Rogers Named Alumnae Trustee

Following her nomination by the Wellesley College Alumnae Association Board, the Wellesley College Board of Trustees has elected Pier Rogers ’75 to serve a six-year term as alumnae trustee from 2025 to 2031, succeeding Suzanne Frey ’93.

Rogers is principal of the Chimere Group, an executive coaching firm for nonprofit leaders. Her past roles in nonprofit leadership include serving as president of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), director of the Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management, and professor of nonprofit management at North Park University. A political science and philosophy double major at Wellesley, she holds a Ph.D. in public administration from New York University and an M.S.S.S. in social work and Afro-American studies from Boston University.

Rogers has served on the WCAA’s board of directors as chair of the strategic communications committee and as chair of the WCAA’s Alumnae Achievement Award Nominating Committee, and she has held a number of positions on the board of the Chicago Wellesley Club. She is a member of the Willie’s Warriors Advisory Board at the Chicago Foundation for Women and has previously served on the boards of the Illinois Charitable Trust Stabilization Fund, Chicago Women in Philanthropy, ARNOVA, the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, and the CBE Board of Advisors at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary at Northwestern University.

Rogers says she began to reconnect with Wellesley at her 25th reunion, the first she attended. “I saw that everyone had experienced life’s ups and downs: marriages, divorces, no relationships, children or not, great careers or not, illnesses, and all sorts of wonderful things as well as life’s disappointments. Our humanness showed through in each interaction,” she says. Then she became involved with the Chicago Wellesley Club and the WCAA board.

“I was hooked. I understood further what a special experience I’d had at Wellesley, and I truly appreciated what it meant to be alongside a group of smart and talented women from all over the world,” she says. “Over the years, I’ve come to understand that this perspective, in addition to my experience as a faculty member, administrator, and director of a nonprofit management educational program based in a university, gave me a unique perspective that would be valuable for the WCAA board and now for the College’s governing board. I am honored to have been elected to serve in this capacity and look forward to sharing my insights and experience in this role.”