To say Trinity High School’s new president is “new” may be a misnomer. Dr. Tina Taylor-Ritzler has been intimately aware of the school’s “special sauce” for many years.
The proud mother of two Trinity alumnae and a former board chair, Taylor-Ritzler has had the unique opportunity to experience the school inside and out.
Most recently, Taylor-Ritzler was a psychology professor at Dominican University, which, like Trinity, was founded by the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. She lives in Riverside.
The decision to leave the university, which is only a few blocks down the street from the high school, wasn’t easy. She was deeply engaged during her 15 years at Dominican, co-leading a campus-wide strategy to enhance the first-year student experience, co-managing the transformation of STEM gateway courses to boost student retention and graduation rates, and co-designing a new curriculum that includes a career class each year and requires a career practicum for graduation.
“I got to know the Dominican Sisters as a community that really wrapped so much love and support around me and gave me a deeper purpose around my work as an educator. I learned how to teach at Dominican. I’m interested in extending their ministry and legacy down the street, to a place that has given so much to my family,” Taylor-Ritzler said.
Taylor-Ritzler said she fell in love with Trinity the moment she walked into the school with her daughter for an open house in the spring of 2017.
“At that time, I didn’t know why it was special. But within 15 minutes I got it. You could see it in the way the girls greeted each other in the hallways and the way they treated each other with such kindness. It was remarkable,” she said.
Taylor-Ritzler was invited to join Trinity’s board in 2018, following the retirement of revered president Sister Michelle Germanson. She chaired the Marketing and Enrollment Committee and the Mission and Academics Committee and served on the Development and Alumnae Relations Committee before being named chair of the board during the 2023-2024 academic year.
While serving as chair, she led the school through a historic transition in sponsorship from the Dominican Sisters, who had guided the school for 105 years, to the Dominican Veritas Ministries, a nation-wide organization dedicated to ensuring the mission of Dominican Catholic education.
“Navigating that transition, which had to be approved by the Vatican, required caring, thoughtful, forward thinking. It represents the future of Catholic education in the U.S. It was a challenging process, but was truly awesome,” she said.
Taylor-Ritzler was well-equipped for the challenge, given that so much of her career has been focused on helping nonprofit organizations align their missions with operational reality.
While pursuing her PhD in psychology at UIC, she consulted with nonprofit agencies, including schools, early intervention programs and disability organizations across the country. From 2004 to 2010, she served as project director for the university’s Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research.
“I’m basically a psychologist who doesn’t treat people but systems. I love to solve problems using social science methodology,” she said.
Taylor-Ritzler is invested in ensuring that Trinity remains a vital educational resource for young women while leaning into its rich 107-year history.
“It’s the Bible and the newspaper –focusing on what grounds us regarding our enduring values as well as what is relevant and current and necessary to meet the needs of the current moment,” she said.
She touts Trinity’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program, a rigorous collegiate-style curriculum originally developed in Geneva, Switzerland to meet the needs of the children of diplomats who were exposed to different counties and cultures. Trinity was the first Catholic girls’ high school in Illinois to be accepted, in 1994, into the prestigious organization.
The program has particular relevance for Taylor-Ritzler, who was born in Barbados and spent her teen years in Rio de Janeiro. She came to the U.S. as an exchange student and attended Loyola University Chicago. She also has extended family in Canada.
“My outsider immigrant experience is an enormous part of my identity,” she said. “I have acquired family throughout my life because it has been difficult to see my overseas family as much as I would like to. On any given day I’m on the phone with folks in Barbados, Brazil and Canada, getting a global dose of family shenanigans.”
Taylor-Ritzler said she is committed to fostering a sense of family among the students at Trinity. She considers Trinity to be countercultural in its dedication to nurturing girls to become their best, authentic selves, free –at least during the school day – from the pressures of social media and its focus on unrealistic body image.
“I truly think that Trinity is the best place for a young woman during the critical years of their development – the last four years before they launch into adulthood and go off to college,” Taylor-Ritzler said. “A Trinity girl is an empowered, caring, whip smart and deeply curious young woman who understands her value. She may not come in as a super star leader but she sure will leave as one.”
Taylor-Ritzler welcomed Trinity’s freshman class during the school’s traditional clap-in ceremony on Aug. 22. She will be officially installed as the school’s new president during a Mass on Wednesday, Sept.10.
