September 10, 2019
Dear Members of the Campus Community,
We are writing to share the exciting news that Maureen “Mo” White has been appointed the next Director of Athletics and Chair of Physical Education at Connecticut College. She will begin her duties on Oct. 1.
As the first woman to serve as director of athletics at Connecticut College, White will take the helm at a pivotal moment in the evolution of our program. One of the goals of the College’s strategic plan, Building on Strength, is to heighten the competitiveness, success, and integration of the College’s athletics programs. As director, White will be responsible for overseeing the success of 28 intercollegiate sports together with 45 coaches and staff. She will advance plans for the renewal of our athletics facilities, and she will lead the department in developing a vision for the future of athletics at Conn, supporting our scholar-athletes to compete within the NESCAC at the highest level of Division III.
White was selected from a pool of extremely qualified candidates after a competitive national search. She brings to this new position not only experience in the corporate sector in athletics marketing and consulting but also an expansive career in higher education, including twice serving as director of athletics. In all of her roles, she has leveraged her expertise as an athlete, coach, faculty member, and administrator to develop highly competitive programs. Connecticut College has already benefited from her talents. Less than a year ago, she came to Conn to lead a review of our athletics operations and to design new approaches for funding the department. Her work during this short period has been transformative.
We feel very fortunate to have found in Mo White a talented leader with the skills, values, and experience to take our athletics program to the next level of excellence.
White holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Providence College, where she played Division I tennis, and a master’s in sport management from the University of Connecticut. Prior to Conn, she served as the director of athletics and chair of the Department of Physical Education at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York. During her tenure at the Academy, she reorganized the department, developing an inclusive team approach that led to greater equity across programs. She also initiated facilities improvements, including new construction to enhance competitiveness. A key priority for White was to grow programs and develop new recruitment strategies to increase the number of women and other underrepresented students. The Academy teams had their most successful years under her leadership and developed a nationally televised rivalry with the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
Before that, White served in a wide variety of roles at Mitchell College in New London, including head men’s tennis coach, assistant professor for business and professional studies, department chair for sport management and physical education, and director of athletics. Among her accomplishments, she launched the sport management bachelor’s degree, and, as director of athletics, worked closely with the NCAA to build a model Division III athletics program. Through her leadership, student participation increased by 60 percent, and teams won both conference championships and NCAA championship berths.
White has played and continues to play leadership roles within the NCAA, with service on a variety of committees, including the cross-division group that handles competitive safeguards and medical aspects in sport.
Executive Director of the NESCAC Andrea Savage praised the College’s choice: “In Mo White, Connecticut College has selected an accomplished and veteran leader. She brings a breadth of experience in higher education as a professor, coach, and administrator committed to the wellbeing of student-athletes and to developing programs to achieve success. With 20 years in higher education, 15 years leading Division III programs, as well as her work nationally with the NCAA, Mo is superbly positioned to become the next director of athletics at Conn.”
Beyond the professional experience she brings, there is another reason we are excited to welcome Mo White to this new position: She has Camels in her blood. Both her mother and her sister are alumnae of the College, and, more importantly, when she had to decide on the subject of her master’s thesis, she chose to focus her research on key strategies for building the athletics program at Conn. We are thrilled that she will finally have a chance to put that research into action!
We would like to thank the search committee: Bryan Ackil ’21, men’s ice hockey; Stanton Ching, Margaret W. Kelly Professor of Chemistry; Ken Colombe ’20; Susan Daniells ’01, director of leadership gifts; Fritz Folts ’82, chair of the Board of Trustees; Persephone Hall, Hale Family Director of the Hale Center for Career Development; Eva Kovach, associate director of athletics and head coach of women’s rowing; Ebony Manning ’98, associate dean for equity and compliance programs and Title IX coordinator; Sean Martin, director of financial aid; Geoff Norbert, assistant dean for student engagement and new student programs; Mia Santana ’20, women’s soccer; Jim Ward, head coach of men’s ice hockey; and Lisa Vogeley, head coach of women’s lacrosse, for their dedicated work over three months this summer and for selecting such a fine candidate. We are also grateful for the many comments received from community members and alumnae and alumni athletes during the process, which helped us focus our efforts considerably.
I hope you join us now in congratulating Mo on this achievement and welcoming her husband, Jason, and her sons, T.J. and Devin, to the Connecticut College family.
Sincerely,
Katherine Bergeron
President
Victor Arcelus
Dean of Students