. Concatelli
\nCollage by Ryan Olbrysh<\/p>\n
The new Trinity Plus curriculum; a reshaping of the admissions process and increased financial aid; committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion to build a stronger Trinity community; strengthening connections in Hartford; the College\u2019s largest capital campaign; the Bicentennial; a pandemic.<\/p>\n
In her nearly 11 years as president of Trinity College, Joanne Berger-Sweeney has led through times of challenges, achievements, and changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeadership necessarily involves managing change,\u201d says Larry Bacow, former president of Harvard University. \u201cIf you\u2019re not managing change, you\u2019re not leading; you are presiding.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it may be difficult to measure the success of a college president, Bacow suggests looking at the impact a leader has had on people and on the institution itself. \u201cThe question about legacy can be fraught,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I think you just need to ask, has the leader left the place better off than they found it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bacow has known Berger-Sweeney since 2010, when he hired the then-Wellesley College neuroscience professor as dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, where he was president at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you want in a leader is somebody who is both analytic and empathetic,\u201d says Bacow. His address at Berger-Sweeney\u2019s 2014 Inauguration as Trinity\u2019s 22nd president described her as having a \u201chard head and soft heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking back at her tenure at Trinity, Bacow says, \u201cJoanne doesn\u2019t shy away from a hard decision, but she always considers how it affects people. To be an effective president, you need to engage lots of different constituencies: students, faculty, alumni, staff, the board, neighboring public officials. The fact that she has served with distinction for 11 years suggests to me that she has done that well and that she is very well respected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisa G. Bisaccia \u201978, chair of Trinity\u2019s Board of Trustees, says Berger-Sweeney has led by example through her thoughtful and generous interactions in any situation. \u201cShe inspires people to follow her when she lays out a path,\u201d Bisaccia says. \u201cYou want people to follow you not because you tell them to, but because they want to and because they feel that they\u2019re a part of something bigger than themselves. That is the hallmark of a good leader, and it has been characteristic of Joanne\u2019s presidency from the very beginning. Anyone can manage; few people can inspire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bisaccia cites among Berger-Sweeney\u2019s top successes the Trinity Plus curriculum, which emphasizes co-curricular and experiential opportunities including internships, and an evolved admissions and financial aid strategy. \u201cThis has made Trinity more visible and more accessible outside of our traditional markets. This means that we get superior students with different experiences and from different backgrounds, which adds to and benefits our entire community,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Cornelia \u201cCornie\u201d Thornburgh \u201980, H\u201922, former chair of Trinity\u2019s Board of Trustees, describes Berger-Sweeney as a \u201cstudent first\u201d president who built the student environment into one that is highly attractive to applicants through initiatives such as the Bantam Network. \u201cJoanne can proudly point to the fact that she has attracted the kind of student that is very different from 15 years ago,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve expanded geographically, of course, but the students are now more curious\u2014both academically and socially. We\u2019ve revived a sense of joy in learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Thornburgh, who served as chair of the Presidential Search Committee when Berger-Sweeney was hired, says Berger-Sweeney spoke during her initial interviews about her belief that educational institutions should create a sense of community. \u201cAny community has differing points of views . . . but in the end they come together around unified purposes of who they are and what they hope to achieve together,\u201d Thornburgh says.<\/p>\n
The entire Trinity community was put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in spring 2020. \u201cThe amount of organizational change during COVID was staggering,\u201d Bisaccia says. \u201cWe needed Trinity to keep going and to provide students with the best educational experience possible, so Joanne and her team designed a model for both hybrid and remote teaching and learning that we would follow for a year and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thornburgh adds, \u201cJoanne asked the trustees and other alumni to write letters to 2020 graduates to let them know they were not the forgotten class. The sense of building community, for her, was always palpable.\u201d<\/p>\n
High points of the past 11 years include the yearlong celebration of Trinity\u2019s Bicentennial and the launch of the College\u2019s largest fundraising effort in its history, the All In comprehensive campaign. Bisaccia says, \u201cA hallmark of Joanne\u2019s legacy within the All In campaign is expanding the reach and resources of the Ferris Athletic Center to all students, through the addition of the Wellness and Recreation Center, while still making sure our athletes have access to world-class facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strengthening connections with Hartford is another important achievement during Berger-Sweeney\u2019s time at Trinity, according to Paul H. Mounds Jr. \u201907, a College trustee who grew up in Hartford. \u201cJoanne had a vision upon her arrival about how Trinity can be not only a partner but also a leading voice to support the growth and vitality of the city and the state,\u201d Mounds says.<\/p>\n
