Class Note 1997

It may be 2020, but it feels like 1997 fever is in the air. At the VOX conference in Hanover in September, the class of ’97 was named Class of the Year 25 Years Out and Younger, the first time our class earned this honor. I was so proud to accept the award with Lindsey Noecker, Blaire Bernard, Tony Field, Rebecca Siegel Baron, and Heidi Conner. Big congratulations also go out to Natasha (Lam) O’Rourke, Ben Sweetser, and Heidi Conner for earning Newsletter of the Year 25 Years Out and Younger honors. Go, ’97 sweep! And kudos to our class for winning the Outstanding Mini-Reunion Program 25 Years Out and Younger, in recognition of successful mini-reunions around the country organized by Rebecca Siegel Baron, Natasha (Lam) O’Rourke, Cai (Boldt) Pandolfino, Jessica Russo Revand, Karin (Kelley) Sloan, Danielle (Benware) Thompson, and Jennifer Tudder Walus. Oscar Yang, president of the Dartmouth Club of Western Washington, and Michele Lamberti, vice chair of Women of Dartmouth, were also at the conference, which brought together for the first time in one gathering volunteers from classes, clubs, and groups. Looking forward to the next VOX conference in October!

We had a great ’97 turnout for Dartmouth’s “Big Green in the Big Apple” weekend in November in honor of Dartmouth’s 250th anniversary. On November 8, Phil Lord and Chris Miller discussed their experiences making the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Mary Lou Aleskie, director of the Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts, moderated the lively discussion. Chris and Phil took questions from the audience, followed by a screening of the film. On a beautiful but chilly November 9, Big Green football fans gathered at Billy’s Sports Bar in the Bronx before making their way to cheer Dartmouth onto a huge 27-10 win over Princeton in Yankee Stadium to essentially clinch a share of the Ivy League championship. I have never seen so many Dartmouth alums together outside of Hanover. Class of ’97s spotted throughout the weekend include Rebecca Siegel Baron, Blaire Bernard, Chris Butler, Erica Chong, Jon Curreri, Jeff Cutshall, Ryan deFord, Francesca De Simone, Henry Detering, Laura du Pont, Jennifer (Pollina) Echlov, Russell Echlov, Traci Entel, Lloyd Fass, Jon Feldman, Sascha Goldsmith, Jonathan Hunnicutt, Misong Kim, Shane Leahey, Steve Lisowski, Gina (Henry) Lubin, Emilio Mena, Joel Montgomery, Lindsey Noecker, Anna Ochoa, Cai (Boldt) Pandolfino, Nevin Patton, Drew Payne, Cameron Potts, Josh Pristaw, Chris Rhodes, Kate Fowler Rizzo, Amy Schneeberger, Amy Semet, Matt Shafer, Scott Simon, Pete Sisitsky, Alejandro Soto, Cindy (Bellefeuille) Stanton, Katherine Taylor, Jeremy Turk, and Tracy (Rosen) Williams.

On a different note, congratulations to Cara Abercrombie, recently named the first president of the Defense Security Cooperation University, the new U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) center of excellence for security cooperating training, with campuses in Arlington, Virginia, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. According to the DoD, security cooperation is the effort to advance U.S. national security and foreign policy interests by building the capacity of foreign security forces to respond to shared challenges. Cara said in a press release the biggest task ahead is ensuring the 20,000 or so DoD personnel involved in security cooperation work get certified in that work. “That’s an extremely ambitious goal,” she said. “A lot of it will hinge on making sure all the curriculum is fully developed. But our goal is making sure we get them certified at the basic level by 2022.”

Take care and keep sending your news.

—Jason Casell, 10106 Balmforth Lane, Houston, TX 77096; jhcasell@gmail.com