Fifteen-year-old Dana Shanler’s hopes rose as her mother described in glowing terms the small Pennsylvania liberal arts college being considered by a friend of her brother’s.

The high school sophomore from Spring Valley, New York—now Assistant General Counsel for MetLife, Inc.—thought that Haverford College, with its size and well-regarded academic reputation, would be a perfect fit for her in a couple of years. But there was one sizable catch: It was an all-male institution.

Yet, two years later, Dana Shanler became one of 96 women admitted to Haverford’s first co-ed class, the class of 1984. Photographers from the Philadelphia Inquirer snapped pictures as she moved her belongings into her dorm.

At the time, Shanler admits, she wasn’t aware of the far-reaching implications of being among the first class of women. What drew her to Haverford were the grounds (“It looked like the movie set of a college campus,” she says), the honor code, the academics, and the size. “I was the kind of person who traveled with the same group of students all through high school,” she says. “I wasn’t prepared to get lost in the shuffle at a larger school, or be known by my social security number.”

She knew that Haverford had never admitted women before her class, and that the school’s decision to go co-ed was one of the more significant events in its history. Yet she never called herself a “pioneer”—though many others did.

“We used to joke that our covered wagons were in the parking lot,” she laughs.

In the midst of bonding with her Customs group and forging friendships that still exist today, there were difficulties. Shanler still remembers a party she attended the first week of her freshman year in the suite of her Customs leader. The woman, a Bryn Mawr student, had invited several of her male Haverford senior friends, one of whom decided that the occasion called for some grandstanding.

“He stood up and made an impassioned speech,” Shanler recalls, “about how admitting women was the worst thing the school could have done.” She acknowledged his reasons—he had recognized the value of an all-male education and felt that the dynamic between Haverford and Bryn Mawr worked well—but she was “horrified” nonetheless.

There were other, logistical issues to contend with in the beginning, like showers without individual stalls and the lack of a women’s locker room. Shanler became part of a team of advisors to then-President Robert Stevens, meeting with him once a month to discuss these concerns. She also immersed herself in campus life, working in the admissions office, serving on Student’s Council, leading campus tours, and managing the men’s lacrosse team all four years at Haverford (“I had never even heard of lacrosse before I came here”)—a legacy continued by her sister Julie Shanler Leopold ’88. In becoming so vital to Haverford, Shanler exhibited the qualities that she admired in her female friends and colleagues.

“We thought that [then-director of admissions] Bill Ambler had a sixth sense about the kind of women who would thrive in this environment,” she says. “The women in my class were bright, intelligent, doers and go-getters who met the challenge of being the first freshmen women at Haverford. There was no room for shrinking violets back then.”

Being a “pioneer” in a newly co-ed college is a label that Shanler has never quite shaken; even after she received her bachelor’s degree in political science and went on to obtain her J.D. from the Benjamin J. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, she was introduced at Haverford alumni events as a member of the school’s first class of women. But Shanler feels that this fact itself—and, indeed, being a student at a co-ed college in general—was responsible for shaping the kind of person she is today. “In a co-ed college, you get the experience of dealing with men on a daily basis, a good preparation for future careers—especially a legal career.”

Shanler began putting this preparation to good use in her first job out of law school, with the Manhattan-based corporate law firm of Kramer, Levin, Naftalis & Frankel, where she found a Haverford connection—Michael Nelson ’64, with whom she would work closely on several mergers and acquisitions. As a student, Shanler had heard the stories about the rigors of practicing with a large firm, but the reality still came as a shock. “You can take all the classes you want, but it’s nothing like being dropped into the middle of things,” she says. “No one can teach you the correct way of going about things; you have to absorb everything around you.” From the start, she became involved in high-profile, billion-dollar deals and negotiations that attracted vast media attention: “It wasn’t uncommon for me to work on something overnight and read about it in the Wall Street Journal in the following days.” Long hours, late nights and early mornings, were routine. There was no time for anxiety over the magnitude of the firm’s dealings and her role in them. “You were so pressed for time, you were almost on automatic pilot, learning to trust your judgments and instincts,” she says.

After eight years with the firm, Shanler left to join TIG Holdings, a New York Stock Exchange listed property and casualty insurance enterprise. In 1996, she was treated to the experience of a lifetime when TIG decided it wanted to be one of the first corporations to be approved as an investor in the Lloyd’s of London’s world-famous insurance market. Shanler jetted to London for a two-week trip that turned into a very successful seven-month stay; TIG, in fact, became the first corporate name – as they are called – to invest in Lloyd’s. While there, she became so close with the staff of the hotel where she lived that they sent her Christmas cards for years afterwards. She found lifelong friends in the British lawyers with whom she collaborated and took the opportunity to see as much of Europe as possible during the weekends. “It was amazing, a wonderful experience—personally and professionally,” she says.

Taking advantage of another once in a lifetime opportunity, Shanler joined MetLife in 1999 to form and head the Public Company Law Unit to provide the legal support for MetLife’s efforts to become a publicly traded company. Contrary to popular belief, MetLife was not a public company until April 2000; it was, like many other insurance companies, a private mutual company. Now, MetLife is the largest, most widely held company in the United States and, perhaps, the world, with its stock owned by millions.

With going public came new responsibilities and legal obligations, particularly concerning securities laws administered by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Shanler was hired to counsel MetLife on these on-going responsibilities and obligations. She managed processes driven by the securities laws and the public offering, ensured that the company filed with the SEC, and put various policies and mechanisms to work so that laws and regulations were satisfied. Today she continues to assist in the development of MetLife as a public company, and is considered (in her own words) a “gatekeeper” of public information; when employees have concerns about whether and when to publicly release certain information, they go to her. She also travels the country educating employees about changing the way they conduct themselves and their business in light of MetLife’s public status.

“My job is very exciting,” she says. “Its not often you become involved with a public offering the size of MetLife. It was a tremendous opportunity to join the company at such a critical phase and to have the opportunity to influence the shape of important company policies and procedures.”

Shanler’s enthusiasm for her job and her life in downtown Manhattan hasn’t dimmed even in the wake of September 11, although she was hardly unaffected. She too lost close friends, including fellow Haverford alum Calvin Gooding, and was gripped by the anxiety that seized the whole city. She stayed up that night watching CNN, and became addicted to the news. When she and her friends had trouble sleeping in the aftermath, they would congregate—“None of us wanted to be alone.” For months afterwards she became upset whenever she heard a police car or fire truck or ambulance, wondering what would happen next.

“I first realized things were starting to go back to normal when I didn’t hear sirens 24 hours a day,” she says.
Through both the quiet and turbulent times of her post-college life, Shanler has stayed connected to Haverford over the past 18 years: acting as her class’s chair, helping to organize her senior class gift, heading the Annual Giving Executive Committee and the Haverford Fund. Recently, President Tom Tritton stunned her by extending an invitation to join the Board of Managers, beginning in July.

“I’m so honored I don’t even know how to describe it,” she says. “I have great respect and admiration for the people on the Board. They have a tremendous dedication to the College and are all very distinguished in their chosen fields; I’m privileged to be in their group.”

The connection between Shanler and Haverford has deepened throughout the years in a way she never anticipated as a freshman “pioneer.” “Aside from my parents, Haverford had the most impact on the kind of person I am,” she says. “I’m not ready for it to be part of my past. I want it to be part of my present. I’m very excited that presently that includes the opportunity to serve on the Board of Managers.”