New Board of Trustees chair applauds Grinnell’s evolution into a global campus
April 22, 2026 — Many of the most important elements in Christina Cutlip’s life can be traced back to her Grinnell College education.
The 1983 graduate had a long career in banking and financial services before retiring in 2023 as the senior managing director for the institutional financial services division of TIAA.
Christina Cutlip ’83
“When I was a student at Grinnell, my professor and adviser was Dr. John “Jack” Dawson,” Cutlip says. “He was an economics professor, and he had a unique way of telling me I could succeed in the financial field. He also made economics sound really fun, so that’s how I got into economics.”
Cutlip was first elected to the Grinnell College Board of Trustees in 2020. She started serving as BOT vice chair in 2023 and was re-elected to a second Board term in 2024. In January, the board’s executive committee appointed Cutlip as chair to fill the remainder of the previous chair’s term. Kristin Stout ’89 and Tobi Klein Marcus ’87 are serving as board vice chairs.
“Serving on the Board of Trustees is one of the highest honors that I have received in my life,” Cutlip says. “It means a lot to me because I credit where I am to Grinnell and the quality of education that I received here, so for me to be able to come back and do what I can for coming generations is truly an honor.”
When Cutlip was studying at Grinnell, she was one of about 20 international students in total. In comparison, the class of 2029 is made up of 17 percent of international students coming from 27 countries. “To go from where we were, just a handful of us, to truly a global campus has been such a joy to witness,” Cutlip adds.
A Zimbabwe native, Cutlip is the first international graduate to serve as BOT chair. She’s also the first woman of color in that position.
“Being the first international alum as chair is an honor and a responsibility, especially given the situation in the world today,” Cutlip says. “I think it helps the College in the sense that I bring a unique experience having lived through some of the things that the College is being confronted with right now. The things that international students are going through, I understand them firsthand or am deeply mired in a community that is experiencing it.
“Being the first woman of color also is an honor and big responsibility because I want Grinnell to continue to provide access to people of color and to be cognizant of the different experiences that people from different backgrounds bring to the College.”
Cutlip is pictured with her uncle and aunt, Rogers and Josephine Gurira. Cutlip came over from Zimbabwe and lived with them while she attended Grinnell as a student.
As board chair, Cutlip intends to continue thinking strategically about the future of the College and how the board can support and equip the administration, faculty, staff, and students to succeed. She says the board is committed to helping faculty and staff accomplish their goals. One example she cites is academic freedom.
“How do we as a board help protect academic freedom and all the things that make Grinnell a wonderful place?” she says. “In addition, Grinnell has long championed accessibility and opportunity, so how do we as a board help sustain that commitment through financial aid and inclusive policies? We have a wonderful endowment. How do we steward that endowment to the best of our ability?”
During her time on the board, Cutlip has seen more of a focus on philanthropy at Grinnell. There is recognition that in order for Grinnell to continue to do the great work that it has done for decades, it needs alums to be engaged. Part of that engagement is providing gifts to the College so that the endowment continues to grow. Watching alums realize the value of giving back to the College has been really affirming.
Cutlip is the niece of Rogers and Josephine Gurira. Rogers was a chemistry professor at the College from 1973 to 1983 while Josephine was evening supervisor at Burling Library. Cutlip came over from Zimbabwe and lived with them while she attended Grinnell.
In 2023, Cutlip and her husband, Mark Cutlip, made a lead gift to establish The Gurira Family Scholarship Fund. The scholarship is awarded to students with financial need, with preference given to international students from Africa.
“If it wasn’t for my aunt and uncle, I wouldn’t have known that Grinnell existed,” Cutlip says. “Part of the idea behind the scholarship was to honor them because I know what attending Grinnell has done for me. It’s a way of saying thank you. But I also wanted to make sure that people like me – students coming from Africa – get the opportunity that I had. That was the impetus.”
Cutlip got her start in finance by interning as a student at what was then called Poweshiek County National Bank in the well-known Merchants’ National Bank building.
Cutlip earned a degree in economics from Grinnell and holds an MBA from Regis University and a doctorate in organizational leadership from Northcentral University. In addition to her leadership role at TIAA, she has worked at Fidelity Investments and SEI Investments. She got her start by interning at Poweshiek County National Bank in Grinnell.
“It was a small bank, but they rotated me through all the different departments,” she says. “I’d work the drive through and bank line. They allowed me to give people money and cash checks. I learned banking soup to nuts. It got me really interested in banking, and I was later able to get job working in the trust department of a bank and found out I had a real knack for it.”
While at TIAA, Christina worked very closely with colleges and universities and served on higher education boards, including the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). She brings that breath of experience to her work as board chair.
In addition to her board service for Grinnell, the Signature Theatre in New York and the Almasi Collaborative Arts (whose executive director is Cutlip’s cousin, Danai Gurira), Cutlip is a professor at the Jack Welch Management Institute. She teaches the very first class in the program, Leadership in the 21st Century, and leads special courses for corporate leaders. She received the Institute’s 2025 Professor of the Year award.
“In retirement, I love what I do, and I especially love serving on Grinnell’s board,” Cutlip says.
—by Jeremy Shapiro