Circuit Court Judge Joanne F. Alper named president of SU Alumni Association

Circuit Court Judge Joanne F. Alper namedpresident of SU Alumni AssociationFebruary 20, 2004Edward Byrnesedbyrnes@syr.edu

Joanne F. Alper ’72, a Circuit Court judge and former vice president of Syracuse University’s Alumni Association Board, has been named president of the SU Alumni Association Inc. Her three-year term became effective Jan. 16.

A native of Long Island, N.Y., Alper is only the second woman in the history of the association to be named to the position. She will have general and active management of Alumni Association activities and will represent the association on the University’s Board of Trustees as an ex officio member.

She succeeds Donald C. Doerr ’85, LAW ’88, who has served on the Alumni Association Board since 1995 and recently accepted the position of assistant vice president in SU’s Office of Alumni Relations. “We are very fortunate to have Joanne as the president of the Alumni Association,” says Doerr. “She is an ardent supporter of the University and a proven leader with the necessary skills to further the Alumni Association’s mission of connecting alumni with SU.”

Since 1998, Alper has been a judge on the Circuit Court for the Seventeenth Circuit of Virginia, covering Arlington County and the City of Falls Church. Prior to that, she was chief judge on the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court for the Seventeenth Judicial District. She was previously a judge on that court; before her elevation to the bench she practiced privately with the Arlington, Va., firm Cohen, Gettings, Alper and Dunham.

As an undergraduate at SU, Alper was president of the Hillel Foundation, an elected student representative to the history department, and a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in 1972 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Alper received her juris doctorate degree with honors from George Washington University Law School in 1975. From 1975 until her elevation to the bench in 1991, she was in the private practice of law with the Arlington law firm Cohen, Gettings, Alper and Dunham.

Alper has served as vice president and chair of the Alumni Association’s Bylaws, Nominating and Awards Committees. She and her husband Paul have two children: Michael, who received his BA from SU in 1999; and Brooke, who will receive her degree from SU in May.

The SU Alumni Association, founded in 1872 and incorporated in 1992, serves as an umbrella under which regional and specialty alumni clubs operate.