Board of Trustees

Chair

Seth Alvord joined the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2016 and assumed the position as Chair of the Board on July 1, 2024.

Alvord is the Founder and Managing Partner of Balance Point Capital Partners, a private equity investment company. Balance Point invests debt and equity in middle-market companies, helping these companies find the right capital structure to support their objectives, while putting a premium on flexibility, partnership, and patience. Alvord has over 20 years of experience in advising and financing companies to achieve growth and profitability. Prior to founding Balance Point Capital, he held various positions in the investment banking industry, including the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley.

Alvord previously served as a Trustee and vice chair of the Board of the Northfield Mount Hermon School. There he served on the Investment Committee and as Chair of the Financial Policy Committee. He has spoken to members of the Connecticut College Peggotty Investment Club about careers in the investment field and participated in club panel discussions on capital markets.

At Connecticut College, Alvord majored in political science and was a member of the men's rowing team. In 1998, he earned an M.B.A. from the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University where he was awarded the A. Donald Kelso Award which is given to individuals who have contributed significantly to the advancement of the school.

Vice Chair

Maria Boyce was appointed to the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2020.

Boyce is a retired partner of Hogan Lovells LLP where she prosecuted and defended complex commercial and intellectual property cases in courts throughout the United States. Prior to joining Hogan Lovells, Boyce was a partner at Baker Botts LLP, where she served as the first female office managing partner of a major Houston law firm and served three terms on the firm's Executive Committee. Boyce serves by appointment of her United States senators on the bipartisan committee that interviews federal judicial candidates for district court and Fifth Circuit vacancies in Texas. In this role, she actively participates in vetting presidentially appointed federal judges, as well as U.S. Attorneys, in Texas.

Boyce is passionate about issues surrounding health equity, particularly in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. She is secretary of the Board of the Episcopal Health Foundation and vice-chair of the Board of The Rose, and an active volunteer with the National Breast Cancer Coalition, the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. She previously served as a Trustee of St. John’s School, a K-12 independent school in Houston.

With a major in government and a minor in history, Boyce graduated cum laude from Connecticut College and went on to obtain her J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law. While at Conn, Boyce served as the housefellow of Windham House her senior year, as a member of the Judiciary Board during her junior year, and as president of Harkness House her sophomore year. She also attended the London School of Economics for one semester.

Vice Chair

Peter Skaperdas became a member of the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2017.

Skaperdas is a retired private wealth advisor and former chief U.S. economist and director of U.S. economic research for UBS. His prior positions include senior economist at Salomon Brothers and senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

He is a past President of the Board of Directors of the New Canaan YMCA and is a past president of the Connecticut Grand Opera and Orchestra. He currently serves on the Board of Crossing Thresholds, which builds schools in the slums of Kenya, and the New Canaan Museum and Historical Society.

Skaperdas earned his B.S. in economics and mathematics from the University of Illinois in 1975 and his M.S. in economics from the University of Wisconsin in 1977.

Vice Chair

Dwayne Stallings was elected to the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2018.

Stallings is a Raymond James Financial Advisor and vice president of Liberty Bank in Mystic, Connecticut. Stallings has over 20 years of experience in the finance industry. Previously, he was a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch in New London. He had been named one of the Top 100 Financial Advisors in America by Bank Investment Consultant magazine.

After graduating from the College, Stallings played professional basketball in Europe. He now works closely with the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, England, where he assists students with finding internships and jobs. Stallings hosts several financial panels each year in the U.K. on behalf of the UEA. He also funds the UEA Dwayne C. Stallings scholarship, which annually helps ease the financial burden for a student from a financially deprived background.

At Connecticut College, Stallings majored in history and earned his B.A. in 1999. He participated in basketball, club baseball, and theater and was involved with Unity House. In his senior year, he was the team captain and leading scorer on the men's varsity basketball team. The team posted a 28-1 record, was ranked No. 1 in the country, and advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament. Stallings was inducted into the Connecticut College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2018. As a member of the 1998-99 team, he was also inducted into the New England Athletic Hall of Fame and the New London Athletic Hall of Fame. 

Jessica Archibald joined the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2021.

Archibald is a managing director and member of the Investment Committee at Top Tier Capital Partners in San Francisco. She is co-lead of the Funds team and participates extensively in the capital formation efforts of the firm. Archibald joined Top Tier's predecessor firm Paul Capital in 2005. Prior to joining Top Tier, she was part of the investment team at Care Capital LLC, a venture capital firm specializing in biotechnology. Before that, she spent five years at Salomon Smith Barney.

