Lin Hillis named vice president for human resources

Lin Hillis has been named The College of Wooster’s inaugural Vice President for Human Resources. Hillis, who most recently served as Chief Human Resources Officer and Vice President of Talent, Inclusion and Workplace Culture for Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), brings more than 24 years of human resources experience to the role at Wooster. She begins her role July 10, 2023.

“Lin comes to Wooster with an outstanding background of human resources leadership and expertise, and more importantly, exudes enthusiasm and confidence as our College strives to become a top workplace in the region and within the higher ed landscape,” said Wayne Webster, Wooster’s interim president. “We look forward to Lin being a key partner in creating a culture of compliance on our campus, along with identifying and implementing practices that contribute to employee recruitment and retention, advance institutional priorities of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and overall wellbeing and job satisfaction.”

Hillis, who will join Wooster’s cabinet and report directly to incoming President Anne McCall, will provide strategic leadership and management of all aspects of the College’s human resources functions, including overseeing a team of six HR professionals with expertise in policies and procedures; performance management; employee relations; training, development, and onboarding; compensation; benefits administration; and student employment. She will analyze and oversee critical data and human resources-related compliance as well as provide leadership in advancing staff success and continue the development of college policies and best practices to maintain a positive and equitable working environment that attracts, develops, supports, and retains a qualified, high-performing, diverse, and inclusive workforce.

As CHRO, VP of Talent, Inclusion and Workplace Culture for KCTCS, Lin was responsible for Human Resources and planning, developing, directing, and implementing system-wide initiatives to promote inclusion, diversity and pluralism in 16 KCTCS colleges and the System Office. Her focus also included strategies for retaining and recruiting top-notch talent to enhance the culture at KCTCS to include benefits enhancements, employee engagement strategies and Leadership Development strategies to name a few.

In addition, Lin most recently held the position of AVP talent, diversity, and leadership at The Ohio State University and the Wexner Medical Center, where she provided strategic HR direction for diversity, recruiting, talent acquisition, learning and development, Talent operations as well as organizational leadership effectiveness in leading a multi-disciplinary HR team across the enterprise. She has experience in all aspects of HR, large system implementations, change management and culture transformations.

Prior to Ohio State University, Lin held the position of senior vice president, talent management and leadership development for Huntington National Bank in Columbus, OH. Since 2014, she led the HR areas of succession management, organizational development, competencies, change management, culture and organizational design. She was also the talent management lead for the Workday implementation at Huntington.

Prior to Huntington, she served in HR leadership roles of increasing responsibility for Fiserv, CheckFree and Bank One.

“I am very excited and grateful about the opportunity to join The College of Wooster, where the commitment to DEI and the employee experience was evident during my visit to campus,” said Hillis. “I look forward to partnering with President McCall, her Cabinet, faculty and staff to create a talent strategy to continue to reinforce and strengthen the culture to become an employer of choice where every employee experience matters!!!”

Lin earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Marketing from Franklin University and a Master of Human Resources Development degree from The Ohio State University and is Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certified.

“We look forward to Lin’s arrival in Wooster and are deeply grateful for the interim leadership of Erin Perna and Jenn Williams, who along with their team, did an outstanding job of implementing needed updates to policies and procedures while handling the daily HR needs of campus,” added Webster.

Posted in News on June 8, 2023.