Presenter Bio - Hannah Ross

Hannah Ross currently serves as the General Counsel, Chief Risk Officer, and Secretary to the Corporation at Middlebury College in Vermont.

She serves as the General Counsel to the liberal arts college in Vermont, as well as the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey, California, the Bread Loaf School of English, and Middlebury's Language Schools and Schools Abroad. She provides legal and strategic advice to the President, the Board of Trustees, and senior administrators. Ms. Ross supervises litigation and provides advice and counsel on state and federal regulatory and compliance matters across all subject areas for the institution. As Chief Risk Officer, Hannah works closely with the senior leadership and the Board of Trustees, managing Middlebury’s enterprise risk management program. Ms. Ross has practiced in higher education since 2003, when she joined Princeton University’s Office of the General Counsel. Ms. Ross has both long and deep experience in issues of student affairs and health services, ranging from accessibility compliance through housing, as well as threat assessment, safety planning and privacy issues in the most challenging circumstances of high-risk students. Her professional experience includes successfully resolving multiple high-stakes compliance issues with the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice, as well as tragic wrongful death cases. Ms. Ross is actively involved in the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA), having served on its Board of Directors (2018-2021) and was immensely proud to receive its Distinguished Service award in 2022. She formerly served on the Steering Committee of Higher Education Real Estate Lawyers (HEREL). Prior to Princeton, Ms. Ross was in private practice as a civil litigator and employment lawyer with Hill & Barlow, P.C. and Goulston & Storrs in Boston. After law school, she clerked for Justice Denise Johnson of the Vermont Supreme Court. Ms. Ross received her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School and her B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale University.