2016-2017 SigEp NH Alpha AVC Board of Trustees

Herb Philpott ’85, President, is a second-generation SigEp (his father, the late Herbert J. Philpott, was a MA Gamma ’55), who joined the NH Alpha Board of Trustees in 2005 and became AVC President in 2011. He chaired the Centennial Celebration effort in 2009, was a member of the Campaign for SigEp at Dartmouth in 2010, received Volunteer of the Year honors for District 1 in 2010, and the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016. He is a Consultant on the SigEp National Member Safety Team, and has also served as a faculty member and facilitator at Carlson Leadership Academy and other SigEp National and regional events. He worked as a Senior Program Manager at Teradyne for thirteen years, for Genuity (formerly known as GTE Internetworking and BBN); Apple Computer; and NeXT, Inc. He is a Master Freemason in Garden City Lodge, Newtonville, MA. Herb runs a lot slower than he did in his days on the Dartmouth Track Team, and enjoys working as a photographer for the Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston and performing in their ensemble and barbershop quartet. Herb’s oldest daughter, Rosemary Philpott, works as an accountant in Tulsa, OK, after graduating from Oklahoma State University in 2016. She’s a sister in Chi Omega sorority, and a Specialist in the U.S. Army Reservist. Herb lives in Waltham, MA, with his wife Sandy and their two children Ryan, age 7, and Katie, 5.

Jeff Wagner '06, Vice President, joined SigEp at Dartmouth as a sophomore in winter 2004. During his time in the house, he served as Secretary and Chapter President, being recognized by the Order of Omega as "President of the Year" among all Dartmouth fraternities in his senior year. In addition to SigEp, he was a member of the Men's Volleyball Team and a council member in Cabin and Trail. After completing a modified major in Genetics and Engineering Sciences, he attended graduate school at MIT, earning a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering in 2014. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health where he works on vaccine development for tuberculosis. Jeff lives in Cambridge, MA and enjoys sampling new beers, playing squash, and getting up to the White Mountains whenever possible. 

Sam Reckford ’83, VP Finance, joined Sigma Theta Epsilon in 1980 and voted for the proposal to re-establish ties with SPE in 1981. He had little contact with the house after graduation until new connections were made when his son pledged Sig Ep’s NYU chapter and his daughters matriculated to the Dartmouth classes of 2013 and 2015. Sam was a lifetime employee at Bear Stearns, serving as a Senior Managing Director in risk management at the time of its demise. He then served as a Managing Director in Risk at J.P. Morgan for three years before leaving banking and joining Hugo Neu Corp (a privately-owned company) as CFO. He is now retired.  Sam has supported Dartmouth as an alumni interviewer and fundraiser. He was Board President of The Hudson School in Hoboken, NJ for 18 years, overseeing the initiation of a high school and funding and building the school’s first permanent facility, has served in countless capacities for his church, and now serves on the Board of Trustees of Stevens Institute of Technology.

Jason DiMarino ’97, Secretary, joined the Board in October 2014, and is a first generation SigEp becoming a member in 1994.  Shortly after joining, he served as Secretary and later served as Sigma Educator and House Manager.  In addition, he was Rush Chair and President of the Inter-fraternity Council. He practices corporate law with the Albany, New York firm of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP where he began his legal career after receiving a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.  He is a current member of the finance committee at Holy Trinity Parish and formerly served on the Board of Directors of Historic Albany Foundation.  Jason lives Latham, New York with his wife, Riele Morgiewicz, and their children, John and Natalia.

Miguel Velazquez '09, Treasurer, grew up in Venezuela and joined SigEp at Dartmouth during his sophomore Fall. He served as both Social Chair and Treasurer and attended the Ruck Leadership Institute. While at Dartmouth, he was also a War and Peace Fellow and a member of the Order of Omega. Miguel moved to California after graduating with majors in Government and Economics. He worked at Facebook for 5 years, where he first managed User Operations for Latin America and then helped integrate Instagram’s operations after it was acquired by Facebook. He is currently the Head of Operations at Fin, a start-up based in San Francisco. Miguel lives in Oakland, CA with his wife, Rachel Bernhard ’09, where he enjoys sailing, skiing, and all the outdoor activities the Bay Area has to offer.

