Vice President for Alumni Relations Cheryl Bascomb Announces Retirement
Dartmouth has rolled out ambitious, inclusive alumni engagement initiatives during her tenure.
Cheryl Bascomb ’82, who has expanded Dartmouth’s alumni outreach activities and overseen multiple milestone events as vice president for alumni relations, today announced her retirement. She will step down from the post at the end of December.
“Cheryl has redefined the way our alumni, more than 85,000 strong, connect with Dartmouth and one another around the world,” says Chief Advancement Officer Ann Root Keith ’05a. “Cheryl leaves a tremendous legacy, from her successful efforts to bring more and more Dartmouth alumni ‘off the sidelines,’ as she likes to say, to her leadership in the Call to Serve, which inspired Dartmouth alumni and families to contribute more than 250,000 hours of service in their communities.”
Bascomb says the past seven years have produced some of the best and most challenging moments for higher education but also demonstrated the resiliency of her team in the Office of Alumni Relations and the entire Dartmouth community.
“When I arrived, we were marking Dartmouth’s 250th anniversary, clearly a wonderful moment. Because I arrived without previous experience working in alumni relations, I expected that I would really learn about both higher ed and the ins and outs of alumni relations after the sestercentennial celebrations,” she says. “And then, two months later, we have a global pandemic, and we had to recalibrate how we could keep our alumni connected at a time when the world had shut down. Fortunately, people all over the world learned how to connect virtually. We leveraged that newfound skill and developed programs on Zoom so people could hear from Dartmouth, whether from professors or other alumni, and feel connected to the Dartmouth family in a disconnected world.”
She adds, “Before the pandemic, all of our programs were in person. Alumni had to travel to Hanover or to a major urban area in order to connect with Dartmouth programs.”
Under Bascomb’s leadership, Alumni Relations has deepened connections through affinity-based engagement. She has actively supported major Reunions and Homecoming events and helped commemorate significant milestones for multiple communities, including the Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association, Dartmouth Asian Pacific American Alumni Association, Dartmouth LGBTQIA+ Alum Association, Native American Alumni Association of Dartmouth, Dartmouth Association of Latino Alumni, and Women of Dartmouth. These successes have fostered a more inclusive and representative alumni experience and created more volunteer roles for people who share experiences through their identities.
Specific outreach efforts during Bascomb’s tenure included the 250th anniversary, which she co-led with Donald E. Pease, the Ted and Helen Geisel Third Century Professor in the Humanities. Working with Advancement Division staff, they hosted a year of memorable events across the globe that underscored the strength and reach of Dartmouth’s alumni community.
“I have very fond recollections of working with Cheryl,” Pease says. “She came in midway through the preparation for the 250th and she hit the ground running, perhaps because of her experience as captain of the track and field team when she was an undergraduate. What I really admired about Cheryl was her capacity initially to adapt to structures, rituals, and protocols that were in place and then transform them in ways that advanced our work.”
In 2022, Bascomb, her Alumni Relations team, Advancement colleagues, and a cadre of volunteers led the landmark 50 years of coeducation at Dartmouth celebration—a weekend of alumnae-led panels, public exhibits, and the rededication of Dartmouth Hall that drew more than 1,200 attendees. That same year, she and her team helped organize an on-campus gathering to mark BADA’s 50th anniversary and celebrated the 50 years since Dartmouth rededicated itself to its founding commitment to educate Native Americans.
Bascomb also played a key role in welcoming President Sian Leah Beilock ’76a to the Dartmouth community in 2023. The Alumni Relations office took up the challenge of organizing two years of alumni events, introducing the president and her initiatives for Dartmouth to alumni around the world.
Pease praised Bascomb for her commitment to expanding lifelong learning opportunities that connect alumni with faculty, whether through presentations at Reunions, Back to Class events, or Dartmouth-sponsored travel led by faculty.
“She's a person who possesses a great deal of intellectual curiosity, and she’s a fantastic listener,” Pease says. Those strengths, he adds, help her identify faculty who “will be the best partners in helping alums appreciate that a liberal arts education is not something you pursue for just four years. At Dartmouth, you develop a curiosity and a passion for learning that enables you to cultivate your intellect throughout your life.”
Before returning to her alma mater in 2018, Bascomb enjoyed a successful career in marketing with several companies, including L.L. Bean, UNUM, and BerryDunn CPAs in southern Maine. A dedicated community leader, she served on several nonprofit boards, including Northeast Delta Dental, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine, and the Falmouth Family Ice Center, where she pursued her love of ice hockey. Bascomb is married to Dave Van Wie ’79 TH’84, and their daughter, Rosa P. Van Wie, is a member of the Class of 2012.
Carolyn Gray Kimberlin Tapped to Serve as Interim VP
Carolyn Gray Kimberlin ’75a, currently the assistant vice president for alumni relations, will serve as interim vice president, beginning in January 2026.
Kimberlin came to Dartmouth in 2022 after nearly 20 years at Colby College, where she led several teams in development and alumni relations and worked with multiple volunteer groups.
At Dartmouth, she helped set the strategy and vision for the Presidential Welcome Tour, led the evolution of reunion engagement, including July Reunions, the 50th Reunion, and milestone programs, and guided the Alumni Relations team through change.
Bascomb will remain active in the Dartmouth alumni community, particularly in the Dartmouth Club of the Upper Valley, while also volunteering for several organizations and serving on the board of the Androscoggin Bank.
As she heads into her final months as vice president of alumni relations, Bascomb says she is particularly grateful for all the support she has received from her ’82 classmates. “They have been my biggest cheerleaders since the day I announced I was taking on this role,” she says.