To that end, Berger-Sweeney oversaw the creation of Trinity\u2019s Center for Hartford Engagement and Research (CHER), which coordinates five core academic and co-curricular partnerships between Hartford\u2019s diverse communities and the students, staff, and faculty at Trinity. \u201cThis incorporates Hartford into the curriculum, particularly for first-year students, and expands internship opportunities in the city,\u201d Mounds notes.<\/p>\n
Trinity in recent years also opened its Innovation Hub downtown at Constitution Plaza, housing the partnership with tech giant Infosys and programming for the College\u2019s new Entrepreneurship Center.<\/p>\n
Mounds, vice president of community and corporate alliances at Yale New Haven Health System and previously chief of staff to Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, has witnessed Berger-Sweeney become one of most powerful civic leaders in the state. \u201cShe\u2019s a person who can call the governor of the State of Connecticut, and he picks up the phone,\u201d Mounds says. \u201cI know because I\u2019ve been in that office and I\u2019ve seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Off campus, Berger-Sweeney has been a longtime member of the Capital Region Development Authority, which focuses on the economic development and growth of Greater Hartford, and is chair of the Board of Directors of Hartford HealthCare, the city\u2019s largest health care provider.<\/p>\n
In addition to fostering relationships in Hartford, Berger-Sweeney also has helped reconnect generations of alumni around the world with their alma mater. \u201cThere\u2019s been a reengagement with an alumni base that is extremely vast, diverse, and influential,\u201d Mounds says. \u201cShe\u2019s found ways to help them understand what the school has done for them in their lives and to see the importance of giving back in an impactful and present manner. Like them, I\u2019m proud to dedicate my time to Trinity because of the vision she has provided for the College.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bisaccia and Thornburgh both note that Berger-Sweeney\u2019s commitment to liberal arts education will leave a tremendous impact on Trinity. \u201cIt\u2019s a great gift to have a college president stay for 11 years,\u201d Bisaccia says. \u201cJoanne was able to shepherd changes and innovations from their inception as ideas to becoming reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thornburgh adds, \u201cTrinity has gained so much from Joanne\u2019s forward-looking optimism and her desire to find the best people\u2014from the educators and administrators to the students themselves\u2014and bring them to campus. She\u2019s built a terrific framework as Trinity goes into its next 100 years. Still, we\u2019re really going to miss her.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Mounds, for one, has a clear answer to Bacow\u2019s question about Berger-Sweeney\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there were a Mount Rushmore of Trinity College presidents, we need to start etching her face on it,\u201d Mounds says. \u201cShe has prepared Trinity\u2014and the next leader of Trinity\u2014to take on challenges and to continue in an impactful manner for years to come. She is a transformational leader who was important and necessary at the time of her arrival. She will leave this place much better positioned than anyone would have ever thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a job as complex as being the president of a college, you need to create and develop a highly networked team. You have to inspire people, empower them, and give them enough autonomy to do the work well. Leadership is not what a single person can do but what a team and a community can do collectively. When I think of the improvements that we\u2019ve made in campus climate, for example, those positive changes happen because people feel included and engaged, focused on a common mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started as president, Cornie Thornburgh told me that Trinity had really good bones, but there were some current challenges. What I saw in her and in other Bantams I met was real passion about this place but some frustration that the College wasn\u2019t living up to their remembered experiences. I thought if Trinity had never had a woman president, it probably needed somebody with a different perspective to help it be its best self. What I\u2019ve tried to do is highlight and elevate the incredibly positive things going on here and add some new positive things so that stronger, more engaged students, staff, and faculty are making an active choice to be part of the Trinity community.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of looking to the past for Trinity\u2019s glory days, I wanted to create a bright future so people would be proud to say they\u2019re a part of today\u2019s Trinity College. I worked hard to a create a community that felt better about itself, a community that could see all of the incredible potential that I saw.\u00a0My job was to help Trinity\u2019s light shine a little bit brighter for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014President Joanne Berger-Sweeney<\/p>\n
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By Andrew J. Concatelli Collage by Ryan Olbrysh The new Trinity Plus curriculum; a reshaping of the admissions process and increased financial aid; committing to diversity, equity, and inclusion to build a stronger Trinity community; strengthening connections in Hartford; the College\u2019s largest capital campaign; the Bicentennial; a pandemic. In her nearly 11 years as president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"parent":3509,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3543","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n