Joanne Berger-Sweeney became the 22nd president of Trinity College in July 2014. Since that time, she has overseen several major accomplishments, including the creation of the Bantam Network mentoring program for first-year students; the launch of the Campaign for Community, a campus initiative promoting inclusiveness and respect; and the expansion of Trinity’s footprint to Constitution Plaza in downtown Hartford.
Before coming to Trinity, Berger-Sweeney served as dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, creating the vision and setting the strategic direction for the university’s largest school. Prior to Tufts, Berger-Sweeney was a member of the Wellesley College faculty. Her teaching and research career at Wellesley spanned 13 years prior to being named associate dean in 2004. Berger-Sweeney received her undergraduate degree in psychobiology from Wellesley, her M.P.H. in environmental health sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in neurotoxicology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She completed postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Health (INSERM) in Paris, France. Berger-Sweeney serves on many boards in the Hartford region, including MetroHartford Alliance, Hartford HealthCare, the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education, and the Capital Region Development Authority. She also is a corporator of Hartford Hospital. Berger-Sweeney and her husband, Urs V. Berger, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and a computer scientist, are the parents of two children.
