After 30 years at the College, Assistant to the President and Secretary of the College Keli Gail will retire this July, President Maud S. Mandel announced in an all-campus email on Feb. 6. A search committee, led by Mandel, will hire Gail’s successor.
In her email, Mandel described Gail as a “close partner, counselor, and accomplisher-in-chief.”
“Keli exercises much of her influence behind the scenes… [She] is fundamentally motivated by the satisfactions of working as part of an intellectually varied and challenging community,” Mandel wrote.
Gail received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Wellesley College and a master’s degree in higher education from the University of Rochester. After she received her bachelor’s, Gail worked at an entry-level position at the University of Rochester in the development and fundraising department, which is where she became interested in the inner workings of an institution and decided to earn her master’s degree in higher education. “I was really starting to immerse myself … in this entire business of running a college and its important work,” Gail told the Record.
After she received her master’s, she worked at Goucher College in alumni relations and then came to the Williams alumni relations office in 1994. Gail worked at the alumni relations office for a few years until a colleague approached her to apply for her current position, Secretary of the College, and return to her background in higher education administration. “The idea of turning back to help run a college seemed remarkably appealing,” Gail said. “I was fascinated with the concept of running my part of an engine that allows for students to learn.”
Reflecting on her three-decade tenure at the College, Gail said that she has learned the most while working alongside others. “It actually is quite a humbling experience to be surrounded by an unbelievably diverse and intellectual community,” she said. “If you ask good questions of people, the groupthink concept is a good one.”
Gail also emphasized her favorite aspect of the College community: its desire to continually better the College. “The community is really interested in not resting on ‘This is good enough,’” she said. “People love the place, but they don’t love it unconditionally. They love it, but they’re willing to … think about how to make it better.”
Gail said she was influenced to retire from the College by her strong network of friends from Wellesley, some of whom were also going through professional transitions. “I’ve got one more gig in me,” Gail said. “I don’t know what this next chapter will be, but I need some time to think about what it is and plan, and then I need to go ahead and start doing it.”
The search committee for Gail’s successor consists of people who engage with her regularly and have a strong understanding of what her job entails. According to Gail, the process may take up to six months, with some overlap in between. “My goal is to make sure that as they’re meandering on that steep learning curve, that I have offered enough insight and information,” she said.
Looking back on her career, Gail expressed gratitude for the opportunity to engage directly with the campus community. “There are so many people who come to work to try and make Williams magical and meaningful,” she said. “I have been so lucky because I’ve been around Williams for so long.”
