“Dartmouth to the core” is how vice president for alumni relations Martha Beattie ’76 describes her successor, Cheryl Bascomb ’82. On June 1, Beattie will step down after seven years in the position for Bascomb, a volunteer and leader in the Dartmouth alumni community, to assume the role.
The vice president for alumni relations is responsible for fostering connections among Dartmouth’s roughly 81,000 alumni worldwide and engaging them with the College, directing alumni communications, engagement, programming and volunteering.
Bascomb said she is excited to bring 30 years of marketing experience to the vice president for alumni relations position.
“A great deal of what’s involved [in the position] is communication and marketing — delivering material and information in a way that people want to receive it,” Bascomb said. “Understanding and measuring how effective [these efforts are] is really in my wheelhouse, from a marketing standpoint.”
Bascomb has also done volunteer work through participation in the Dartmouth Club of Maine, through which she has met with prospective Dartmouth students and Dartmouth alumni new to Portland, Maine, and in various other groups such as the Alumni Council, the Association of Alumni and Dartmouth alumni interviewers, according to Bascomb.
“[Bascomb] is exactly the kind of person I was hoping I would be able to turn my team over to as I step down from this role after seven years,” Beattie said. “She understands the College inside and out through volunteer work and has really stayed engaged since her years at Dartmouth.”
Beattie noted that Bascomb’s marketing experience is an asset to the position, adding that she hopes to see the Office of Alumni Relations adopt an even stronger communications strategy in the future.
“My general hopes for the future are taking some of these great programs that we have in place now and being really strategic about how we spread the word,” Beattie said. “That is [Bascomb’s] career. Her whole background is marketing and communications, so she will come in here and be exactly the experience and talent that’s needed right now to really push all of our programs to the next level.”
Bascomb was appointed to the position after a roughly six-month search that began in fall 2017, according to Jennifer Avellino ’89, who chaired the Alumni Advisory Committee that assisted with the search. The committee, made up of 12 Dartmouth alumni ranging from the Class of 1964 to the Class of 2013, partnered with Sandler Search, an executive search services firm run by Josie Sandler ’91, to fill the position.
“We found what we were looking for in [Bascomb],” Avellino said. “We found someone with deep Dartmouth ties and experience, with professional expertise to bring to the position — in this case, marketing — and someone we felt would deliver a warm welcome to alumni, whether it’s when they come to Hanover, or a virtual way, or in the communications that go out to alumni.”
Bascomb said she is excited to start executing her duties as vice president for alumni relations.
“I see my charge to help us at this very unique point in time, when we’ve got the 250th anniversary for Dartmouth and a wonderful capital campaign that can help support the particular things that Dartmouth is and can become,” Bascomb said. “My role is to make sure that I’ve got the components in place for alumni to understand, support and connect.”
Eileen (Eily) Brady is a '21 from Chicago who studies government and romance languages. Eily loves travel, politics, iced tea and her dogs, Mac and Charlie. She is thrilled to be reporting the news for The Dartmouth.