Archibald studied abroad at Glasgow Caledonian University in the fall of her junior year and graduated in 1995 with a major in math and economics. She took a business school semester abroad at the University of St. Gallen in 2001 and earned her M.B.A. in finance from NYU's Stern School of Business in 2002. She was a member of the varsity crew team and was inducted into the College's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. She continued to row competitively after graduation through the New York Athletic Club where she was a nine-time national champion and she competed in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic trials. Currently, Archibald rows with the Sarasota Rowing Club.

Dodie Crawford began serving on the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2018.

Crawford began her career in advertising at Ketchum Communications in San Francisco. She earned an M.B.A. in marketing, strategy, and organizational behavior from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. Crawford worked for Clorox in brand management and for Webvan and eBay in marketing, data management, merchandising, and operations. As an independent consultant, Crawford has led marketing, strategy, and global crowd-sourced innovation consulting projects for a wide range of businesses.

Crawford served on the Board of Trustees of the Drew School, a college preparatory high school in San Francisco where she was on the Executive Board as Treasures and Chair of the Finance Committee. She was the founding President of the National Charity League, Inc., Golden Gate Chapter from 2016 to 2018.

Her double major in art history and economics has allowed her to develop an appreciation for the extraordinary voice and beauty of art from diverse cultures while building a foundation and understanding of the economic frameworks underlying the development, growth, and fluctuations of the world and local economies. While at Conn, Crawford served as a student advisor, as an admission tour guide, was the Student Activities Council representative her senior year, and was a member of President Gaudiani's Five-Year Strategic Plan Finance Committee. After graduating, she served as an admission alumni interviewer, as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, and as a member of the CC San Francisco Bay Area Core Group.

Nat Damon began serving on the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2021.

Damon is the founding Executive Director of Reach Academics, an organization that works closely with K-12 schools in the US and UK to strengthen relationships among students, teachers, staff, parents, and administrators to ensure all members thrive. He also hosts the “Reach.Teach.Talk” podcast. In 2021, Nat founded Reach Academy for Young Men, a 501(c)3 summer institute for boys grades 7-10 in the LA area focused on learning, leadership, and positive growth. Previously, Damon was the Middle School Director at The Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles and the assistant head of School/Upper School director for seven years at The John Thomas Dye School in Bel Air, CA. Before that tenure, he was the founding academic dean/dean of students at Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth, CA. As an English teacher grades 6 through 11, Damon worked at The Park School (Brookline, MA), Derby Academy (Hingham, MA), and Harvard-Westlake School (Bel Air, CA). He has published two books: "True Colors in My Ordinary World" and "Time to Teach: Time to Reach" and its corresponding workbook.

Damon is a member of the Board of Governors at Soho Parish Primary School in London and was recently elected to the board of the Relation-Centered Educators Network. He has served as a board member of the Episcopal School of Los Angeles, Beacon School for Boys, and Valley Charter Schools in North Hills, CA, with three years as Board Chair. Outside of education, Damon is involved with All Saints/Beverly Hills Episcopal Church's educational for ministry program and is passionate about the outdoors, the arts, and transforming LA into a cultural, educational, and civic beacon. 

Damon graduated in 1993 with a major in American studies and psychology and earned his M.A. in English literature from Middlebury College in 2000. While at Conn, Damon served as a housefellow, a community service volunteer, was a member of CoCo Beaux, and was on the men’s rowing team.

Marisa Fariña was elected to the Board in 2022. She previously served as a Young Alumni Trustee from 1993 - 1996. 

She is Vice President of Live Events for the New York Times, where she oversees the live journalism platform including Andrew Ross Sorkin's DealBook Summit. Prior to joining the New York Times in January 2025, Fariña was the Managing Director of Washington Post Live, the news outlet's live events division and was the CRO and VP of Strategic Partnerships at Tina Brown Live Media, where she spearheaded business strategy and partnerships for Women in the World summits and salons presented domestically and internationally. She also spent 18 years at Time Out North America, including serving as executive vice president/group publisher. While there, she was named a recipient of Folio Magazine's 30 Under 30 award. She is the co-founder of TEDxEast, a program designed to give communities, organizations, and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.

