August 15, 2022

Dear Members of the Connecticut College Community,

I hope you are finding some time to enjoy these last, late days of summer. This brief note is to bring you up to date on our search for the next Vice President for Finance and Administration.

As you know, at the end of June I wrote to inform you that Rich Madonna was leaving Connecticut College to pursue a new opportunity. In July, we were able to identify an experienced leader, Teresa Smith, to succeed him on an interim basis until a permanent vice president can be appointed. Teresa is an energetic retired CFO with extensive experience in higher education consulting, most recently as the interim vice president at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. She holds a Master of Business Administration, a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and, prior to her retirement, she served as Chief Financial and Administrative Officer at Tallahassee Community College.

Teresa began her work at Conn remotely on August 3. Starting today, she joins us in New London and will be on campus for the remainder of the semester. She has wasted no time getting up to speed, collaborating with colleagues across the College on financial planning and on a long list of capital projects slated for completion in the coming weeks. I am grateful to have someone with her experience helping to ensure that our work on critical initiatives can move forward without interruption. I hope you will have a chance to meet her soon and to welcome her to our community.

Our search for a permanent vice president has also progressed. WittKieffer, an executive search firm with expertise in this area, has been engaged to help us and a search committee has now been appointed. Kimberly Verstandig, Vice President for Advancement, will chair the search and the following colleagues have generously agreed to serve: Priya Kohli, Associate Professor of Statistics and Chair of PPBC; Laurie Schaeffer, Associate Chief Information Officer for Enterprise Systems; Madeline Vanech ’23, Senior Fellow in Admission and Chair of Finance for SGA; and Reginald White, Vice President for Human Resources. Two trustees will also join the committee, John Linehan, P ’18, ’23, 24, Chair of the Investment Committee of the Board, and Raj Vig,’93, Chair of the Finance Committee. The group will begin their review of candidates in September with the goal of making an appointment by Thanksgiving.

Please join me in welcoming Teresa Smith as interim Vice President for Finance and Administration and in thanking everyone on the search committee for their service.

I look forward to seeing you on campus. 

Yours,
 
Katherine Bergeron
President