Faculty/Staff Career News February 2023

To read complete versions of these abbreviated news items, where you see a faculty or staff name as a live link, click to reach the faculty/staff member’s personal page. Then visit that page’s “Recent News” tab, where this current item in fuller detail beyond the first few lines shown here will be at or near the top. For employees without a profile page, the full text of each news item is included here.

Rachael Allen and Shelby Priest from the College’s Office of Institutional Advancement represented St. Mike’s at the GiveCampus Partner Success Day. The event took place on August 11 at the brand-new Joyce Cummings Center at Tuffs University in Medford, MA, and was an opportunity to learn from and network with other members of the fundraising community from throughout New England, Rachael and Shelby said. GiveCampus is an industry leader in fundraising and Saint Michael’s uses its platform to process online donations.

Jolivette Anderson-Douoning of the history faculty (and Edmundite African American Fellow at the College) presented research fall semester centered on a ledger documenting the everyday activities of Mrs. Goldleana Harris Mosley Abraham — a Black woman living in a segregated neighborhood of Shreveport, Louisiana, after World War II. The talk provided historical insight into the limited labor opportunities and racist practices Black workers had to overcome in that period.

Angela Armour ’99 of alumni & parent engagement won the Buff Lindau Leadership Award during the staff awards ceremony in late September.

George Ashline, professor of mathematics and statistics, is currently fulfilling his second year of responsibility on the College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) Calculus Test Development Committee. CLEP gives students the opportunity to receive college credit by earning qualifying scores on any one or more of 34 exams and more than 2,900 U.S. colleges and universities grant credit for CLEP exams. Committee members help to maintain exam content and specifications and write and review exam content.

Lyndsay Avery of the biology faculty accompanied two Saint Michael’s biology majors, Ava Albis ’23 and Olivia Stebbins ’24, when the students presented their research at the American Society for Cell Biology meeting in Washington, DC in November. In Lyndsay’s lab, Ava and Olivia study the effects of a mutation seen in patients with severe immunodeficiency.

Jeffrey Ayres of the political science/international relations faculty, director of the Center for Global Engagement hosted a fall visit to our campus by a delegation of Hungarian lawmakers – the group’s only visit to an educational institution during their stay in Vermont, which was hosted by the Vermont Council on World Affairs (VCWA) as part of the Open World Program. Jeff also accompanied a nine-student delegation the weekend of January 26-29, 2023 to the McGill Model United Nations Conference in Montreal.

Gary Baker, recently of physical services, won an “unsung Heroes” award during the staff awards assembly in late September.

Valerie Bang-Jensen of the Education faculty this fall was an invited guest on a blog by nonfiction advocate and author Melissa Stewart called Celebrate Nonfiction. Valerie contributed a post describing how she helps her education majors learn about different types of nonfiction for children. Other recent projects include a book, Literacy Moves Outdoors, an online conversation for Kidsgardening, a series of workshops for K-12 teachers, an article on “Lighthouses” in challenging times, and collaborations with colleague Mark Lubkowitz (biology).

Krista Billingsley, director of criminology and assistant professor of anthropology and criminology, recently wrote a piece appearing on the website of the Society for Cultural Anthropology, about her experiences as an expert witness for Nepali asylum cases under questioning from an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security.

Vince Bolduc, a retired sociologist from Saint Michael’s and a member of South Burlington’s Affordable Housing Committee, wrote a commentary recently on the Vermont news website VTDigger titled “To solve the housing and climate crises, we need a bigger map.”

Mike Bosia of the political science/international relations faculty was invited to review a new book on the European Union’s role on human rights regionally and globally, based on his expertise in global LGBT sexual and gender minority rights. The review by Mike, who has published on LGBT and sexual/gender minority rights in France, Egypt, and Uganda, was published in one of the world’s leading electronic journals, E-International Relations. The book by Markus Thiel is The European Union’s International Promotion of LGBTI Rights.

Ryan Braeger began work in early December 2022 as the College’s new assistant dean for advising and student development. Ryan comes to the College from Salt Lake City, Utah, where he was the Director of Academic Advising at Westminster College, and he was a Senior Advisor at Utah State University, where he graduated with a double major in History and Law & Constitutional Studies.  Ryan also completed his master’s in history at Utah State, and a second master’s in education at Harvard University.

Maea Brandt, fine arts instructor, won a special election in Burlington’s East District in November’s elections, giving her party an advantage on the city council.

Denise Brault, executive assistant to the VPAA and the dean of the faculty this past fall joined the Executive Board for Vermont Women in Higher Education (VWHE). She began in September 2022 and will serve as the group’s treasurer; also joining the board was Sydney Rybicki ’18, assistant director for alumni & family engagement in Institutional Advancement, Two Strategic Planning Partners with the Board are Vernita Weller, student success adviser in t Purposeful Learning, and Catherine Welch ’10, of Student Life

Alain Brizard of the physics faculty during fall semester appeared on the local news station NBC5, the Plattsburgh-Burlington area network affiliate, to talk about major space news from NASA in late September. The reporter, Carolyn Sistrand, came to campus in order to interview Alain. He also presented the second of three talks for fall semester in the Solutions for Social Impact” seminar series, about his work on nuclear fusion. In December when major fusion news made national media, USA Today and several Burlington-area TV stations interviewed Alain about it.

