Class Note 1989
Our classmate Pam Peedin is heading back to Hanover. She’s been appointed the chief investment officer for Dartmouth, effective February 1, overseeing the investment office and leading the management of the College’s $3 billion endowment. She graduated from Tuck in 1998 and during the last 12 years has advised many nonprofit organizations on investment strategy, first as managing director at Cambridge Associates, then as the CIO of Boston University. At BU she delivered an impressive 12.7 percent return for the university’s endowment during 2010. Pam and her husband, Paul Rebuck, have two boys, Matt, 10, and Charlie, 8.
Betsy Barnett writes in from the small town of Talent, Oregon, where she and her husband, Kalesh Weaver, live on a 23-acre farm filled with mountain views. Betsy taught yoga for 10 years in New York City and since 2000 has traveled extensively with Mata Amritanandamayi, a Hindu spiritual leader and teacher, supporting her humanitarian activities around the world. Betsy says she spends about seven months out of the year away from Oregon and that India is her second home.
Greg Dinges spends part of the year at his home outside Portland, Oregon, and the rest at his house on the beach in Phuket, Thailand. He worked for PepsiCo all over the world for a dozen years and then did a few more with Nike. Then he moved to Russia to be the CFO of a large investment bank but fell victim to bad timing, starting just 90 days before the 2008 financial meltdown. “Landed safely,” he writes, “but exited earlier than planned.” Now he’s doing some consulting, investing and pondering about what’s next. He invites any classmates living or traveling through Asia to look him up.
Lionel Harris reports an excellent summer of travel, in a brief message sent from his new IPad. “Went to Cape Town for the World Cup, some hiking, shark-cage diving and touring the wine country. Just arrived back from mountain biking and whitewater rafting in Keystone, Colorado.”
Chris and David Hammond welcomed Griffin Hammond into the family this summer. He says, “Now with a total of four little ones (Sarah, 9, Logan, 7, Trevor, 5, and Griffin, 2 months) we are a power forward away from fielding our own basketball team.”
Randi Engle writes in from northern California, where she is an assistant professor in the graduate school of education at UC Berkeley, studying cognitive science and the social context of learning. She and her husband, Tom Kuhn ’88, have two daughters, Becca, 14, and Gwen, 8. Randi says “I am so fortunate to have a career where I get to research things that interest me while supporting students’ learning both near and far.” Randi wanted to make sure that I update everyone on the positive things in her life right now, because she also found out in August that she has pancreatic cancer. She had major abdominal surgery and is now undergoing chemotherapy, as well as a clinical trial for a new kind of vaccine. She has also launched a fundraising drive for pancreatic cancer research and you can make donations online at www.firstgiving.com/raisethecureforrandi. Randi writes, “Basically, the only chance that I or anyone else with pancreatic cancer has for a cure is that we can extend our lives long enough so that research can eventually catch up to actually have a cure.” You can join Randi’s e-mail update list by sending a request to friendsofrandi@gmail.com and, of course, we will all keep her in our thoughts.
—Jennifer Avellino, 5912 Aberdeen Road, Bethesda, MD 20817; javellino@mac.com