Fariña is Chair of the Brooklyn Book Festival Board and Development Committee Chair & Board Member of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.

Fariña majored in political science at Connecticut College and received the Elizabeth Fielding Memorial Award, which recognizes an outstanding woman in each class. She was a member of the Student Government Association and served on the Senior Pledge Committee. She is currently president of the Class of 1993 and previously was a reunion committee member, class gift chair, and alumni admission representative. 

YOUNG ALUMNI TRUSTEE

Hannah Gonzalez was elected by the Class of 2023 as their nominee for Young Alumni Trustee. She came to the College as a member of Posse Foundation's eleventh Chicago cohort and is currently working as an education law paralegal at Legal Aid Chicago where she provides litigation support in special education and school discipline matters for youth in foster care. 

While at Conn, Gonzalez majored in government, minored in philosophy, and earned a certificate from the Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy. In 2023, she received the Holleran Center's Tracee Reiser Community Activism Award for her community impact as a PICA Scholar. Additionally, she earned the Dean's Leadership Award, the Judy Bailen Kateman ’65 Outstanding Senior Prize, and the SGA Margaret Watson Leadership Award for her extracurricular achievements. Her work experience includes internships as an undergraduate clerk with the Domestic Violence Division of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office and as a summer Policy & Advocacy Fellow with the U.S. Resettlement, Asylum & Integrations team at the International Rescue Committee. 

Gonzalez's leadership experience includes serving as President of the Student Government Association in her senior year, as Chair of the Government and International Relations Department Student Advisory Board, as Chair of Equity and Inclusion and House Senator on SGA, and as a Big Sib for the Genesis Program. Throughout her years at Conn, Gonzalez was deeply involved in the Division of Institutional Equity and Inclusion where she worked as the inaugural Lead Communications and Programming Fellow and as the Leadership Development Ambassador of Race and Ethnicity Programs. For her work with the Division, she earned the DIEI Emergent Leader Award and the Janet Foster ’80 Senior Award, the highest honor bestowed on a senior who has upheld the legacy of Unity House as a place of support and refuge for students of color at Connecticut College.

Kim-An Hernandez joined the Board in 2022.

Hernandez is a data strategy and privacy attorney in Holland & Knight's Philadelphia office. She counsels clients on a range of legal issues related to data strategy, consumer and employee privacy compliance, transaction risk, and emerging technologies. Her experience also includes advising on large information technology transactions and business process outsourcing matters, joint ventures and strategic alliances, technology transition services agreements, and cloud solutions.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Hernandez served as Chief Procurement Officer for Vanguard Group Inc., where she led purchasing, strategic sourcing, accounts payable, and third-party vendor management functions globally. In 2023, Kim-An was named as one of Procurement Magazine's Top 100 Women in Procurement. She also served as Head of IT and Security Legal at Vanguard and International Paper, where she provided legal advice on all information technology and security issues.

Hernandez sits on the Advisory Boards of GRCIE, a next-generation organization for educating and training diverse GRC workforces, and LaunchCode, a non-profit offering free tech education and job placement opportunities to bring new people from all backgrounds into the tech field and reshape the way employers think about hiring.

Hernandez earned her B.A. in Government in 1999. In 2004, she earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law and a Law and Business Certificate from the Vanderbilt Owen School of Management. She is one of the only Connecticut College athletes to lead two teams in two different sports (soccer and lacrosse) to the NCAA Tournament. Hernandez also played on the women's basketball team for one season. She was an NSCAA All-American, NESCAC All-Academic, IWLCA Regional and Academic All-Region, and Umbro All-Star Select. She was inducted into the CC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005 for her individual accomplishments on the lacrosse and soccer teams and again in 2017 with the 1998 women's soccer team. 

Jon Krane was elected to the Board in 2022.

Krane is the founder and chief executive officer of KraneShares, a global asset management firm focused on exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He is also the author of the Wall Street Journal best seller, The China Dream.

Krane graduated with a BA in Art History in 1990 and went on to earn his MBA from Columbia Business School in 1999. He played four years on the varsity tennis team. His sister, Jennifer, also attended Conn College and was a government and history major in the class of 1988.

John Linehan was elected to the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2018.

Linehan is the chief investment officer of Equity and portfolio manager for the Equity Income and the U.S. Select Value Equity Strategies as well as co-portfolio manager for the U.S. Large-Cap Value Strategy. He is a member of the firm's U.S. Equity Steering, Asset Allocation, and Global Trading Committees. John is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.