Heather Brothers started work on September 19 as the College’s new Assistant Director of Student Financial Services. Heather, who lives in Essex Junction, previously worked at Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) in Winooski

Alissa Carberry started work in October as administrative specialist for enrollment in the Saint Michael’s College Admission Office. She previously worked as an early educator for the last 10 years, serving infants through Pre-K in Chittenden County.

Renee Carrico of the psychology faculty was awarded the major faculty award for service during the Academic Convocation in September.

Fr. Michael Carter, S.S.E. ’12 had an article published recently in the University of Vermont History Review. His article had the title “The New Dividing Line: The School Question Viewed Through the Lens of Political Cartoons in the Election of 1876.” An author biography from the Review notes that Fr. Michael, a Burlington native, presently is a graduate student in history at UVM with special interests in the First World War and its impact in Vermont.

Brian Collier of the fine arts/art & graphic design faculty, showed new sculptures at an exhibition, “Exposed 2022,” in Stowe at “The Current: A Center for Contemporary Art.” For a Shelburne Museum project, Brian produced video work in collaboration with his twin sons exploring the museum. In September, Brian and other Saint Michael’s faculty artists Mallory Breiner, Jordan Douglas, Peter Gallo, Gordon Glover, Becca Gurney, and Will Mentor displayed work in the McCarthy Gallery; and Brian ran a seed-ball-making workshop in Hinesburg this fall.

John Connors of the Information Technology Department is Stowe Fire Department’s newest member. John brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Stowe department as a technology professional, an armed forces veteran, EMT and ski patroller.

Diane Corbett, director of financial aid, was interviewed by the Burlington-area NBC affiliate NBC5 in August about President Biden’s announcement regarding federal student loans, offering debt relief in some cases while providing other families breathing room as they prepare to start re-paying loans after the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic. Reporter Krystin Rae, of NBC5 sought out more clarity about what that might mean for families by interviewing Diane.

George Dameron, professor emeritus of history, has written an essay on medieval Florentine church history that will appear in a collection of studies on the medieval Italian church, to be published by Cornell University Press in 2023. In July 2022, he presented a paper at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, UK on food security and the countryside in medieval Tuscany before the Black Death. He has written several short articles on medieval Tuscany, and is active in regional history groups and with Phi Beta Kappa on campus.

Maura D’Amore of the English faculty in December shared that the popular website McSweeney’s, which posts daily humor pieces, published her imaginary “rubrics” to evaluate modern academic work, but using criteria that might matter to Emily Dickinson and other favorite 19^th-Century writers. Also, Maura’s essay ‘Episodic Storytelling: Theorizing Seriality in the Undergraduate Literature Classroom’ was published in the Fall 2022 issue of Pedagogy.

Ben Davidson and Alexandra Garrett of the history faculty both presented at the Southern Historical Association annual conference this November in Baltimore. Alexi presented research from her book project, on a panel entitled “Heroes and Villains in Mind and Living Memory: Southern Patriots and Loyalists After the American Revolutionary War.” Ben served as the commentator for a panel titled “Alternative Southern Perspectives on the Civil War.”

Greg Delanty of the English faculty, an internationally acclaimed Irish poet, was on sabbatical for the spring 2022 term and was to head home Ireland from mid-September until November. Greg said he is keeping busy with two books coming out next year. He also has had “Lots of poems published this year, including in The Atlantic, which has been good to me over the years.” He also had a major announcement from the National Library in Ireland regarding their interest in and plans for his papers. Greg also has a special edition just out titled The Atlas Trap.

Nick Drake started work at Saint Michael’s on August 15 as associate director of graduate admission. He previously worked a Champlain College and Harvard University, and lives in Burlington, where his wife, Jenny, practices intellectual property law. In his free time Nick enjoys enjoy board and video games, puzzles, “and exploring all of the outdoor activities Vermont has to offer.”

Kristin Dykstra, distinguished scholar in residence, participated in the August 2022 Almost Island Dialogues, an international literary gathering in New Delhi, India, where she gave a reading and spoke in panel discussions. In November she published “Cinquains for Survival: On Urayoán Noel’s Transversal (2021),” an article for Chicago Review online. Kristin published her original poems in Lana Turner 15 and Distropika. Her literary translations appeared in the same issue of Lana Turner, as well as in Astra 2 and Washington Square Review.

William Ellis of the fine arts/music faculty wrote a chapter for a coming Lexington Press book, Theology and the Blues (“Worthwhile to Be Heard: Spiritual Angst and Lamentation in the Blues”); he also wrote an invited paper for a coming festschrift in the Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin (“Hear Him Cryin’: The Harmonica Music of Reverend Gary Davis”). He also will curate the spring exhibit for the Art Museum of the University of Memphis on African American vernacular art and the blues, and has a coming album of original music, Ghost Hymns.

