In an ongoing effort to connect current Deerfield students with alumni, January marked the beginning of an alumni speaker series when Don Sheehan '74 came to campus from Washington, DC, to talk about his career with the U.S. Foreign Service. Mr. Sheehan's career with the State Department began in 1993. He has served two assignments in Poland and Tunisia, and has helped coordinate efforts with Ambassador Larry Napper to oversee the activities of U.S. government-funded venture capital firms from the Baltics to the Balkans. Prior to that, Mr. Sheehan coordinated all bilateral and multilateral issues between the United States and Romania. Today he works as an international economist in the State Department's Bilateral Trade Affairs Office, covering NAFTA and trade issues with Canada and Mexico. Assembled students had the chance to learn about how one gets into this type of career, the challenges that such a career brings, and Mr. Sheehan's take on the world situation today.

In February, Rush McCloy '92 came to campus to talk about his business and Run4Rescarch, the charity organization he founded. Mr. McCloy is the CEO and founder of Epache, Inc., an intellectual capital management venture. Twenty-one Fortune 500 companies have requested to use and beta test ThoughtBox, a software application developed by Epache, Inc., that enables enterprises to better manage the innovation process and harness intellectual capital.

In addition to being active in the US Naval Reserve as an officer candidate in naval intelligence, Mr. McCloy is the founder of Run4Research, a group that uses marathons as a platform to raise funds for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Center. He invited students to travel along with him as he recapped running marathons, ultra marathons and adventure races in Antarctica, Iceland, Beijing, and other locales.

The speaker series concluded in April with Zechariah Chafee '69. While some will immediately recognize him as the son of the late Senator John Chafee '40 of Rhode Island, he is also the uncle of a current junior at Deerfield. After Deerfield, Mr. Chafee matriculated to Harvard and then Southern Methodist University's School of Law. After college, Mr. Chafee was a Marine Corps infantry officer for two and a half years, serving in Okinawa, Korea, and California. He is currently the assistant U.S. attorney in the Office of The United States Attorney in Providence, Rhode Island, where he prosecutes federal criminal cases including narcotics distribution, gun possession and bank robbery cases.

Students often say that they hear about alumni but never have the chance to meet and visit with them. Thanks to the work of a student committee with members spanning the four classes, this year's alumni speaker series was a great success.

We welcome your participation if you are so inclined. If you are interested, please contact lmorsman@deerfield.edu. For the present we see this as a winter term opportunity for students, but who knows. . . with enough interest, we might expand it!