Linehan has 34 years of investment experience, 25 with T. Rowe Price. Prior to joining T. Rowe Price, he was an executive in the oil trading and consulting industry. First as a vice president and managing director for Delaney Petroleum, then as vice president and managing director for E.T. Petroleum. He began his investment career in 1987 at Bankers Trust NY Corporation.

He currently serves as a board member for the Odyssey School and University and the Baltimore Equitable Society. Previously he has served on a number of boards including Friends School of Baltimore, Gilman School, Baltimore Equitable Scholarship Trust, the South Baltimore Homeless Shelter, and St. Mary's Seminary and University.

Linehan earned a B.A. in economics from Amherst College and an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was the Henry Ford II Scholar, an Arjay Miller Scholar, and the winner of the Alexander A. Robichek Award in finance. He has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. 

Erica is Vice-President - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, North America at Cartier, a global luxury Maison. In this role, she has led the strategic creation of Cartier’s DEI function in North America, developing a framework in which DEI is embedded into every area of business. Prior to joining Cartier, she served as the Director of Inclusion & Diversity at Condé Nast, a global media company.

Erica has focused her career on helping brands develop strategies to reflect, attract, and engage diverse communities. She has been recognized by the National Diversity Council as one of the Top 50 Leaders in Entertainment, The Root 100’s Most Influential African Americans, Marie Claire Magazine’s Fashion Changemakers, and Essence Magazine’s Power 40 List of Influential Business Leaders.

Erica sits on the Board of Cartier Philanthropy and the Associate Board of Oliver Scholars. She is passionate about environmental conservation and is an avid supporter of the U.S. National Parks.  

Erica holds a Bachelor of Arts in History. As a student, she served as the Alumni Liaison for Umoja, a student worker for reunion weekend, and a tour guide for the Office of Admission.  In her junior year, she was selected by the Board of Trustees to be a student representative on the Presidential Search Committee. She was also a member of the senior giving committee.

Sarah Mudho began serving on the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2021.

Mudho is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Wellspring Capital Management Group LLC, a middle-market private equity firm in New York.  She is also a member of the firm’s Investment, ESG, and DEI Committees. Prior to joining Wellspring Capital, Mudho was a counsel in the M & A Group at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where from 2005 to 2015, she worked and advised on leveraged buy-outs, strategic acquisitions, joint ventures, recapitalizations, and other transactions for foreign and domestic clients engaged in a variety of businesses, including steel, manufacturing, defense, hospitality, healthcare, and consumer goods industries.

Mudho graduated cum laude in 1998 with a degree in International Relations and received her J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2001. While at the College, she played on the varsity Women's Basketball team for three seasons and participated in Umoja all four years. Sarah's brother, Christopher, also attended Conn as a member of the Class of 2001.

Devon Preston joined the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2021. Since 2014, Preston has worked with children living in foster care as a court-appointed special advocate with Marin CASA. Her professional career has primarily focused on the environment and sustainable development. She has held positions as an environmental program officer with the Rhode Island Foundation, executive director of the Washington County Regional Planning Council, environmental compliance officer and sustainability manager with the Presidio Trust, and with the National Audubon Society.

Preston serves as vice-chair of the board of Insight Garden Program, an organization that facilitates an in-prison curriculum and reentry support for people leaving prison. While a student at Conn, Preston was a four-year volunteer at the York Correctional Institution for Women, which sparked a lifelong interest in and advocacy for prison policy reform. She is also a board member of Next Steps Liaison Program and is a trained volunteer in support of domestic violence survivors.

Preston earned her B.A. from Connecticut College in 1993 with a major in Environmental Studies and a minor in English. While at Conn, Preston worked in the College Communications office and was an admission tour guide. She received an M.S. in Environmental Policy from the University of Michigan School of the Environment in 1999. Devon’s sister, April Danz, also attended Connecticut College and graduated in 1996.

Leslie Rosen became a member of the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2020.

Rosen is a principal at Rosen Harbottle Commercial Real Estate, where she contributes significantly to business strategy and operations, provides complex transaction management, manages landlord/tenant disputes, and performs reviews of legal documents. Prior to joining Rosen Harbottle in 2015, she practiced transactional commercial real estate law in New York at Paul Hastings LLP and Kasowitz, Benson, Torres LLP.

