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Lisa Mortell '95: Dartmouth Alumni Award Recipient, 2008-09


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Henry Edler '53, '55Tu presented Lisa Mortell '95 with the 2008-09 Dartmouth Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award on May 22, 2009, in Denver, CO.


We owe your headmaster from the Orme School a debt of gratitude. With some persistence, he convinced you to apply to Dartmouth. As an alumnus himself, he knew that even though you were from sunny Arizona and had never been east of Chicago, Dartmouth would be the perfect fit. He was correct, and then some.

With no prior visits, the first time you stepped foot on campus freshman fall, you knew you had made the right decision, and your subsequent undergraduate years confirmed that. It was at Dartmouth where you made lifelong friends, and even met your husband, Jacob Mortell '94.Your sophomore-year knee injury prevented you from continuing to play for the volleyball team, but it didn't prevent you from picking up basketball, racquetball and participating in a range of other activities. You were a Language Study Abroad student in Mexico, a member of Epsilon Kappa Theta, and an Alumni Fund intern: a precursor to your career in fund-raising.

Inspired by your work as Executive Director at Company, it was then off to Colorado where you would continue your philanthropic calling.You moved up quickly to become Director of Development at the Kent Denver School where most coincidentally, the very same man who convinced you to attend Dartmouth all those years ago in Arizona, is the headmaster today and a dear friend.

Throughout all of this, Dartmouth never left your radar.You've been highly active in the Dartmouth Association of the Rocky Mountains serving as district enrollment director, vice president, public information chair, book award chair and president; served on the executive committee of your class; and a head agent for the Alumni Fund where your efforts have merited the Alumni Fund Chairman's Citation for Outstanding Performance.

In addition to your much appreciated involvement with the College, today you round out your busy life in Denver with two children, Will and Owen, contribute time to Kent Denver, and still manage to sneak in some powder days on the slopes with your family.

One of your most influential Dartmouth professors, William Cook, helped you appreciate the work of author Toni Morrison who once said, "Make a difference about something other than yourselves." This is exactly what you've done in your life and for Dartmouth, and is the reason why we are so pleased to recognize you with the much deserved Young Alumni Distinguished Service Award.

John Daukas '84
President
Dartmouth Alumni Council