Cornell launches a global career

Cornell College proved to be an ideal launching pad for Dana Dahl Touzelet ’81.

She traces her international career in law back to One Course At A Time, a curriculum at Cornell that began in her sophomore year. 

“It taught me discipline and focus, both of which are necessary to survive and thrive in law school,” says Touzelet, who passed two bar exams, successfully practiced law for 15 years, and who has been “blessed with a great, global career since 2008.”

The Cornell economics and business and sociology major earned her J.D. from Drake Law School and studied international law at the London School of Economics. She is now based in Switzerland at Edwards Lifesciences’ European headquarters, where she is senior compliance director for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Canada, and Latin America. 

Although she travels widely for work and with her husband, a Frenchman who leads the nuclear and special projects divisions of a Swiss multinational, she says her four years on the Hilltop conjure her fondest memories. Among them are “walking the lovely campus, the air horn of the train that passed behind the Field House, and seeing King Chapel from a distance as I returned to Mount Vernon in the fall.” 

Just a few years ago she saw King Chapel rising from the distance again when she returned for a Homecoming reunion. During the weekend she met President Brand, and they conversed in French. 

“The small town and campus are beautiful, charming, warm, and welcoming. The academics are challenging and relevant. The college genuinely cares about its students and their futures,” she says. “There is ongoing importance in life and career of the breadth and depth a liberal arts education provides and the curiosity it cultivates.”