Internal review highlights fracture between former leadership and staff at Wexner Center for the Arts

A month before Gaëtane Verna announced her late-November resignation from the Wexner Center for the Arts, Employee and Labor Relations (ELR) at Ohio State University produced an internal review investigating allegations of retaliation made by a staff member against the former executive director, in addition to reviewing two Ethicspoint complaints lodged anonymously by employees in June and August of this year.

The report, a copy of which was obtained via records request by Matter News, offers further insight into the work environment at the Wexner Center under Verna, and particularly the communication disconnect that developed between the former director and a number of museum staffers, more than a dozen of whom signed a letter sent in August to Ohio State executive vice president and provost Ravi V. Bellamkonda in which they expressed a vote of no confidence in Verna’s leadership. (“Over the past three years, it is our opinion that her approach has resulted in high turnover, organizational dysfunction, financial instability, and reputational harm,” reads the letter, obtained in October by Matter News, the contents of which were also investigated in the review by ELR.)

In the review process, ELR wrote that it spoke with five individuals in addition to Verna, whose included responses offer the first real insights into how she viewed her role in fostering relations with staff. “Verna confirmed she does not talk to staff in general, except in the all-staff meetings, and that given prior Ethicspoint complaints filed about her, she stays away from staff members,” reads the report. “Verna shared she believes it is up to the employees to reach out to her and not her responsibility as a leader to have an open-door policy. Verna stated she was instructed not to meddle in daily operations of the staff by the university. When she was asked who provided her instructions, she was unable to recall where this instruction came from and when.”

The ELR report then goes on to describe Verna as “disinterested” in fostering communication with Wexner Center workers, writing in summary that “her unwillingness to meet employees where they are suggests a lack of responsiveness to staff needs and a missed opportunity to build trust and collaboration.”

The report also investigated claims made in the August letter sent by Wexner Center staffers that Verna’s leadership approach had resulted in high employee turnover at the museum. Documenting staff turnover since November 2022, ELR wrote that six employees had exited “due to legitimate business decisions of involuntary termination or reduction in force.” The remaining 30 departures were voluntary, with employees either leaving the Wexner Center to join other university departments or exiting Ohio State altogether. Of those, the report states, exit survey data “illustrates that 12 of the voluntary terminations are due to Verna’s leadership style, lack of clarity and frequent changing of directives, treatment of staff, favoritism of certain departments … and overall morale.”

The impact of the issues raised in the review created “vulnerabilities” within the Wexner Center, ELR wrote, undermining trust, compromising effectiveness, and fueling high turnover. And absent Verna’s “genuine commitment to change,” the report continues, these issues would continue to pose barriers for the museum.

“Based on this assessment and the established facts, the EVP and Provost should follow up with Verna and take action he deems appropriate as it relates to her role as the Executive Director,” the review states in conclusion.

Less than a month later, and just a week after multiple outlets broke news in late October about the growing internal strife at the Wexner Center, Verna resigned from her position.

In a letter dated for Oct. 30, a copy of which was obtained via records request by Matter News, Bellamkonda wrote to Verna confirming the acceptance of her resignation effective on Feb. 4, 2026.

OSU spokesperson Ben Johnson said that while Verna will remain on protective leave through early February, her job responsibilities “transitioned immediately” upon her resignation. Asked if this protective leave had been stipulated as part of Verna’s contract with the university, along with the specifics of what the protective leave entailed, including if the former director would remain on OSU payroll through Feb. 4, Johnson declined to provide more information, writing, “We’re not going to comment further on the nature of her leave or other personnel matters.”