Staff

Heather Samson Calabrese joined the Office of the Secretary in October 2013. She oversees communications initiatives within the Office of the Secretary; major university events including Commencement; and the Gordon Grand Fellowship Lecture. Prior to joining Yale, Heather was an independent nonprofit consultant and the chief operating officer of United Way of Greater New Haven. She is active in Greater New Haven civic efforts and has served on several community boards, including New Haven Reads and The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s Fund for Women and Girls. She is a fellow in Ezra Stiles College.

Elizabeth Conklin, J.D., joined Yale University in the inaugural role of associate vice president for Institutional Equity, Accessibility, and Belonging in September 2020. In this role, she works closely with other leaders across the university to support institutional equity and accessibility, and to guide strategy and initiatives that create a culture of belonging. Elizabeth oversees the Office of Institutional Equity and Access (OIEA), Student Accessibility Services (SAS), and the Office of LGBTQ Resources. Since January 2022, Elizabeth also serves as the University Title IX Coordinator and oversees the Title IX Office, providing leadership and oversight for Yale’s Title IX programs and staff. Elizabeth’s work focuses on ensuring appropriate response to incidents of discrimination and harassment as well as training for university community members on responding to discrimination and harassment and creating a culture that prevents such behaviors. 

Prior to joining Yale, Elizabeth worked at UConn for ten years, including serving for nearly nine years as Associate Vice President for the Office of Institutional Equity, Title IX Coordinator and ADA Coordinator. Before her time in higher education administration, Elizabeth was an associate attorney with a midsize Hartford law firm practicing labor and employment law.

Nina Fattore joined the office in November 2022 as the associate director for university life. She is the governing administrator for Yale Connect, coordinates Yale’s voting initiatives, and works with Pilar Montalvo in supporting student life at the university level, particularly responses to student and campus crises. Nina is the second resource behind Pilar regarding the university’s protocol in event of a student’s death or serious injury.

Nina began her career at Yale in 2018 at the President’s House as an event coordinator. She also worked in the dean’s offices of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Law School, as well as the Office of the President. Her experience in a variety of offices gives her unique insight into the many perspectives at Yale.

She is a Branford local and enjoys traveling, fishing and Formula One.

Sharon M.K. Kugler became the seventh University Chaplain to Yale in July of 2007. She came to New Haven from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where she had served as the University Chaplain since 1993.  Sharon has over two decades of experience in ministry in higher education, interfaith collaboration, pastoral and social ministry. Her main focus at Yale is to further cultivate a chaplaincy for students, faculty and staff which defines itself by serving the needs of the richly diverse religious and spiritual traditions on campus allowing for deeper dialogue, increased accessibility, personal growth, creative educational opportunities and pastoral leadership.  Sharon holds the appointment of Lecturer of Inter-Religious Engagement and Chaplaincy at the Yale Divinity School and is a contributing author to the recently published College & University Chaplaincy in the 21st Century: A Multifaith Look at the Practice of Ministry on Campuses across America.  She is the first woman, first lay-person and first Roman Catholic to hold this position at Yale.

Sharon is the past president of both the National Association of College and University Chaplains (NACUC) and the Association of College and University Religious Affairs (ACURA).  She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Chaplains in Higher Education (IACHE).  In June of 2012 she hosted the Global Conference of Chaplains in Higher Education at Yale University welcoming over 450 participants from 25 countries and 11 religious traditions.  Sharon received her Masters degree from Georgetown University and is a member of the Theta Alpha Kappa National Honor Society for Religious Studies and Theology. Her masters thesis, “The Limits and Possibilities of Building a Religiously Plural Community” was used by the United States Department of Defense Office of the Chief of Chaplains as a training tool for new chaplains in the military. Sharon has received honorary doctorates from St. Joseph University in West Hartford, CT, Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA and Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT. She is married to Duane Isabella, has two daughters and four grandchildren.