Assistant Director

Rose Rita Riccitelli
Assistant Director
Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies
Office Phone:  (203) 432-9856
Cell Phone:  (203) 645-3914
E-mail:  roserita.riccitelli@yale.edu

Rose Rita began her career at Yale in 1991 at the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS).  In 2008, she was appointed assistant director by then YIBS Director Jeffrey J. Park.  Rose Rita is happy to be working with the current YIBS Director Os Schmitz since his appointment to this position in July of 2011.

Rose Rita began her career at Yale in 1991 as the first administrative assistant for YIBS in the same year that the Institute was created.  After serving in this position for two years, she transferred to the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, serving in their development and alumni affairs office.  Rose Rita completed a degree in business administration at Albertus Magnus College and assumed the position of the YIBS Administrator in 1998 under the directorship of Elisabeth Vrba, Professor of Geology & Geophysics, and continues in this role and has served under the directorships of Karl K. Turekian, former Sterling Professor of Geology & Geophysics and now deceased; Derek E.G. Briggs, currently the Director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History and G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology & Geophysics; Jeffrey J. Park, Professor of Geology & Geophysics; and currently with Oswald Schmitz, Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecoloygy at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Rose Rita enjoys her role as the YIBS assistant director, espeically working with YIBS-related Yale faculty and the Gaylord Donnelley and YIBS Environmental Postdoctoral Associates, whose research and teaching interests intersect with environment issues.  The YIBS umbrella is far reaching, from departments on Science Hill - including Anthropology, Astronomy, Chemistry, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Economics, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Geology & Geophysics, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology – and spreading across campus to the Medical School’s Department of Epidemiology & Public Health and to the School of Architecture, and she remarks "each day is an adventure that keeps me on my toes!"