Class Note 1994
Issue
May-June 2026
Class Note 1994. Hi, all. The U.S. Army in Alaska sent in this update to Dartmouth. That may be a first. It has named the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory’s Dr. Tom Douglas a 2026 Laboratory-University Collaboration Initiative fellow. Tom was awarded the fellowship for research to improve the military’s mobility and operational safety over permafrost, especially during seasonal freeze-thaw cycles.
By combining remote-sensing measurements taken by satellites, airplanes, and unmanned aircraft systems and ground-based measurement techniques with geospatial machine learning analysis, Tom and team seek to better understand the relationship between soil strength, moisture conditions, and seasonal snowpack. The project could help warfighters avoid dangerous bogs, keep vehicles from getting stuck in the mud, and predict where permafrost may thaw rapidly.
Tom and Jen Voges were my freshman year roommates in Hitchcock 311. When I got this announcement, I immediately opened my freshman year photo album and was reminded of those brown Coors Light beer balls that Pat & Tony’s delivered.
This next story is my favorite moment as your class secretary. Dr. Amy Levin read the January Class Notes about classmates with addresses in the upper Midwest, including Josh Heikkila from Minnesota, who is currently residing in Ghana. Amy was headed there for work in two weeks and reached out to me for Josh’s email. They met up and Amy was able to watch him work as a Presbyterian minister, speaking in English and the Ewe language. Josh entertained Amy with stories of being an interpreter for well-intentioned Western donors to ensure that local public health, water, and infrastructure projects match local needs and values, with an emphasis on cross-cultural education. Amy confirms that the local people find Josh just as lovable as his Dartmouth classmates did.
Further, Josh promptly posted their picture together on our class WhatsApp group, and they learned that Dr. Shirley Delair was also in Ghana at the time! They met the following weekend over hibiscus juice at a coffin art exhibit, sharing stories of freshman trips and navigating the big dog-eared, three-ring binders at Collis in the career center. Ah, days before the internet!
Shirley, a pediatric infectious disease doctor in Nebraska, has worked for years with Ghana medical teams to ensure they get appropriate research data for their communities. As students, both Amy and Shirley had Tucker Foundation fellowships, which fueled their public health interests.
Amy was in Ghana modifying her sickle cell, peer-support curriculum used with a National Institutes of Health grant in the United States for Ghanaian peer health coaches (women with sickle cell who had successful pregnancies). She enjoys building peer-support programs at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and continuing to adapt them, in addition to clinical work as a pediatrician. She concludes: “I love having these new ’94s in my life!” ’Round the girdled earth they roam!
The Dartmouth ’94 WhatsApp group now has 174 members. Reach out to me for the link to join. You could have seen the Ghana photos three months ago. Ha ha.
—Sean Kinney, 53 Lighthouse Lane, Moultonborough, NH 03254; seankinney2001@yahoo.com
Back to 1994 Class Year
More of 1994 Class Notes
By combining remote-sensing measurements taken by satellites, airplanes, and unmanned aircraft systems and ground-based measurement techniques with geospatial machine learning analysis, Tom and team seek to better understand the relationship between soil strength, moisture conditions, and seasonal snowpack. The project could help warfighters avoid dangerous bogs, keep vehicles from getting stuck in the mud, and predict where permafrost may thaw rapidly.
Tom and Jen Voges were my freshman year roommates in Hitchcock 311. When I got this announcement, I immediately opened my freshman year photo album and was reminded of those brown Coors Light beer balls that Pat & Tony’s delivered.
This next story is my favorite moment as your class secretary. Dr. Amy Levin read the January Class Notes about classmates with addresses in the upper Midwest, including Josh Heikkila from Minnesota, who is currently residing in Ghana. Amy was headed there for work in two weeks and reached out to me for Josh’s email. They met up and Amy was able to watch him work as a Presbyterian minister, speaking in English and the Ewe language. Josh entertained Amy with stories of being an interpreter for well-intentioned Western donors to ensure that local public health, water, and infrastructure projects match local needs and values, with an emphasis on cross-cultural education. Amy confirms that the local people find Josh just as lovable as his Dartmouth classmates did.
Further, Josh promptly posted their picture together on our class WhatsApp group, and they learned that Dr. Shirley Delair was also in Ghana at the time! They met the following weekend over hibiscus juice at a coffin art exhibit, sharing stories of freshman trips and navigating the big dog-eared, three-ring binders at Collis in the career center. Ah, days before the internet!
Shirley, a pediatric infectious disease doctor in Nebraska, has worked for years with Ghana medical teams to ensure they get appropriate research data for their communities. As students, both Amy and Shirley had Tucker Foundation fellowships, which fueled their public health interests.
Amy was in Ghana modifying her sickle cell, peer-support curriculum used with a National Institutes of Health grant in the United States for Ghanaian peer health coaches (women with sickle cell who had successful pregnancies). She enjoys building peer-support programs at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and continuing to adapt them, in addition to clinical work as a pediatrician. She concludes: “I love having these new ’94s in my life!” ’Round the girdled earth they roam!
The Dartmouth ’94 WhatsApp group now has 174 members. Reach out to me for the link to join. You could have seen the Ghana photos three months ago. Ha ha.
—Sean Kinney, 53 Lighthouse Lane, Moultonborough, NH 03254; seankinney2001@yahoo.com