[Nina Archabal Portrait] Ms. Nina M. Archabal (trustee since 2011) is Director Emerita of the Minnesota Historical Society where she worked for 33 years, as the Society’s Director and CEO and State Historic Preservation Officer from 1987.  During her tenure the Society planned and opened the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, Mill City Museum in Minneapolis and the Mille Lacs Indian Museum on the Mille Lacs Reservation near Onamia.

Nina holds a B.A. and M.A.T. degrees from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in music from the University of Minnesota.  She has received several honors.  In 1997 she received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton.  In 2001, she received the University of Minnesota’s Outstanding Achievement Award, and in 2002, she received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Carleton.  Earlier this year, she received the Public Leadership Award from the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Nina has served on the boards of a number of educational institutions and cultural organizations, both in Minnesota and beyond.  She was elected an Overseer of Harvard in 1997 and subsequently received the Harvard Medal for her service.   Archabal was the first woman to chair the board of the American Association of Museums and subsequently served as chair of the U.S. National Committee of the International Council of Museums.  Most recently, she received an appointment from President Obama to a position on the Cultural Property Advisory Committee. 

Recently retired, Nina is an advocate for the internationalization of the U.S. museum community and   continues to pursue interests in cultural preservation and education.

[Alan Thiel Portrait]Alan C. Thiel ‘71, (Alumni Trustee since 2011) a Minneapolis native, was an English major, a student member of the admissions committee, on the football and swimming teams, and C-Club president while at Carleton.  His first day-job following graduation was as assistant director of admissions at Bradford College in Bradford, MA.  Subsequent to that, he went to law school and into the private practice of law with his father at the law firm now known as Thiel, Campbell, Gunderson, Anderson and Levine, P.L.L.P., with a focus on real estate, estate and trust planning and administration, and business law.

Alan’s professional memberships and activities have involved serving on numerous county and state bar committees and councils over the course of his career.  Of all of them, however, Alan views his most important contribution to be the thirty years that he has served on the Hennepin Co Juvenile Court Guardian ad Litem Attorney Panel during which time he has represented guardians in approximately 200 Juvenile Court child abuse & neglect matters.

In addition, he has also served numerous community and non-profit organizations in a professional capacity as well as in a personal capacity.  This includes his volunteer work on behalf of Carleton, for which he has been an Alumni Admissions Representative, reunion class co-chair, Alumni Annual Fund worker, and President of the Alumni Board during its transition to the Alumni Council.

Alan is married to Jean Watson Thiel, Carleton ‘74, and has two sons and a daughter-in-law, Travis, Roxanne and Matthew.

He is a pilot of a 1946 Taylorcraft with a goal of landing at all 135 publicly owned airports in Minnesota (132 down and 3 to go including KMSP) and a collector of old VWs, including a 1967 bus (which must have been at Woodstock).

[Bonnie Wheaton Portrait]

Ms. Bonnie M. Wheaton '66 (trustee since 2006-2010; 2011-) is Circuit Judge for the Judicial Circuit Court in DuPage County, Illinois.  Prior to her election, Wheaton served appointments as circuit judge and associate judge.  At Carleton she earned her B.A. cum laude in English.  She also holds an M.S.W. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1968 and a J.D. degree magna cum laude from Northern Illinois University 1978.  Judge Wheaton is a member of the DuPage County and Illinois State Bar Associations.  She served on the DuPage County Bar Association's Board of Directors, as chair of the Legal Aid, Entertainment, Younger Members, and Scholarship Committees, and as a member of the Judiciary Committee.  She is a member of the National Association of Women Judges and the DuPage Association of Women Lawyers.  She served as a member of the Inquiry Board of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission and as a member of the 18th Judicial Circuit Court Rules Committee.  Wheaton serves on the Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee and is a judicial performance evaluation facilitator.  Judge Wheaton has authored several law journal articles and has lectured at the Associate Judges Seminar, Criminal Law Section; the IICLE Seminar on Mandatory Arbitration, and the Illinois Judicial Conference on Economic Distress.