The Board of Trustees selected Elizabeth “Ellie” Mahoney Loughlin ’89 and Richard Lewis ’94 this past month to join the Board. Loughlin and Lewis joined after then-Board chairman Bill Helman’s ’80 three-year term ended on June 17.
Loughlin, who currently serves on the Dartmouth President’s Leadership Council and several other alumni committees, said she was surprised when she was initally asked to join the Board.
“I’ve been doing a lot of volunteering for Dartmouth and then one day they asked me … I said yes right away,” Loughlin said.
Loughlin has helped with a number of Dartmouth alumni events and credits these past experiences as a platform to draw from throughout her position as a trustee. She hopes she will be able to bring a variety of different perspectives to the Board when suggesting new events.
“I think it’s hard because when you’re at Dartmouth, you see the school from such a different viewpoints than when you’re an alum and you can’t appreciate all that goes into it,” Loughlin said in regards to controversial administrative initatives. “And you’re like, 'Why did the administration do this to me?' But they didn’t do it to you.”
Loughlin is excited to bring her experiences not only as an undergraduate student, but also as a parent of two Dartmouth students.
“Remembering how I felt as a student will be really important because I realized we really need to explain things and we really need to be clear with students why things are happening,” Loughlin said. “[The administration] really do have students' best interests at heart. No decision is arbitrarily made.”
As a trustee, Loughlin will continue her past work with campaign planning in service to the College. Once elected, each trustee serves on the whole board as well as smaller committees that each oversee subsections of the College’s governance.
Lewis, who approaches the tenure position with a different background than Loughlin, echoed a similar excitement in joining the Board and gaining experience.
“Dartmouth opened up that pathway and told me anything was possible and I, personally, could achieve it,” Lewis said. “I’m hoping to continue helping provide the setting and place and experience for so many more people to do that.”
Lewis, who currently lives in London and runs an international business with colleagues and employees from 50 different countries that speak 24 languages, credited Dartmouth for giving him the initial opportunity to grow up academically and socially.
“For me what it did is really open a world for me, told me that anything is possible,” Lewis said. “I knew I was at a school that was one of the best in the world but it normalized excellence and exception for me.”
“I’m a kid that grew up in Salem, Massachusetts, suburb of Boston," Lewis said. “I came from a very different, you know, smaller pond. This was the big pond.”
Lewis said that he was excited to follow College President Phil Hanlon’s leadership and become more informed to help grow and improve the College.
“I’m humbled, honored and both excited for the college at this highest level to help the president accomplish what he wants,” Lewis said.
Lewis also said he believes Dartmouth can be an eye-opening experience for all people of different backgrounds. In addition, he added that he is pleased to bring an international perspective to the Board of Trustees.
“I have an aspiration to continue to bring an international perspective to the board because I live and operate outside of America,” Lewis said. “We’re growing not only our international intake of new students into Dartmouth, but growing Dartmouth’s perspective and reach and brand outside of the U.S. and North America.”
After living in London over the past few years and helping recruit students from London to Dartmouth, Lewis is excited to return to campus each quarter. Lewis has spent part of the last 15 summers living in Quechee, Vermont and is excited to return back to the area with his family.
Both Loughlin and Lewis are eager to become more involved with Dartmouth and ready to serve the College.
“I’ve scaled back on some of the other things I’m doing outside of Dartmouth and am really focusing a lot of energy on Dartmouth right now,” Loughlin said.
In comparison, Lewis is focused on building off of community work he has previously done at the intersection of youth and education.
“It’s always been trying to provide people the opportunities that I got perhaps somewhat by luck, somewhat by chance. I’m trying to remove the various aspiration achievement through education, educational expenditure,” Lewis said.
According to the Statement of Governance and Trustee Responsibilities, Loughlin and Lewis each pledge to fulfill responsibilities as newly appointed trustees. Among their responsibilities, both are expected to act as a fiduciary, advance the mission of Dartmouth and uphold the integrity of the Board.
Alyssa Mehra contributed reporting.
Paulomi is a junior from Connecticut and at Dartmouth she is an Economics and Government major with a public policy minor. Outside of The Dartmouth, Paulomi is involved with Women's Club Lacrosse, the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, and Women in Business. Paulomi is excited to travel to Antarctica in winter 2018 to study public policy in the field.
