Arrindell and Dowdell Join Cornell Board as alumni-elected trustees

By STARR TODD of Cornell University

Elected to the Cornell University Board of Trustees in spring 2022, Dr. Deborah J. Arrindell ’79 and Kimberly Nicole Dowdell ’06 began their four-year terms of service on July 1. They recently shared their hopes and expectations as alumni-elected trustees.

What will your primary focus be as you enter your first term as a trustee?

Dr. Deborah J. Arrindell ’79: During my first term as trustee, my focus will be learning all I can about how to become a trustee, and, in my role, how I can do the greatest good. There is a tremendous learning curve that I need to navigate in order to become a functioning member of the board.

Kimberly Nicole Dowdell ’06: As I embark upon my first term as a Cornell trustee, I’m looking forward to absorbing as much information as I can in order to be well informed when making decisions alongside my fellow board members in the years to come. In the beginning, my primary focus will be on listening and asking questions. I will actively participate in my committees and attend meetings hosted by other committees as often as I can to round out my experience. As an architect, I’m keenly interested in Cornell’s built environment, across all campuses. I am also interested in supporting efforts to make our university as economically accessible as possible to admitted students who would not be able to afford a Cornell education without financial aid.