Leadership Conference Welcomes Alumni Leaders
By Mollie Pulver '80
For more than one hundred years, the Cornell Association of Class Officers (CACO) has welcomed its membership to an annual meeting, usually held in the winter. This tradition is about to change with the creation of the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference (CALC).
This new conference, welcoming Cornell alumni leaders from around the world, will take place January 29-31 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. "Mid-Winter Meeting provided class officers an annual opportunity for networking, sharing best practices, and learning how to better serve the University as true Cornell ambassadors," says Chris Marshall, associate vice president of alumni affairs. "In August of last year, a task force was created and leaders representing classes, clubs, minority associations, colleges, and professional schools were charged with reviewing past volunteer training practices and considering current needs of a broader spectrum of all Cornell leadership. The findings resulted in the creation of CALC."
Since then, Marshall says, Alumni Affairs staff have been working hard to create an expanded program from which all alumni volunteers will benefit. In addition, members of the boards of the Cornell Association of Class Officers and the Cornell Alumni Federation have been providing input. The gathering, which will run from Friday through Sunday, will target a wide range of alumni leaders. In addition to class officers, the weekend will be geared to leaders of regional clubs, minority alumni associations, professional schools, and affinity groups—such as sorority and fraternity advisory council members, college alumni association officers, and members of the University Council and President's Council of Cornell Women. Topics will include marketing, succession planning, and volunteer career paths.
Speakers on tap for the weekend include Glenn Altschuler, PhD '76, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies and dean of the School of Continuing Education; Jim Axelrod '85, CBS White House correspondent; Kent Fuchs, University provost; and Susan Murphy '73, PhD '94, vice president for student and academic services.
For more information or to register, go to www.alumni. cornell.edu/caco/index.htm. Accommodations are available at the Marriott; call (800) 228-9290 and ask for the Cornell University room block.
Mollie Pulver '80 serves as a director-at-large on the Cornell Alumni Federation Board.
University Council, PCCW Welcome New Leaders
This spring, both the Cornell University Council and the President's Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) appointed new presidents and welcomed new members. Mitch Lee '90, JD '96, and Carolyn Press Landis '65 will serve two-year terms as leaders of the Council and PCCW, respectively.
"I'm honored to be presented with the opportunity to become president of the University Council," says Lee. "When I first applied to Cornell, I had two alumni in my hometown of Rochester, New York, who served as my mentors, Don Berens '47 and Joe King '39, who showed me that going to Cornell would be a life-long experience, and taught me the importance of giving back. And to be honest, I cannot give as much back to Cornell as Cornell has given to me." Lee also said he was appreciative of the support and leadership shown by previous Council presidents, including Ronni Chernoff '67, Jay Waks '68, JD '71, and Ginger So '79.
In addition to Lee, the Council's administrative board filled several new leadership positions, including three new vice chairs: Roderick Chu, MBA '71, Katrina James '96, and Jay Taylor '80. New Council committee chairs are Cynthia Kubas '78 (Admissions and Financial Aid), Deborah Gerard Adelman '71, MS '74 (Career Services), Annie Wong '77 (Student and Academic Services), Leonard Kennedy '74, JD '77 (Governmental Relations), and Ken Gurrola, MBA '95 (Technology Transfer). New members-at-large on the board are Karen Tanner Allen '83, Robert Chodock '89, Alexis Fernandez '83, Jeffrey Goldstein '90, Ann Corbisiero Harris '77, DVM '83, Muriel Bertenthal Kuhs '61, Brian Miller '79, and Scott Pesner '87. New Trustee members on the administrative board are Diana Daniels '71 and Lisa Skeete Tatum '89, while new faculty board members are Kent Kleinman and Donald Rakow, MPS '77, PhD '87.
The Council also elected fifty-three first-time members and reap-pointed sixty-one alumni to new four-year terms; these returning alumni had been off the Council for a minimum of the required two years. In addition, seven alumni were appointed life members.