Mike Chapman D’76, Th’77, VP Relations, is a past President and Treasurer of Sigma Theta Epsilon. He has earned graduate degrees from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern (MM) and the Thayer School of Engineering (BE). For the past 30 years, he has been involved in fund raising at the Thayer School of Engineering. Mike still serves on the Executive Committee after stepping down last year as Chairman of the Thayer School Annual Fund. He has worked in the Product Management function for several early-stage companies including VBrick Systems, Dialogic, Ubiquity, SnowShore, and MultiLink. When he’s not out riding one of his motorcycles or tending the beehives in his backyard, Mike volunteers his time as Chairman of the Winthrop Field Committee, member of the Emmanuel Church Council, or Presentation Judge at the Formula Hybrid competition. His wife Martha is an Art teacher in the Beverly, MA school system. His older son Chris is an engineer at GE in Lynn, MA while his younger son is employed by Cape Ann Brewing in Gloucester, MA. Mike and Martha reside in Manchester, MA.

Dave Clark ’76, Communications Chair, is a past Social Chairman and Rush Director of Sigma Theta Epsilon. His career has been predominately in marketing. For twenty years he was founder and president of Celebrity Radio Productions. Dave is currently a researcher and editorial advisor to a novelist.  When not working, Dave can often be found on the golf course at The Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, NJ. In addition to being the club historian, he has worked as a volunteer official at the recent Barclay tournaments hosted at the club. Dave has been active for years at FRAXA, a parents’ organization devoted to raising money to find treatments and a cure for fragile X syndrome, a disease similar to autism which affects his son. His daughter, Elizabeth, is a playwright living in Los Angeles. Dave resides in Hillsdale, NJ.

JD Optekar, D'91, Th'92, At-Large, served as Social Chair and unofficial Historian as a NH Alpha.  After completing his BE at the Thayer School of Engineering in 1992, JD spent his first year working for a civil engineering firm. After a year of working in the wastewater/water treatment field, JD then switched over to the software world working in product management for small software companies.  He served as a VP for Enabling Technology; President of RTSE's US company; and as a Product Manager for Virtual Systems.  JD stepped down from the work force in 2004 with the arrival of their first child while his wife, Dr. Tina Yen D'91, continues to serve as the primary breadwinner in the family.  JD spends his time raising his 3 kids, coaching, volunteering in the PTO, and playing/recording/managing his band Tweed Funk.  JD's musical career has been featured in both the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine (March 2014) and Dartmouth Engineering Magazine (Summer 2016).   During the past 4 years, JD has served as an Advisory Board Member to the Friends of Dartmouth Track & Field/XC and is involved in the Dartmouth Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where his family has resided since 2004.

Sean Anthony ’06, At-Large, hails from Canandaigua, NY, and served twice as Chaplain and Scholarship Chair while in the NH Alpha (Dartmouth) chapter. Sean was selected for SigEp's Tragos Quest to Greece and played varsity lacrosse all four years while at Dartmouth. After graduation Sean went to work for SigEp's Headquarters staff, spending his first year as a Regional Director in the Pacific Northwest and an additional two and half years in Richmond, VA, as SigEp's Director of Chapter Services and Sr. Director of Chapter Services. Sean left SigEp in 2010 for Columbus, Ohio working as a Corporate Recruiter for Abercrombie & Fitch before becoming Director of Sales Operations at Kforce, a national provider of technology resource solutions for Fortune 500 and premier companies. Sean serves on the board of the Dartmouth Club of Central Ohio, and as the Recruitment Mentor for the SigEp chapter at The Ohio State University. Sean married his SigEp sweetheart Kaitlin Anthony in 2014.

Ben Bradley, Chapter Counselor, ex-officio, non-voting, works at Dartmouth in the Student Wellness Center, where he works in sexual violence prevention as the Program Manager of the Dartmouth Bystander Initiative. Additionally, Ben is passionate in creating opportunities for men to talk about healthy masculinity and the role men have in preventing and ending sexual violence. Ben has a Masters of Social Work from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and before coming to Dartmouth practiced social work, working with homeless individuals and families and also investigating reports of abuse and exploitation against older adults.  

