Alumni Council

Alumni Council

The Dartmouth Alumni Council, the 125-member representative body that seeks to foster twoway communication between the College and its more than 80,000 alumni, has had an especially busy year. This past fall the council fulfilled an important constitutional responsibility: to fill the vacancies of two alumni-nominated members of the board of trustees whose terms had expired, the first such openings in five years.

The council’s nominees, Elizabeth Cahill Lempres ’83, Th’84, senior partner emeritus at McKinsey & Co., and Jeffrey M. Crowe 78, managing partner at Norwest Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, begin their terms in June.

Meanwhile, on April 20, the council and its professional development committee broadened the council’s portfolio by hosting a symposium on campus titled “The Future of Work in an Accelerated Era.” The symposium brought students together with faculty and alumni to discuss changes in the job market and to share advice on entering the workforce. The council’s executive committee is grateful to Cuong Do ’88, Tu’89, the chair of the professional development committee, for spearheading this effort in partnership with Michelle LaFond ’83, who leads the committee’s working group on student engagement.

Two weeks later, on May 5, the council’s alumni service committee, led by its chair, Barbara Rollins ’84, sponsored the fourth annual Dartmouth Alumni Day of Service. It is a day that affords alumni opportunities to give back to their local communities, as well as to grow closer to each other and to the College through their class, club or group.

Founded in 1913, the council represents constituents from more than a half-century of classes, as well as regional clubs and affinity groups. We regard ourselves as our constituents’ eyes and ears (and voices, too), as we travel to Hanover twice each academic year armed with questions. We meet with senior leadership of the College, as well as students and faculty, then disseminate what we learn to our constituents via email, social media and other platforms. We do so, in part, with the hope of inspiring engagement with the College, another component of our mission.

This past October our theme was Dartmouth’s unparalleled “sense of place”—an experience that came alive as we convened during the fall foliage under the freshly cut wood beams of the new Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. To simulate the end of a first-year trip, we asked professor Donald E. Pease Jr., the author of the definitive biography of Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel ’25, to read to us from Green Eggs and Ham, a Moosilauke staple. You can find a video of that unforgettable reading by going to dartgo.org/greeneggs.

The council president is elected by its membership to serve a one-year term, beginning July 1. As the end of my term approaches, I am honored to begin preparing to pass the president’s gavel—yes, we actually have one—to Adrienne “Tee” Lotson ’82, who will become the first woman of color to lead the council. Tee has had an eclectic career, including as a sports attorney working with the NCAA and the Atlanta committee for the Olympic Games. Last year, while serving as an administrative law judge for the City of New York, she somehow found time to earn a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology.

I look forward to Tee’s stewardship of the council, and to the directions in which she and her executive committee will lead it. In the meantime, you can write to me, and her, at alumni.council.president@dartmouth.edu.

—Jacques (Jack) Steinberg ’88, president, 6068 Blunt Alumni Center, Hanover, NH03755; alumni.council.president@dartmouth.edu