Joanne Berger-Sweeney

thumb|Joanne Berger-Sweeney Joanne E. Berger-Sweeney (born September 21, 1958) is an American neuroscientist and the 22nd president of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. She is the first African-American and the first woman to serve in the position. Earlier in her career, Berger-Sweeney did proof-of-concept work on galantamine (brand name Razadyne), the second-most used drug to treat Alzheimer's disease. Quotes I can admit now, in retrospect, that when you’re a Black female and you’re the only one in a particular situation, when something happens, you don’t know whether to view it through a lens of racism or not. You can’t tell because there aren’t other people who look like you. You don’t know if what is happening to you is because of your race or not. My mother was executive director of the Los Angeles Girl Scout Council. She was a leader, she knew how to interact with people, and she believed deeply in higher education. She would wake me up every morning and say, ‘You can be anything you want to be.’ If you grow up with that kind of confidence, it has a profound influence on the rest of your life. . I have heard other women and people of color say that we feel like we have to work harder to prove that we know what we’re talking about. I got to where I am because I worked harder, I dug deeper, and I learned how to bring more people into the conversation and to see my point of view. I do hope they recognize that I care deeply about Trinity and trying to make it a stronger institution, that fundamentally I want to leave the place better than it was when I came. It isn’t about me; it is about a better Trinity and my hopes for higher education being better and stronger for the country. Joanne Berger-Sweeney's response on What she hopes people will remember about her and her time at Trinity External links Category:Neuroscientists from the United States Category:Women academics from the United States Category:Women scientists from the United States Category:African Americans Category:1958 births Category:Women born in the 1950s Category:Living people