Hello everyone! Hope your new year is off to a great start! At the end of 2013 I heard from Jacquie (Johnson) Arana, who sent in “a (very) belated update that my husband, Andres, and I welcomed our second and third children back in June 2012! Twins Anabel and Gabriela join their older sister Eva, who is 3 1/2, and our dog Leo (the oldest at 5 years old!). Our three lovely little ladies are keeping us quite busy (and Leo is being very tolerant), but we’re loving every second of it. Before the twins were born I left the N.Y.C. law firm life and took a job as in-house counsel at Bed Bath & Beyond’s corporate headquarters in Union, New Jersey. It has been a great switch for me, both from a work standpoint and a lifestyle standpoint, and I’m still (now almost two years later) enjoying the work immensely.”


It’s always great to hear from classmates near and far, and such was the case when I heard from my former roommate from post-college time in Boston, Ainsley (Ryan) Showalter. She and her husband, Chris ’99, live in Zimbabwe. “Would you believe that the only mail we receive in Zimbabwe is the alumni magazine? I have no idea how it ends up under our gate in Harare, as there is no mail service to speak of. I just attribute its delivery to the mystical power of Dartmouth! Chris and I have Tatum (7), Perkin (5) and Henry (1) and our two basset hounds, Tigerlilly and Tyrannosaurus Rex. The older children attend the Harare International School and Henry spends his day exploring the garden and hunting for zongororos (giant millipedes). Chris is now a managing partner at Hannam & Partners, a London-based emerging markets advisory firm where he is responsible for all of southern Africa; not a job for the faint of heart. Meanwhile, he is still knee-deep in trying to save the black rhino! I am busy with the children, constant power and water shortages, endless ‘developing world’ problems, dodging roadblocks, adjudicating national music festivals and doing what I can to make a tiny difference here on a local level, mostly in music and education. We cherish our intrepid visitors, friends and family alike.”


As many of you know, Nick Russell serves as our class representative to the Alumni Council and attends the annual meeting of the Alumni Council. In case you did not see his summary email from December, I’ve included a very small excerpt below. “I recently had the pleasure of attending the 207th meeting of the Alumni Council, which also celebrated the 100th anniversary of the council. The meeting was the first opportunity for President Phil Hanlon ’77, and I wanted to highlight a response to a question forwarded from one of our classmates prior to the meeting. Her question was: ‘Setting aside financial donations, what is the best way I can get involved with and give back to the Dartmouth community?’ President Hanlon is focusing on answering this question as he visits with alumni around the world this year for a series of presidential Dartmouth club events. The theme of the presidential club events is ‘Are You All in for Dartmouth?’ The College has developed a new webpage (http://allinfordartmouth.com/allin), which provides the online links to a wide variety of opportunities for alumni to engage with the College (for example, interviewing, career mentoring, club and class volunteers, etc.). The locations and dates of the remaining presidential club visits are
Washington, D.C., on February 19; Philadelphia on March 19; Chicago on April 29; Seattle on May 6; and Denver on May 20.”


Also, just a reminder that the voting for the 2014 Association of Alumni Committee will take place from February 12 to March 11. You should have received an email with the slate of candidates back in December. I encourage you to participate in this important effort.


—Kelly Heaps, 3666 Willowlea Court, Unit B, Cincinnati, OH 45208; heaps.k@pg.com