Sunday Profile: Nancy Siebens-Binz

A local who brings a life-time of world-wide experience to Sierra Nevada College’s campus

A full life isn’t always measured by years, but rather experiences. And Incline Village’s Nancy Siebens-Binz has plenty of the latter.

She’s caught 500-plus pound marlins in the Pacific, toured restricted tombs in Egypt with the nation’s premier architects, visits often with Jehan Sadat, widow of former Egyptian president Anwar Al Sadat and through all of that helped to build the current Sierra Nevada College campus.

Siebens-Binz, a trustee emeritus with SNC, said of all those experiences the ones she is most proud of revolve around sport, education and travel.

Raised in St. Louis, Siebens-Binz said she strived to be like her father, Harold Siebens, who taught her early the importance of sport and education.

“Dad was very in to sports, kayaking, canoeing, fishing and hunting, we spent time together doing sports from the time I was young,” Siebens-Binz said. “For me, sports is therapy, and I think it’s wonderful to have any kind of sport in your background. I view the time I spend fishing as my alone time, my time to be out in nature, it’s very important to me.”

Her love of education was partially realized after she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Human Relations at Rollins College in Florida. She admitted her first two years were spent enjoying all of the water-skiing opportunities the Sunshine State had to offer.

“By the time I got to my junior and senior year, I realized, ‘am I lucky, or am I lucky?’ I realized that I loved to learn and was given an amazing opportunity to do so at college, something I hope all students realize and take advantage of,” Siebens-Binz said.

She also learned from her father, a philanthropist, the importance of giving to education.

Harold Siebens gave generously and helped to establish Buena Vista College in Iowa and later in life established the offshore-based Siebens foundation, of which Siebens-Binz and her four brothers and sisters are considered “eyes on the ground.”

The children all spend their time looking out for worthwhile entities for the Siebens foundation to give to and advise the foundation.

Siebens-Binz found one of those entities in the early 1980s, shortly after she moved to Incline, in the form of SNC.

“Shortly after I moved to Incline I met (SNC founder) Ben Solomon, and he had a great vision for a campus in the current location,” Siebens-Binz said.

She shared and said she fell in love with that vision, one that included students thinking and studying next to streams on the Country Club campus.

“So, Ben put a deal together and I talked the Siebens foundation into funding half of it, $2.5 million, and the deal worked out so well,” Siebens-Binz said.

But, her affiliation with SNC didn’t end with the current campus. She helped to create an endowment which established the Tahoe Forum, an event that brings a big-name speaker into SNC each year to talk to students, faculty and the Incline community.

Again, Siebens-Binz took the lead from her father when she established the endowment as he had done the same at Buena Vista.

“My father brought in big speakers from all over the world and felt that was a very important part of the educational experience,” Siebens-Binz said.

This year’s speaker, renowned Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, holds a personal tie to Siebens-Binz, one that stems from a wild trip to the ancient society stationed next to the Nile River.

“Well I was planning to travel with three girlfriends of mine and planned to visit Egypt when I read that Zahi had discovered what was called the ‘Golden Mummies,’” Siebens-Binz said. “So I thought, I’ve got to meet this Zahi and see those mummies.”

So, in the six months leading up to the trip, Siebens-Binz got ahold of Hawass’ fax number and sent him three faxes, each detailing her desire to see the tomb of the mummies, tours which could only be given by Hawass.

As her trip grew nearer and she hadn’t heard from Hawass, Siebens-Binz got nervous.

So, she put in a call to good friend Jehan Sadat, who assured her the archaeologist had indeed received her faxes and was expecting her in Egypt.

Upon her arrival in Cairo, Siebens-Binz took a friend to meet with Hawass at his office adjacent to the Pyramids. There, a secretary greeted her and she waited for nearly an hour as Hawass tended to matters in his private office.

Once she entered, Dr. Hawass took stock of her and quickly rattled off a series of requirements for her to see the tombs, saying she would need her own driver, a four wheel drive truck and accommodations.

“He couldn’t believe it when I told him we’d already arranged for a driver and were ready to go out that day,” Siebens-Binz said.

She said the slack-jawed Hawass was even more amazed when Siebens-Binz revealed an adventurous side and said she and her friends looked forward to staying in a Bedouin tent.

“He told us we certainly didn’t want to stay in a Bedouin tent, but quickly arranged for us to visit and told us we could stay in a new hotel built near the find and we were the first guests,” Siebens-Binz said.

After the trip the two formed a close bond which has lasted until today, partially because of Hawass’ passion for his country and its history.

“He is one of the finest ambassadors for Egypt I have ever known,” Siebens-Binz said. “He knows all about Egypt and its history and loves sharing that history with little kids, so they can know, understand and be proud of their history. His love of children is really unbelievable.”

That love of his country is what led Hawass to agree to speak at SNC next Saturday for this year’s forum.

While Siebens-Binz’ adventures certainly include Egypt, she said she’s traveled around the world “at least three times,” and enjoys taking off for long vacations and meeting new people.

Of all the places she has traveled, though, she considers the Middle East one of the most intriguing and interesting regions to visit.

“I’ve been all around the world, but I find the East to be very interesting, places like Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, there is so much history there,” Siebens-Binz said.

The Incline resident is currently enjoying a reduction in her duties at SNC and spending time focusing on her passions, one of which is her Bay Area-located daughter and granddaughter, and another, providing college scholarships.

“I think funding scholarships is so important because I’ve always felt that it is one of the best places for money to be spent, so students can have the experiences they deserve while studying,” Siebens-Binz said.

She is currently working on providing scholarships to empower young women, another passion to fill a life’s worth of experiences.