Rosen is the President of the Board for Hillel at the University of Washington, a director of the Rita and Herbert Rosen Family Foundation, and a board member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Northwest School for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children, and the Isador Simon Family Foundation. She was also a participant in the Wexner Heritage Program. Leslie previously co-chaired the UJA – Federation of New York Young Lawyers Division and co-chaired the UJA – Federation of New York ELP, now known as Young Leaders.

Graduating with honors in 2002, she earned a B.A. in government followed by a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 2007. In 2012, Leslie was honored by Connecticut College with the Mach Arom ’89 Alumni Award for distinguished achievements in her profession and within society.

Stavin was appointed to the Board in 2024

Stavin is the founder and managing member of Newtrack Development Group, LLC, a real estate consulting firm. Previous positions include serving as executive vice president of Philadelphia based PMC Property Group Inc., senior vice president at CBRE, and vice president of the commercial division at Binswanger. 

He currently serves as the vice chair of the Pennsylvania Ballet and is a former board member of the Pennsylvania Apartment Association and the Business Industry Association of Philadelphia. 

Stavin entered Conn College as a sophomore transfer student from Clark University. He majored in Government and went on to earn his law degree in 1991 from the Dickinson School of Law. While at Conn, he was active on Class Council and served as a tour guide and admissions associate. Both of his sisters also attended Conn College, Susan Stavin Schultheis ’87 and Amy Stavin ’90. Jonathan credits his time at Connecticut College with developing his love for art, art history, and political science. His education helped to guide him as an elected City Committee person and as a patron and board member of arts organizations. He has developed an extensive collection of paintings with an emphasis on emerging Philadelphia artists and graduates of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

Diane Stratton became a member of the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2022.

Stratton is an artist, jewelry designer, and owner of Diane Stratton Jewelry. She has been designing, creating, and making a line of jewelry for over 30 years. She is inspired by natural forms and elements, and reflections of light on water. Lightweight and comfortable to wear, her jewelry is simple and elegant. 

In her community, Stratton serves as a board member of the Michael H. Flanagan Foundation, on the board of governors for the RISD Museum in Providence, and as chair of the development committee for the Rhode Island Center for the Book. She previously was the president of the board for the Arts Alive Theater from 2011 – 2015.

Stratton majored in studio art with a focus on painting and minored in history. She was a member of the indoor and outdoor track teams and the women's field hockey team, serving as captain her senior year, and she sang with the Schwiffs. Since graduation, she has volunteered as class president, class agent, class correspondent, and with the Camel Athletics Club. She furthered her formal education by earning her M.F.A. at Rhode Island School of Design in 1998 where she was the 1997 winner of the Royal Marcher Scholarship prize. Diane has several family members who also attended Conn, including her brother Rick ’96, his wife Keri Sarajian ’96, and three nieces: Georgia Naumann ’14, Margaret Schroeder ’16, and Miriam Norman ’25. Diane’s father, Frederick is an emeritus member of the Board of Trustees, he served from 1992-2002.

Maarten Terry was elected to the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2021.

A marketing executive, Terry has more than 30 years of experience in direct marketing and brand management in diverse categories including telecommunications, books, magazines, coffee, and tobacco. Terry is President of Converge Marketing Services, a direct response media firm that delivers strategic solutions in media planning and buying, analysis, and marketing services. He previously held marketing and brand management roles at Time Inc., Philip Morris, and Kraft Foods.

Maarten is a former board member of the United Way of New Canaan and a former board member and vice president of A Better Chance of New Canaan, a community-based organization focused on offering academically talented minority students a range of opportunities that may not be available in their own communities.

Terry was a sociology-based human relations major at Connecticut College. He received the Anna Lord Strauss award during commencement in honor of his volunteer work at the Community Resource Commission Afterschool Center, his role in coordinating the relief effort on campus for victims of a major fire in New London, and his work to establish a local youth chapter of the NAACP. He was president of Unity House and of Umoja, worked at the WCNI radio station, and was a housefellow. Terry was a member of the student advisory committee to the Sociology department, commissioner of intramural athletics, and was also a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. Terry's wife, Annette Boykins Terry was also a member of the class of 1983.

Anne Verplanck joined the Connecticut College Board of Trustees in 2024.

