New 2024 Alumni Board Members

The Alumni Board builds and strengthens the Macalester alumni community by fostering meaningful relationships between alumni and the college, connecting with current students, helping the college achieve its strategic priorities, and acting through its members as ambassadors of the college. Learn more about the newest members of the Alumni Board.

Jasmine Ball ’13

Q: What was the most beneficial thing you experienced at Mac?

A: Meeting my lifelong friends and being exposed to new cultures, places, and people I would’ve never met outside of Mac.

Kate D. Gallagher ’16

Q: Who was your favorite professor and why?

A: Joan Ostrove of the Psychology Department was my advisor from my very first to my very last day at Macalester and left an indelible mark on how I view the world and myself. I worked with her on multiple independent study projects including my senior project on establishing a disability studies concentration at Macalester that students and faculty after my graduation have continued to pursue. I am so lucky to have been able to keep in touch after graduating and was blessed to have Joan officiate at my wedding (in front of Old Main) to my fellow Macalester ‘16 alumna, Emma Swanson.

Nicki Groves ’94

Q: What have you carried with you from your Mac days?

A: An ability to learn with and learn from a variety of people from different backgrounds. I studied abroad at the University of Lancaster in England during the fall of my senior year. In a study abroad program, you are tossed into a completely new group of peers, often only sharing the one common interest of choosing the same study abroad program. I was fortunate to find a group of five others who were willing to explore and travel together, enriching our time abroad.

Pamela Mazza ’92

Q: What advice do you have for incoming students?

A: 1) Take advantage of the great liberal arts education available to you, and add a second major or minor unrelated to your primary major. 2) Pick a study away program sophomore year, because sophomore year can feel a bit rudderless, and double-majoring makes leaving campus junior and senior year more complicated. 3) Take those free bagpipe lessons! Literally everyone who doesn’t later regrets it!

Eliza Rasheed ’06

Q: How has the Macalester community helped you since graduation?

A: During my time at Macalester, I made many lifelong friends who have become my chosen family, supporting me through various stages and aspects of my life. I am deeply grateful for these enduring friendships, as they have shaped who I am today.

Max Wang ’15

Q: What gives you passion or motivation in your current occupation?

A: The values of a liberal arts education from Mac. As an educator and manager, my mission is to promote these values. To quote our sixteenth president, Brian Rosenberg: “The ability to step away from one’s own history and biases, at least for a moment, and see the world through the eyes of another whose history and biases are quite different…and the ability and willingness to listen with care and respect to the appropriately expressed opinions of those with whom one disagrees and to express one’s own opinions with similar care and respect.”