by Deborah Klenotic
Ninety-seven members of the Dartmouth Alumni Council came to Hanover December 2-4 for the council's 201st session, a busy meeting at which they nominated alumni candidates for two seats on the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees; met with President Jim Yong Kim, trustees, and administrators; and presented a 2010-11 Dartmouth Alumni Award to Mary Thomson Renner '82.
The council nominated Gail Koziara Boudreaux '82, executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group and president of UnitedHealthcare, and Bill Burgess '81, a managing partner of the venture capital firm ABS Ventures, as alumni candidates for the two seats on the board vacated by Christine Bucklin '84 and Jose Fernandez '77. Boudreaux and Burgess were chosen by the council's Nominating and Alumni Trustee Seach Committee, chaired by Tom Daniels '82, after extenisve review of hundreds of recommendations. The alumni body will vote on the candidates from March 9 to April 6, 2011.
Left to right, former councilor John Engelman '68,
councilor Paul Tuhus '69, councilor and Association
of Alumni president John Mathias '69, and trustee
Sherri Oberg '82, '86Tu. (photo: Joe Mehling '69)
Addressing the councilors at dinner in Alumni Hall, President Kim discussed the "Dartmouth model of innovation," describing it as the creation of "interdisciplinary structures to promote collaboration, close student-faculty contact, and diffusion of knowledge to effect change." He highlighted the creation of computer time sharing and BASIC by former Dartmouth president and mathematics professor John Kemeny, mathematics professor Tom Kurtz, and a team of students and, more recently, the creation of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, the country's first tool charting regional variations in health care, by Dartmouth Medical School professor John Wennberg and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
The Dartmouth model of innovation will inform the development of the new Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science, launched last year. President Kim is also exploring other areas in which to take Dartmouth's innovation power; possibilities include an education center devoted to teaching that draws on brain research; a sustainability solutions center; and a collaborative program focused on binge drinking that will make Dartmouth a leader in addressing this growing problem for campuses.
During a Saturday morning Q & A, trustees Sherri Oberg '82, '86Tu and Brad Evans '64 discussed the active roles that new alumni-nominated trustees John Replogle '88 and Morton Kondracke '60 have undertaken on the board and welcomed Alumni Council representative Annette Gordon-Reed '81 to the board as a recently appointed charter trustee. They thanked the councilors for their nomination of Boudreaux and Burgess. They also discussed their ongoing partnership with the council's Alumni Liaison Committee, renovations to the Hanover Inn, capital projects, student affairs, the College's strategic planning process, board development, and the recent New England Association of Schools and Colleges reaccreditation process. They heard comments and took questions from the councilors.
Mary Thomson Renner '82, recipient of the 2010-11
Dartmouth Alumni Award, has served the College
as a volunteer for more than 20 years. (photo:
Joe Mehiling '69)
Alumni Council president Tom Peisch '70 presented Mary Thomson Renner '82 with the 2010-11 Dartmouth Alumni Award, honoring a career of volunteer service to Dartmouth that dates back to her earliest years as an alum. Renner has served as class president, mini-reunion chair, and reunion committee member; job development officer for the alumni club in Boston; alumni councilor; chair of the Young Alumni Awards Committee; enrollment interviewer; and president of the class presidents and class mini-reunion associations.
"The enveloping Dartmouth family has supported and sustained me throughout my life," Renner said.
Related:
Photos of the Alumni Council's 201st Session
Deborah Klenotic is the assistant director of Web communications in the Office of Alumni Relations.