Class Ambassadors support the four pillars of alumni engagement, as defined by the alumni association: volunteering; community; lifelong learning and philanthropy.
Our Class Ambassadors enable the Jones Graduate School of Business to most effectively meet the needs of students and alumni. They communicate with classmates on behalf of Rice Business, encourage participation in the Rice Business Fund, and create a sense of community. We are grateful to them for all their hard work and look forward to seeing all the amazing things they accomplish this year!
1987: Angela Minas
1994: Robert McDonald
1998: Pierce Owens
2002: Lisa Kudchadker DeViney
2005: Carole Riekert
2006: Kevin Huston
2007: Rauli Garcia
2008: Kevin Cumming, Kaarle Rautio
2009: Kian Granmeyeh, Alex Donn
2011: Cullen Brock, Stanley Kazibwe
2012: Brian Walker
2013: Kate Hallaway, Kurt Schoeffler, Mindy Smith, Vilas Bhuchar, Samantha Hobbs Kast
2014: Laurel McConn, Nathan Pope, Steve Van Pelt, Thad McLemore
2015: Baha Jalalabadi, David Aldrich, James Zhao, Karan Sihota
2016: Lindsay Hernandez, Fernando Villarreal
2017: Caitlin Crotty, Samantha Lewis, Ed Milde, Abdul Choudhary, Andrew DiBello, Meghan Fisher, Alan Henson, Lisa Costello, Nicholas Elder, Will Bernard
2018: Edward Clark, Phuong Dinh, Rachel Hasan, Sean Marshall, Adam Saleh, Sowmeya Subramanian, Tyler Watkins
2019: Asad Akram, Scott Gale, Grace Grundy, Adrienne Mangual, Jenna Thomas
2020: Christine Dobbyn
Responsibilities:
- Communicate to your classmates about events planned by the External Relations department using the communication plans and materials developed by External Relations
- Give annually to the Rice Business Fund at any level
- Encourage 100% participation in the Rice Business Fund from your class
- Attend all Class Ambassador meetings*
- Attend or plan at least one alumni event per year*
- Assist in keeping the Alumni Directory up to date by encouraging your classmates to update their information or notifying External Relations directly with changes to personal information
- Collect personal and professional news from classmates and photos from alumni events and pass them on to External Relations to be shared in the Alumni Newsletter or other JGSB media
- Maintain regular contact with the Office of External Relations
*exceptions will be made for alumni outside of the Houston area
How do I become a Class Ambassador and what are the terms of service?
- Class Ambassadors, one from each program in a graduating class, will be nominated by themselves or classmates and selected by External Relations.
- Class Ambassadors serve a three-year term, which commences on July 1 (in alignment with the alumni association board’s operating year).
- Class Ambassadors may, upon completing their third year, renew for an additional three-year term if so desired.
- In the case of vacancies due to expiration of term or resignation, the committee will solicit nominations from alumni as well as reach out to individuals who have expressed interest, review the nominations and select the Class Ambassador.
