Alumni Leadership Updates

Joanna Stone Herman ’88 and Welcome to New Alumni Council President Joe Franken ’03

The Alumni Council celebrated Joanna’s three-year term as the Alumni Council President at the Alumni Council meeting last May. Incoming Alumni Council President Joe Franken ’03 thanked Joanna for all of her work keeping the Alumni connected during these challenging years. As Head of School José M. De Jesús recently shared with the community, “Dalton graduates go forth unafraid. But, thankfully, many return as active community members. My thanks to Joanna Stone Herman ’88 for her service as Alumni Council President. When we were unable to gather in person, Joanna was passionate about encouraging fellow alumni to take a moment simply to check in on former classmates; if they managed to increase attendance at one of the many virtual Alumni events…even better!” Thank you, Joanna!

A warm welcome to our new Alumni Council leaders President Joe Franken ’03 and Vice President Wynter Lastarria ’11. You may have seen Joe and Wynter in Alumni Blast videos or at one of the many Alumni events this fall. They are introducing new programming, including Dalton Connects’ career-related sessions to support younger Alums and encourage Alums to reach out to them with any programming suggestions at alumni@dalton.org.

If you’ve attended any Alumni events this year, you may have met Samantha Koss who joined Dalton as the new Director of Alumni Relations last spring. Samantha previously worked at Hebrew Union College, where she was Director of Development, Eastern Region. Her past Advancement also experience includes Pace University and Allen-Stevenson. Before she moved into Advancement, she spent over a decade working as an HR consultant with APTMetrics. Samantha is an active volunteer for Hamilton College, her alma mater, serving in a variety of roles including Chair of the Hamilton Career Network (Education and Nonprofits). Samantha looks forward to meeting Dalton alums at various upcoming events. And a fun fact — Samantha also graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. She’s always happy to talk about food — especially desserts!