New Executive Director of Summer Programming

Dear Wheaton Community,

Joy McLaughlin, executive director of summer programming

We are delighted to announce that Joy McLaughlin, who has over a decade of experience in pre-college and summer programming, will be joining Wheaton in early January 2023, as the college’s inaugural Executive Director of Summer Programming. Joy will focus on the creation, growth and sustainability of pre-college and summer programming at Wheaton, which aligns with the college’s strategic initiatives to create new revenue opportunities as well as to build brand awareness and potential enrollment pipelines.

The search committee was impressed with the scope of Joy’s expertise and experience in pre-college and summer programming in her previous positions at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Her successful partnerships with faculty and staff were instrumental in over a decade of growth. Her work with parents and their pre-college aged students has been exemplary, and in addition, Joy led RISD’s process to quickly pivot to 100% virtual summer programming due to COVID-19 during the summer of 2020 and to then migrate back to in-person programming in the summer of 2022.

Joy began her tenure at RISD in 2011 as the pre-college and summer programs coordinator and was promoted to both an assistant director role within that program in 2015 and most recently promoted to associate director of pre-collegiate and youth programs at RISD. Prior to joining RISD, Joy was previously the project and program lead at PhenomenArts Inc., RiverzedgeArts Project and the Northern Rhode Island Collaborative.

Reporting to Associate Vice President for Athletics & Strategic Programs Gavin Viano, this position is the first hire in the recently created Strategic Programs office at Wheaton. In the coming years, we envision that pre-college and summer programming at Wheaton will eventually encompass offerings in both credit and non-credit courses, as well as seminars and camps. Programming will also be designed to include asynchronous options, in addition to both day/commuter and overnight offerings.

We would like to thank the many members of the Wheaton community who met with our finalists during the search process and helped us yield such an impressive candidate for this position.

Please join us in welcoming Joy to the Wheaton community.

Best,

Michaele Whelan, President
Gavin Viano, Associate Vice President for Athletics and Strategic Programs