Dr. Verplanck is an emeritus associate professor of American Studies at Penn State University’s Harrisburg campus. She taught courses in American art and visual culture, social and cultural history, American decorative arts and material culture, and museum and heritage studies. Prior to joining the Penn State Harrisburg faculty in 2010, she worked in the museum field for 30 years. Until 2009, she was the Curator of Prints and Paintings at Winterthur Museum, where she also served as Interim Director of Museum Collections and Interim Director of the Research Fellowship Program. In addition, she taught in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture/University of Delaware, and George Washington and George Mason universities. She has served in curatorial and consultant positions at numerous museums and historic sites and has lectured widely. She is currently engaged in an academic book project, The Business of Art: Transforming the Graphic Arts in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction, that examines the lives of mid-nineteenth-century Philadelphia artists and art entrepreneurs through an economic lens.

Verplanck is the vice-chair of the Alumni Executive Committee at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Mass., is a board member of the American Historical Print Collector’s Society, and is a member of the Kennett Township, PA Planning Commission. Previously, she served as a board member and campaign co-chair of the Pennsylvania Historical Association, was co-chair of the Material Culture Caucus of the American Studies Association, and was a board member for the Association of Print Scholars.

Verplanck majored in history and botany at Conn and earned her Master’s and Ph.D.in American Studies from the College of William and Mary. Since graduation, she has served as a reunion committee member and as a Class Gift Officer/Chair. In 2015, upon her 35^th Reunion, she was awarded the Alumni Tribute Award for extraordinary service to the College.

YOUNG ALUMNI TRUSTEE

Shawnia Yon was elected by the Class of 2024 as their nominee for the Young Alumni Trustee. At Conn, she was a dance and economics double major in the Entrepreneurship, Social Innovation, Value, and Change pathway. Yon is currently focusing on her college readiness and retention business, Prep for Excellence LLC, where she works with K-12 students across New York City’s Department of Education, New York government programs, and with students in other states. Her work supports students and families throughout the college application process, scholarship searches, interview preparation, and learning how to maximize the college experience. In addition to this work, Yon is pursuing a professional dance career and taking business development courses at the Queens Economic Development Center.

During her time at Conn, Yon was a recognized recipient of the Connecticut College Bookshop Prize, the Martha Myers Prize, and the José Limón Award. Beyond the classroom, she participated in numerous clubs, such as the Peggotty Investment Club, where she pitched for a GlaxoSmithKline investment, leading to the club’s first holding in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) sector, Dance Club, 2024 Finance Cohort, Women of Color Collective (W.O.C.C.), and the Black Student Union (BSU). 

Yon was actively involved in multiple leadership positions at Conn, which include her role as a student advisor for the Office of the First Year Deans, a mentor for the New London High School Mentorship Program, a Big Sib for the Genesis Mentorship Program, a mentee in the H.E.R.D. Mentorship Program, and is the brainchild of the Unity Gala, an event designed to foster inclusivity and cohesion within the campus community. In addition to her activities at Conn, Shawnia studied abroad at the Universidad Del Pacífico in Lima, Peru, where she was recognized by her peers by receiving the Outstanding Delegate Award for her exceptional contributions as a class representative. 

While a student at Conn, Yon worked at the Alumni and Parent Engagement Office, offering hands-on and technical support for school-sponsored events and programs for students, parents, and alumni, at The Hale Center for Career Development as a Pre-Business Career Fellow, and in the Office of Admissions as a Senior Admissions Fellow.

John Zeiler was elected to the Board in 2023.

Zeiler started Hudson Housing Capital, an institutional investment management firm specializing in high-quality affordable housing in 1998. Hudson’s developments have been part of neighborhood revitalizations in urban areas nationwide, including housing twined with public schools. Many of the developments are partnerships with nonprofit housing and social service organizations. Today, Hudson’s portfolio has $23 billion of assets under management.  

Zeiler is a certified high school teacher. He teaches at Comp Sci Charter School in the South Bronx. He founded the nonprofit Project Trampoline (PT) to support minority public school students in the Bronx to matriculate and graduate from college. PT provides focused academic and life skills support through college graduation. There are currently 22 Project Trampoline students enrolled at Connecticut College. 

He is a board member of the Police Athletic League (PAL) of New York, the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, and the Urban Land Institute Affordable Housing Council. 

Zeiler graduated from Connecticut College with a BA in Urban Studies and holds an MBA from New York University, MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a M.Ed. from Relay Graduate School of Education. John was inducted into the College’s Ad Astra Society in 2022.