Class of 2007

Jessica Rawlins Smith wrote in from N.Y.C. to share news of her new baby girl, Savoy Arielle Smith, born April 21 to Jessica and Henri-Errol Smith. Jessica continues her great work leading fundraising efforts for the Innocence Project, a legal organization aiming to prevent wrongful convictions, and recently hosted a student group from the Dartmouth Minority Pre-Law Association. Bravo, Jess!

Nate Raines wrote in from Boston with big news after I saw him for his birthday: “I had the chance to catch up with Pete Cooch, Charlie Guthrie,and Eric Trautmann to celebrate my 40th in N.Y.C. in March. I’m working as a nephrologist in Boston running a research study that is trying to help understand why workers exposed to heat stress develop high rates of kidney disease—if anyone wants to spend a day exercising in a heat chamber for science, drop me a line! In even more exciting news, my wife, Sarah, daughter Hazel, and I just welcomed a new family member in May—baby girl Iris!” Congrats, Nate and family!

Rachel Karpf and her husband, Brent Reidy ’05, have been celebrating fellow N.Y.C. alums’ recent milestones, from Sarah Hughes’critically acclaimed play, A Woman Among Women, to Mirelle Phillips’ entrepreneurial success with her firm Studio Elsewhere to a star turn by Kimberly Marable ’05 in Chicago on Broadway.

Rachel is keeping busy as VP of theater projects for Paramount and was recently in London to launch Clueless the Musical on the West End. She thinks Tai would’ve been a Sigma Delt. In June Rachel celebrated the Sunset Boulevard Broadway revival winning three Tony Awards! Congrats, Rachel!

Globetrotter Katherine Kalaris chimed in with more reflections on life as a Ph.D. after our collection from the June magazine: “I came to academia later and through a more roundabout route than the typical academic. After our Dartmouth graduation I joined the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso and in the following 13 years I lived and worked in Burkina Faso, France, Ethiopia, Cameroon, and Democratic Republic of Congo. In the midst of the pandemic, I traded the loved dusty sunbaked streets of Africa for the hallowed halls of Oxford for my Ph.D. I finished my Ph.D. in October 2024 and I have stayed at Oxford as a postdoc researcher working on maternal and newborn health and technologies in low-resource settings and teaching a master’s course module on health services evaluations. I’m not sure yet where this will take me but I am forever grateful for Dartmouth setting me on this journey.”

Also from the world of ’07s with Ph.D.s, Anna Cruz shared, “I completed my Ph.D. in Near Eastern studies at the University of California, Berkeley in 2016. After a short stint in academia, I switched career paths and I am currently in my fifth year at Greenwich Country Day School in Connecticut, where I teach social science classes including Intro to Anthropology and Borders & Walls and support students in pursuing independent research projects. As a Mellon Mays undergraduate fellow at Dartmouth, I was able to explore my intellectual interests and envision myself—a first-generation college student from west Texas—in spaces I had previously never imagined. The mentorship I received at Dartmouth informs so much of what I do in and out of the classroom.”

Melissa Machaj wrote in from her own still north, “We’re currently in the thick of big home renovations in downtown Toronto. We bought and are fixing up my husband’s childhood home. No kitchen when we move in and three little kids—wish us luck!”

You’re the best, ’07s! Stay in good touch.

—Sam Routhier, 543 W 122nd St., Apt. 25B, New York, NY 10027; samrouthier@gmail.com