January 26, 2022
Dear Members of the Connecticut College Community,
I am delighted to announce that Reginald White, currently the Senior Director of Human Resources for the division of research and innovation at Cornell University, will become the next Vice President for Human Resources at Connecticut College. He will begin in his new role on March 14.
Reginald is a talented leader who brings to Conn three decades of professional experience in human resources, marketing, and finance together with a deep commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. He earned a B.S. in Psychology and Human Development from Cornell and an Executive M.B.A. from Boston University, and went on to hold positions at Bank of Boston, Citibank, and Key Bank, before moving into executive leadership roles in human resources and marketing at both Fidelity Investments and Merrill Lynch. In 2009, he founded Toran Enterprises, a consulting firm specializing in executive coaching and professional development in equity and inclusion for both international and domestic clients. In 2017, he returned to his alma mater as an organizational strategist and, in 2019, became senior director of human resources for Cornell’s research division.
Much of Reginald’s career has been focused on developing strategies to create more equitable communities. As a leader, he has been committed to advancing policies and practices that allow all members of a community to achieve their potential and feel a sense of place and of belonging. For the past three years, that commitment has been focused in the division of research and innovation at Cornell, where he has been a strategic partner to the Vice President and has overseen human resources and communications for the division’s many centers and programs. In that capacity, Reginald has also provided opportunities for equity and leadership development to staff and faculty across the campus. In 2020, he became an employee-elected representative to the Cornell Board of Trustees. We are thrilled that he will be bringing his broad vision of full participation to human resources at Connecticut College.
As the new Vice President for Human Resources, Reginald will be responsible for the care and development of a talented workforce with over 700 employees in a range of professional roles. This includes fostering innovation in every dimension of the job: from organizational design to recruitment and hiring; from employee relations to job assessment and satisfaction; from health and benefits administration to document management; from personnel classification and compensation to continuous professional development. He comes into the role at a moment when employers across the country are redoubling their efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion; reassess workplace practices; and improve employee experience in an increasingly competitive market for talent—all while dealing with an ongoing pandemic. Reginald’s range of experience, combined with his creative and collaborative spirit, make him the ideal leader to build a new kind of HR office—one that not only elevates the experience of all who work at Conn but also becomes an exemplar for the future of the field.
I want to thank everyone who participated in the search process, especially Lee Hisle, Vice President for Information Services, who chaired the search, and all the committee members whose collegial good judgment led to this outcome: Jeffrey Cole, Dean of the Faculty; Luci Chaplin, Senior Associate Director of Alumni and Parent Giving in the Office of Advancement and a member of Staff Council; Persephone Hall, Executive Director of the Hale Center for Career Development; Anne Kelley, Assistant Director of Budget and Administration in the Office of Facilities Management; Larry Lewellen, Interim Vice President for Human Resources; and Leslie Wong, President Emeritus of San Francisco State University and member of the Connecticut College Board of Trustees.
There will be occasions in the coming weeks for you to meet Reginald in person. For now, please join me in extending our warmest welcome to him, his wife Victoria Graddy White, and their twin sons, Christian and Julian, to the Connecticut College community.
Yours,
Katherine Bergeron
President