Dear members of the Connecticut College community,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and the Presidential Search Committee, I am pleased to announce that Andrea Chapdelaine, Ph.D., has been unanimously appointed as the 12th president of Connecticut College. President-elect Chapdelaine, who will begin her tenure at Conn on July 1, 2024, currently serves as president of Hood College.

President-elect Chapdelaine is a proven higher education leader of a diverse student body and an administrator with a passion for and commitment to the mission of liberal arts colleges. She has a track record of success in consensus-building and sound financial stewardship, as well as a clear understanding of both the complexities and possibilities for liberal arts colleges and their students. In this pivotal moment for Conn and for higher education broadly, she inspires enthusiasm for what our College can do as we build on our 113-year-old mission and more recent achievements. She has the vision, experience and management capabilities to lead our College community forward. As a psychology professor, a first-generation college graduate, the recipient of two advanced degrees from the University of Connecticut and a parent of a NESCAC graduate, President-elect Chapdelaine is eager to meet, learn from and collaborate with our entire community and to begin the College’s next chapter as our 12th president. You can learn more about her here on the Conn website.

Today’s announcement is the culmination of a national search begun nine months ago by the Presidential Search Committee for a successor to President Emerita Katherine Bergeron, who served the College with exceptional dedication from 2014-2023. During her tenure, Conn adopted our Connections curriculum, completed the most successful capital campaign in our history, established the Division of Institutional Equity and Inclusion, launched the Building on Strength strategic plan, won our first national athletics team championship, created the Hale Center for Career Development and opened the Athey Center for Performance and Research at Palmer Auditorium, among other milestones. Since then, the College has been ably led by Interim President Leslie Wong, a former Conn trustee and two-time university president.

The Search Committee, which included 15 trustees, faculty, staff and students, gathered extensive input from across the Conn community, including alumni, through online surveys, engagement meetings, conversations and the solicitation of nominations. The final stage of the search included 18 additional invited interviewers put forth from the student body, staff and faculty, as well as members of the Board’s executive committee, Interim President Wong and the senior administrators of the College.

I want to thank Search Committee Co-Chair Maria Boyce ’85 for her leadership and dedication to the search and to the College; the members of the Search Committee for their wisdom, passion, candor and belief in the future of the College; the additional interviewers; the Board of Trustees for its dedication to the search; and, indeed, the entire Conn community for its thoughtful input. I also want to express my gratitude to Interim President Wong for his steady leadership during this time. The search process was an example of our shared governance commitments in action, and we are better for it.

Presidential transitions are key moments in Conn’s history, and the Board of Trustees is confident that the search process enabled us to choose the right leader from an impressive, well qualified and diverse pool of candidates. President-elect Chapdelaine and her husband David Tetreault will be visiting campus on April 24.  In the meantime, please join me in welcoming President-elect Chapdelaine, David and their sons, Daniel and Benjamin, to our Camel family.

Cordially,
Debo P. Adegbile ’91
Chair, Board of Trustees
Co-Chair, Presidential Search Committee