PCCW also welcomed twenty-three new alumnae to its membership: Sheila Wilson Allen '76, DVM '81, Kim Azzarelli '93, JD '97, Sharon Wolfson Bader '91, Jacqueline Washington Brown '84, Joan Bryan, MBA '92, Margaret Cangilos-Ruiz '74, Kathleen Dillon Carroll '85, MBA '86, Margaret West DeBolt '76, BArch '77, Lisa Drayer '96, Sarah Emerson '84, Emily Clark Hewitt '66, Elaine Sarkin Jaffe '65, MD '69, Phyllis Mable '56, Robin Wallach Matza '76, Yonn Kouh Rasmussen '83, PhD '89, Meredith Rosenberg '92, Wynee Yang Sade '94, Katherine Jassy Savitt Lennon '85, Rebecca Shaghalian Larkin, MBA '98, Rochelle Shaw Slovin '62, Nancy Sutley '84, Lynda Schrier Wirth '82, and Martha Withington, MBA '94.
PCCW was founded in 1990 to advance the involvement of female students, faculty, staff, and alumnae as leaders within Cornell University and throughout its many constituent communities. According to Landis, among the issues PCCW will focus on this year are highlighting best practices at Cornell that enable women to succeed at high levels of the faculty and administration, working closely with the NSF-funded Cornell ADVANCE Center to promote women in science and engineering, and mentoring female students. "Like most members, I joined PCCW at a time when professional and family commitments permitted very few, if any, personal commitments," says Landis. "PCCW members are eager to devote their time because it's the only Cornell alumni organization that focuses on improving the status of women on campus. It's a special honor to lead the organization during its twentieth anniversary year."
Alumni Federation Appoints New Committee Heads
As she began her two-year term as president of the Cornell Alumni Federation (CAF), Nancy Abrams Dreier '86 appointed several new committee chairs, as well as one new committee.
• Shana Chacko Mueller '95 will oversee the committee working on the CAF portion of the Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference, taking place this winter in Washington, D.C. This committee will eventually be merged into a new committee, Training and Development, that will work with CAF member organizations on training and membership issues.
• Scott Pesner '87 will chair the Marketing and Communications Committee, whose mission has been expanded. In addition to overseeing content for the "Alma Matters" section of Cornell Alumni Magazine, this committee will promote the work of CAF.
• Aaron Gadouas '86 has been appointed chair of the Grants Committee. He will oversee the committee that reviews the biannual grant requests from regional clubs and affinity groups.
• Thomas Mulligan '73, MBA '77, will remain chair of the Ways and Means Committee.
CALS Alumni Association Celebrates Centennial
By Mollie Pulver '80
In 1909, Liberty Hyde Bailey brought a group of former students together to foster connections between themselves and their alma mater, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. One hundred years later, the CALS Alumni Association is in the midst of a year-long celebration of its centennial.
In April, more than 150 alumni and friends came to campus for "CALS: Making a World of Difference." The day-long event, hosted by Alumni Association President Sandra Sworts Gardner '84, featured panel discussions with faculty, facility tours, and a networking lunch. One attendee described the event as a "Reader's Digest of who's who and what's what in CALS right now." Participants learned about the evolution of CALS since the association's founding by Bailey, the College's first dean. In a century, the College's enrollment has grown more than tenfold and its mission has expanded to span the globe.
The morning program featured panels, including a dozen faculty working in research areas related to climate, renewable energy, environmental systems, and food production. Senior Associate Dean Jan Nyrop said the sessions highlighted the strengths of the college's overlapping priority areas and got alumni excited about CALS.
Following lunch and a poster session, visitors toured the labs and spaces that house some of the College's teaching and research. They participated in a simulated consumer behavior study at the Food and Brand Lab, learned how ice cream is made at the Food Science Lab, walked through the lush greenhouses, examined the cutting-edge winemaking equipment at the Teaching Winery, and toured Weill Hall, home to innovative life sciences research.
"The whole scope of activities at CALS is just amazing," said Peter Pamkowski '74, BS '76. "The research being done and the challenges being addressed apply not just to our country, but the whole world. This day showed why we are the number-one land grant college in the country." When asked what they enjoyed most about the event, one attendee summed up the day by saying: "The research being conducted by CALS faculty makes me more optimistic about the future of our country."