Bringing with him more than 20 years of experience in the field of higher education, Nelson Armstrong '71 has been named the College's new director of Alumni Relations.
"We were looking to find someone with experience in alumni relations, who would understand the issues facing the Dartmouth program, who had new initiative from the national scene and had specific visions for what alumni relations should be in the future," said Stanley Colla '66, the College's vice president of development and alumni relations.
Dartmouth's Office of Alumni Relations is the College's link to its more than 47,000 alumni.
"I am absolutely thrilled with getting this job," Armstrong said. "I have worked at Dartmouth two times before and was also a student there so it will be just like coming home for me."
Armstrong, who is currently the director of University Alumni Affairs at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio said he does not yet have an agenda.
"I don't know that I have any specific goals for the job before I start. I want to come, sit down and get a good idea of the needs of the alumni and set those needs as my goals," said Armstrong, who will assume the position Jan. 16.
Colla said Armstrong will have to face many new challenges previous alumni directors have not had to deal with. "There are several crucial issues facing the program right now," he said.
Colla said Dartmouth's alumni population is growing increasingly diverse and widespread, making it more difficult for the alumni office to remain connected to everyone.
Another challenge relates to how the College can maintain its standing with alumni at a time when their attention is being called on by more factors than ever before. Colla said these include the demands of the workplace, the increase in the number of two-wage families and the corresponding fact that many families have two alma mater allegiances.
"We have a case of changing demographics with more women and minority alumni than ever before, which gives the alumni pool a richness it never had before," he said.
Armstrong served as associate director of the Dartmouth Alumni Fund from 1988 to 1990 and has worked at Case Western since then. From 1975 to 1987, he held positions in the admissions, alumni funds and financial aid departments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"He knows higher education very well ... [and] has a breadth of experience ranging from Dartmouth to Massachusetts Institute of Technology ... he was our strongest candidate," Colla said.
The nationwide search for the new director, which began last spring and ran about six months, was conducted by a committee of alumni, faculty and college administrators.
Armstrong succeeds Michael Choukas, Jr. '51 who held the post for 10 years and retired in June.
