Trustees Elect New Leader and Members

Patricia Jipp Finkelman ’80

Finkelman was elected chair of the Grinnell College Board of Trustees at its May 2015 meeting. She’s been a member of the board since 1998 and a life trustee since 2014. She was a member of the Grinnell College Alumni Council from 1991–98, serving as president in 1997–98.

Finkelman earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Grinnell. In 1987 she received an M.B.A. from Yale School of Management.

A former health care policy and reimbursement consultant, Finkelman is an active community volunteer in central Ohio. She serves as the president of the Granville Community Foundation and is a trustee of both the Jefferson Center for Learning and the Arts and Temple Israel in Columbus, Ohio.

David Maxwell ’66

Maxwell retires this summer as president of Drake University, a position he has held since 1999; he was also a professor of literature there. He was director of the National Foreign Language Center in Washington, D.C., from 1993 to 1999, after serving as president of Whitman College from 1989 to 1993. Previously, Maxwell served as dean of undergraduate studies at Tufts University from 1981 to 1989 and was a faculty member in Russian language and literature there from 1971 to 1989.

Born in New York City, Maxwell earned his bachelor’s degree from Grinnell in Russian area studies. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees in Slavic languages and literatures from Brown University, in 1968 and 1974, respectively. He will begin his service on the Grinnell board in the fall of 2016.

Michael Kahn ’76 

Kahn is a senior managing director at TIAA-CREF, a national financial services organization and the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields. Kahn serves on the boards of Kaspick & Co. and TIAA Charitable. He has worked on community outreach efforts for several nonprofit organizations including Wellstone Action and the Long Island Progressive Coalition.

He has sponsored more than 40 summer internships for Grinnell College students while mentoring countless other Grinnell students and young alumni. He has also actively supported the College’s efforts to engage other alumni in the New York City area.

Kahn has a bachelor’s degree in music from Grinnell. He is married to Virginia Munger Kahn ’76. His service begins this fall.

Ed Senn ’79

Elected Alumni Council president for 2015–16, Senn is an ex-officio trustee. He has served on the council since 2010 and has volunteered for Grinnell in many different ways, including as a GrinnellLink volunteer hosting interns, a GRASP volunteer, and on his class committee. In 2013 Senn established the Katie Brown Anderson ’49 and Mary Lou Brown ’56 Experiential Learning Endowed Fund to honor two sisters and longtime Grinnell staff members and to help recruit the best students and support them as they prepare to graduate. Previously he established the Jenny Erickson Endowed Scholarship and the John and Emily Pfitsch Scholarship funds.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Grinnell, Senn went into politics. He is now Verizon Communications vice president of state government relations.