Most people develop their Rhody Pride when they get their undergraduate education. But Louise Thorson, newly elected president of the URI Alumni Association, got hers as a member of the M.B.A. class of ’85. Thorson’s URI M.B.A. led her to a career in banking, where she has had the opportunity to work in a broad variety of areas, including risk, product, sales, and marketing management, and currently capital management. After serving on the Alumni Board Finance Committee, Thorson wanted to give back more to the University that had done so much for her. Subsequently, she served as Alumni Board treasurer from 2008 to 2010 and as vice president/president-elect from 2010 to 2013. In addition to her work on the Finance Committee, Thorson has been an active member of the Marketing, Audit, and Funding Committees.

So, why the Alumni Association? As Thorson explains, the mission of the Alumni Association is to inform and engage current and future alumni as committed partners of the University, its mission and traditions. As Thorson notes, “The success of the Alumni Association is a team effort, and together we can accomplish great things. We constantly need to be thinking about how we best engage with our current students, as well as with our broad and diverse base of alumni, here in Rhode Island, around the country, and more and more, around the world.” She is excited to have the opportunity to work with a tremendously talented Alumni Board, committee chairs and members, and staff to further the Alumni Association mission, building on past successes and developing new initiatives to reach into the future. “We all need to think of ourselves as ambassadors for the Association and the University.”