In 2014, Joanne Berger-Sweeney became both the first woman and first person of color to be named president of Trinity College, a liberal arts school that dates back to 1823.
Berger-Sweeney, who was dean of Tufts University’s School of Arts and Sciences from 2010 to 2014, said it was her parents and mentors along the way that led her to have a career in education leadership.
The 64-year-old Los Angeles native said her father, Paul, was one of the first Black attorneys in LA, and her mother, Arminta, was the first Black woman in a major metropolitan area to lead a Girl Scouts chapter as executive director.
“My mother said I could be anything I wanted to be and my parents were great examples of what you could become with hard work,” she said. “I also had great mentors who saw something in me and were always giving me good advice.”
Academia first became Berger-Sweeney’s profession in 1991, when Wellesley College hired her as an assistant professor.
She is a trained neurophysiologist who has contributed to more than 60 scientific publications.
Berger-Sweeney said her major accomplishments so far at Trinity College have included increasing by 50% financial aid for undergraduate students and overseeing the college’s most successful annual fund drive, raising more than $70 million in three years. The college is in the midst of a $500-million capital campaign.
“We are pushing very close to $300 million (this year),” she said.
She also said Trinity “would love to raise more money for scholarships, so we can really focus on the talent across all zip codes, and not simply based on people who can afford to pay.”
She also helped get the Trinity-Infosys Applied Learning Initiative off the ground in 2019. The program incorporates elements of liberal arts and tech training.
Berger-Sweeney said Trinity will have several events in 2023 to mark the school’s 200-year anniversary.
“Our goal is to have a very successful bicentennial,” she said. “We want to bring our alums back to campus and have our alums integrate with our student body, faculty and staff.”