Human Resources

Our Mission:

The Office of Human Resources partners with faculty, staff, and leaders to cultivate a thriving and connected campus community. We foster a culture of respect, collaboration, and belonging by providing trusted guidance, promoting equitable and consistent employment practices, ensuring compliance, and delivering people-centered solutions. Through meaningful partnerships and a commitment to continuous improvement, we create an environment where employees feel supported and empowered to do their best work in advancing the College's mission and serving our students and community.

What HR Does:

Our team supports employees across every stage of their career. The scope of our support includes:

• Recruitment and onboarding
• Organizational structure, change management, and title/compensation programs
• Benefits administration
• Employee relations and performance management
• Learning and professional development
• Employee engagement, workplace culture, and recognition programs
• Wellness initiatives
• Policy development and compliance

Meet the HR Team:

The Lake Forest College HR Team is made up of dedicated and experienced HR professionals who are passionate about helping people succeed.

• Rebecca Kay: Human Resource Generalist
  • Rebecca started with Lake Forest College on May 14, 2022. Rebecca is often the first point of contact for employee questions and provides support across recruitment, onboarding, benefits counseling, employee recognition, HR systems, and personnel records. Rebecca helps ensure employees receive timely assistance while supporting the operational processes that keep HR services runing smoothly.
• Jackie Benitez: Senior Human Resources Manager
  • Jackie started with Lake Forest College on January 28, 2026. Jackie leads many of the day-to-day HR programs that directly support employees and supervisors. Her responsibilities include employee relations, benefits administration, recruitment, performance management, and professional development, helping employees navigate important moments throughout their employment journey.
• Melissa Nash: Assistant Vice President for Human Resources
  • Melissa started with Lake forest College on July 6, 2026. Melissa provides strategic leadership for Human Resources and partners with College stakeholders to support organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, compensation strategy, policy development, HR communications, and employee engagement initiatives. She serves as a resource for complex employee matters and helps ensure HR programs align with the College's mission, values, and long-term goals.

While each member of the HR team has primary areas of responsibility, we work collaboratively to support faculty, staff, and leaders across the College. Our shared goal is to provide responsive, people-centered service and help create a positive and engaging employee experience for the Lake Forest College community.

HR Communication

We believe transparent and frequent communication is essential to a healthy workplace. That's the reason we've designed a refreshed HR homepage that features important information about the HR Office, a news feed, and frequently-utilized links. Check out the revamped homepage at https://www.lakeforest.edu/offices-and-department/human-resources. 

In addition, next week we will be launching the Forester HR Connect, a biweekly newsletter designed to keep employees informed about:

• HR announcements
• Open opportunities (internal and/or external job postings)
• Forester transitions (new hires, new roles, departing employees)
• Benefits and wellness
• Learning and development opportunities
• Upcoming dates
• Key resources

We will also be highlighting Lake Forest College faculty and staff within each newsletter! We hope this regular communication becomes a trusted resource and a convenient way to stay connected with what's happening.

We want to hear from  you!

We encourage you to reach out with questions, ideas, feedback, or suggestions for future topics you'd like to see highlighted. We also want to know who you would like to see featured in an Employee Spotlight in an upcoming newsletter. To help, we have built this survey to allow you to provide just-in-time feedback and/or suggestions to the HR team. 

Thank you for being a part of Lake Forest College! We look forward to supporting your success and continuing to build an engaging workplace together.

Your Human Resources Team