Hartford Business Journal

14 Hartford Business Journal • July 27, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Sean Teehan steehan@hartfordbusiness.com H uman behavior fasci- nates Joanne Berger- Sweeney. Before becoming a college administrator, eventually rising to be Trinity Col- lege's first Black president, she was a neuroscientist studying chemicals' af- fect on behavior. And before that, she had a front-row seat to a behavioral phenomenon known as "white flight." In the early 1970s, Berger-Sweeney's family moved to the Inglewood section of Los Angeles, known at the time for its superior public schools. In 1970, a year before Berger-Sweeney began her freshman year at Morningside High School, Inglewood's population was almost 86% white, and just over 11% African-American, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 1980, the Black population grew to about 57%, with whites dwindling to about 29% of Inglewood residents. "You just recognize things like that happen," Berger-Sweeney said. "I think what that instilled in me was a strong desire to succeed." But Berger-Sweeney, a science wiz cheerleader who spent part of her high school freshman year study- ing abroad in Malaysia, says she only really noticed that dramatic shift in hindsight. In fact, she was into so many things in high school, her mother — who every morning of her childhood whispered into her ear, "You can be anything you want" — worried she may lack focus. Perhaps in response, she went on to earn a doctorate in neurotoxicol- ogy, an extremely specialized area of science. But now-a-days, it seems like her broad experience with everything from race relations and public health to using elements of the humanities in scientific work have prepared her for a moment in which everything is in flux. Amid the global COVID-19 pan- demic, Berger-Sweeney is in the thick of working to reopen Trinity College's campus safely this fall, and expects recent national unrest and a racial-jus- tice protest movement to spark debate and controversy among students and faculty. And even before the pandemic hit, liberal arts colleges have been enmeshed in what Berger-Sweeney calls "a crisis of confidence," as some observers cast liberal arts education as ineffective for job-seekers. But with an unassuming self- confidence, the California native and married mother of two adult children is taking all those challenges head on by: using her scientist background to inform her decisions on campus health and safety; using her expe- rience handling a racially loaded controversy on campus last year to predict what issues may arise in the fall; and doubling down on her belief in the value of liberal arts educa- tion as she steers the small, nearly 200-year-old college through one of the most tumultuous times the country has experienced. An education Long before she even applied to at- tend college, higher education played an outsized role in Berger-Sweeney's life. Born in 1958, Joanne Eileen Berg- er-Sweeney is a fourth-generation college graduate in her family. Her parents, Paul and Arminta, met at Clark College in Washington state, before her father got his law degree at Howard University and be- came an attorney in Los Angeles, and her mother became the first African- American executive director of the Los Angeles Girl Scouts Council. When Berger-Sweeney and her two older brothers sat at the dinner table each night, their parents im- pressed upon them the importance of education. The conversations were always about the future, and how the prog- ress each child makes in life could lift up future generations of their family, and in some ways, African-Americans as a whole, Berger-Sweeney said. Eight years younger than her broth- er, Paul Jr., and seven years the junior of her brother, John, Berger-Sweeney engaged with that kind of weighty subject matter at an early age. "We talked about motivational things, current events that put her ahead of her classmates," recalled John Sweeney, her brother who is the founder and senior partner of Beverly Hills-based law firm The Sweeney Firm. "We were always motivated by our parents, always encouraged to stand out from the crowd." That mission approach to life was part of Berger-Sweeney's Sundays growing up, when her family at- tended services at Holman United Methodist Church, listening to sermons delivered by the Rev. James Lawson Jr. — a civil rights pioneer of nonviolent protest — and guests including Martin Luther King Jr. "I just grew up with kind of an activist point of view, or at least an understanding and appreciation of the plight of Blacks in America," Berger-Sweeney said. But that activist point of view didn't lead Berger-Sweeney to the rowdier corners of 1970s-era protest move- ments, her brother John said. His little sister was a studious joiner — excelling in dance, playing piano and participat- ing in a litany of social groups, while keeping her grades up enough to grad- uate high school second in her class. Berger-Sweeney now jokes that she gravitated toward math and science because, as the daughter of a lawyer and sister of two aspiring attorneys, she wanted to be as far away from a Turbulent Times Trinity College President Berger-Sweeney navigates liberal arts school through historic challenges Trinity College at a glance Full-time enrollment: 2,150 Total net assets: $779.6 million Endowment: $596 million Tuition and fees: $59,300 Room and board: $15,300 Source: Trinity College Joanne Berger-Sweeney President, Trinity College Age: 61 Highest level of education: Ph.D. in neurotoxicology, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 1989 Joanne Berger-Sweeney, Trinity College's first Black president, is navigating crises in public health, college finances and race relations. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER

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