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June 5, 2020

Former top Cigna executive Mark Boxer hired as UHart COO

Photo | Contributed Mark Boxer is the new chief operating officer at the University of Hartford.
By Sean Teehan

Mark Boxer, who recently retired as Cigna's chief information officer, is now chief operating officer at the University of Hartford.

Boxer, who officially started his duties this week, said he always planned on entering higher education after he retired from the insurance industry, and that his status as a UHart alumni mixed with his desire to work with President Gregory Woodward made the university a good fit.

"I don't think you could be a good business leader without being a good educator," said Boxer, who, in addition to holding two bachelor’s degrees from UHart, also holds an MBA from the University of Connecticut and doctoral degrees from the Arizona Health Services, the Medical University of South Carolina and did post-doctoral work at the University of Oxford in the U.K.

In his nine years at Cigna, Boxer was responsible for driving the Bloomfield insurer's technology operations, digital capabilities, analytics, and ventures. His portfolio of responsibilities at UHart will include developing community, industry and government partnerships, managing the university's strategic plan and handling faculty teaching assignments, UHart president Greg Woodward said.

"He will play a significant role in how we successfully and strategically respond to the unprecedented challenges higher education and our institution are facing,” Woodward said.

Technology was key to higher education even before COVID-19 swept the globe, Boxer said, but the distance learning the pandemic has necessitated made it even more critical.

Boxer said the necessity of distance learning has forced colleges and other educational institutions to speed up improvements to the technology and how it's applied to wholly digital courses and hybrid ones in which some content is taught in-person and some online. 

"Getting really good at online learning… has been accelerated," Boxer said. "I think bringing that experience and expertise to the university  will help us advance our agenda coming out of the crisis."

UHart, which closed its West Hartford campus in March amid the COVID-19 pandemic, last week announced it will allow residential students to begin moving belongings into residence halls and on-campus apartment buildings starting in mid-August, with official move-ins occurring on a staggered schedule between Aug. 24 and Aug. 26.
 
Courses will be held on a normal schedule through the fall semester until the Thanksgiving break, after which all classes and final exams through the end of the semester will be held online, Woodward said.

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