Alec Young, ME Alpha ’14 (University of Maine), Balanced Man Steward, ex-officio, non-voting, grew up in Cushing, Maine working as a self-employed lobsterman.  Alec joined SigEp in the fall of 2010 and throughout his years in the chapter he served as Vice President of Recruitment, Epsilon Coordinator, and Chapter President.  While at the University of Maine he studied Civil Engineering and now currently works for The Turner Construction Company.  Alec enjoyed his experience as a SigEp and loves giving back to the fraternity.  He recently served as the Balanced Man Steward at MIT and serves on the Maine Alpha Alumni Volunteer Corporation (AVC).  After recently moving to the upper valley area Alec is looking forward to work with the NH Alpha Chapter and bring the Buchanan Cup back to Darmouth.

2016-2017 SigEp NH Alpha AVC Board
Outside Advisors

The SigEp New Hampshire Alpha Alumni & Volunteer Corporation (AVC) augments its 9-member Board of Trustees with non-voting, outside advisors: SigEp volunteers from another chapter, or college or university faculty or staff members, or people with a background in higher education administration, who is committed to Greek Life, and who is willing to join Board Meetings in person or via telephone 3-4 times per year

Dr. Don Pease, Outside Advisor, non-voting, professor of English and the Ted and Helen Geisel Third Century Professor in the Humanities, Chair of the Dartmouth Liberal Studies Program and winner of the 1981 Distinguished Teaching Award at Dartmouth, is an authority on nineteenth and twentieth-century American literature and literary theory. A recipient of a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, he is the author of Visionary Compacts: American Renaissance Writings in Cultural Context (which won the Mark Ingraham Prize for the best new book in the Humanities in 1987), The New American Exceptionalism (2009), and Theodor Seuss Geisel (2010), a biography of one of our most famous Dartmouth SigEp alums. Professor Pease serves on the Board of Governors of the Clinton Institute in American Studies, and he received the Faculty Award for Service to Alumni Continuing Education in 1999, awarded by Dartmouth's Alumni Council.

Leslie Rutan, Outside Advisor, non-voting, joined the AVC Board during the Fall of 2015. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1981, and worked for Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, and as a self-employed proofer and editor. She was elected to serve on the Northborough (MA) School Board 2000 - 2004, and has been an elected member and Chair of the Northborough Board of Selectmen 2004 - present. After raising three children in the school district, Leslie remains dedicated to the schools with her involvement in the school councils, curriculum and advisory committees, and as Chair of the Lincoln Street School Building Committee. Additionally, she serves as the Board of Selectmen liaison to several committees and commissions. Leslie lives in Northborough, MA with her husband Mark (Yale '78), and has three children: Pat (Yale '12), Emily (Penn State '14 and Tufts School of Medicine '18), and Ben (Dartmouth '17).

Bob Field ’43, T’47, Board Member Emeritus, pledged Sigma Phi Epsilon in 1941, but for financial reasons didn’t become a full member until 2009! He served in the Navy during WWII on a Fletcher Class destroyer in the Pacific 5^th Fleet, and was honorably discharged as a Lieutenant, USNR. From 1947 to 1982 he worked at Price Waterhouse in New York on the Audit Staff and Policy Board, and retired as Vice Chairman. He consulted with Chase Manhattan Bank as one of three Named Fiduciaries of their Benefits Plans, 1986-2005. Bob served as a Dartmouth Trustee from 1981-1987; the Dartmouth VP Treasurer, 1986-1990; Chairman of the Tuck Board of Overseers, 1976-1980; Chairman of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center Board, 1992-1995; and received the Dartmouth Alumni Award in 1979. He’s in the middle of a long line of Dartmouth students. His father graduated in 1914, his son in 1976, and he has had three grandchildren in the classes of ’93, ’01, and ’12. He served on the NH AVC Board of Trustees as VP of Finance, and Associate Treasurer, and retired in 2013. The Board honored his service by presenting him with the Distinguished Alumnus Award at Homecoming 2013.

 

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