Ruth Fabian-Fine of the biology/neuroscience faculty was awarded the major faculty award for scholarship & artistic achievement during the Academic Convocation in September. Also, Ruth with her colleague Adam Weaver was co-author along with 26 Saint Michel’s student researchers of a publisher paper for a respected science journal, the Journal of Comparative Neurology, on the topic of neurodegeneration. The professors and some of the students also presented the same findings for the Fall Semester Seminars for Social Impact on campus.

Doug Facey, emeritus professor of biology, is first author on the recently released third edition of The Diversity of Fishes: Biology, Evolution and Ecology. This is a textbook for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in ichthyology courses, such as the one that Doug taught a few times while at Saint Michael’s. The book includes several photos from Jon Hyde and Kimberly Sultze of the MJD faculty. Doug wrote a column for “The Outside Story” for Northern Woodlands Magazine, about “Hibernation: Winter survival by chilling out.”

Katy Farber, assistant professor of education, presented a session at the statewide conference Vermont Fest on November 18, entitled Grow Rooted, Grounded STEM with Purpose. She also presented a workshop in the Saint Michael’s College of Education Master’s of Arts in Teaching workshop series called New Teacher Survival Guide: Skills and Strategies for Managing the Many and Varied Demands of the Profession, on November 17, 2022.

Jeffrey Favreau, the new director of Public Safety and Emergency Operations at Saint Michael’s College since October, brings nearly two decades of relevant experience in Vermont law enforcement with South Burlington and University of Vermont Police, much of it focused on working with young people and, later, supervising officers

Penny Federici started work on August 1 as the College’s new associate director of admission marketing & communications. Previously Penny worked from 2018 to 2022 at Assumption University in Massachusetts as the assistant director of marketing for enrollment management, and prior to that from 2012 to 2017 at Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, RI, as the marketing & communications director. She lives in Providence, RI, and has been working remotely from her current home in Providence, RI

Gretchen Galbraith, dean of faculty, was one of several presenters for the annual Faculty Speaker Series from Jan. 3-12, 2023. Other presenters: Annie O’Shaughnessy of the Graduate Education Department, George Ashline of the Mathematics and Statistics Department, Peter Vantine of the Classical and Modern Languages and Literature Department, Jen Purcell of the History Department, Kate Soons of the  Health Sciences Program, and Patrick Walsh of economics. Topics ranged from the British monarchy to the Pythagorean Theorem.

Alexandra Garrett joined the History Department Aug.1, 2022, as assistant professor in U.S. History specializing in pre-contact to 1865. For the past two years, she worked at Iona University as the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies and University of Virginia Press Postdoctoral Fellow (2020-2022). This fall she took her “American Revolution” class to the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum in Burlington. She also gave a presentation to the Massachusetts Historical in October as part of a virtual online panel titled “Gender, Sexuality, and Race in the Nineteenth Century.”

Solomon Manuel Garza has started as the Saint Michael’s College MakerSpace Manager. He is a graduate of Middlebury College with a degree in Architectural Studies and managed the reopening of the Middlebury MakerSpace. Sol has a specialization in 3D printing as well as experience in animation making short animated films. Most recently, Sol was an instructor at the Hannaford Career Center teaching 3D design.

Erin Grainger of the fine arts/music adjunct faculty was leading host for a masterclass for singers in late October. During the masterclass sponsored by the Academic Enrichment Fund and organized by Erin, guest tenor Kevin Ginter worked with four student singers and the class was observed by members of the Saint Michael’s Singers (Chorale).

Rebecca Eunmi Haslam ’03, Ph.D., of the Education Department faculty this year developed and launched a new Racial Equity & Educational Justice (REEJ) Graduate Certificate Program at the College to meet a growing need and demand among the state’s educators while advancing the College’s active commitment to embrace diversity and stand against racism.

Ryan Hay ’19 started work at Saint Michel’s on August 15 as assistant director of Edmundite Campus Ministry community service. Directly following his 2019 Saint Michael’s graduation, Ryan moved just outside of Barcelona, Spain, to teach English in a Catholic Elementary School. After his year there, he was a Team Lead for Target in his hometown area near Glens Falls, NY

David Heroux of the chemistry faculty authored a published article in a recent edition of a magazine about chemistry for young people, in anticipation of National Chemistry week in October. The magazine is Celebrating Chemistry a publication of the American Chemical Society. The theme of this special issue is “Fabulous Fibers: The Chemistry of Fabrics.” David’s contribution is on the topic of “Dyeing to Color Fabric.” David explains step-by-step procedures for dying fibers using Kool-Aid mix and other household items.

Peter Hope, biology faculty emeritus, led another trip to Costa Rica with a group of Saint Michael’s students over the winter break.

Daniel Johnson, adjunct in English, teaches mostly creative writing classes. In September, he had a poem chosen to be included in Moving Words, a project organized by the N.J. based arts organization Arts By The People. Writers have short animated films made by students at various colleges, worldwide — all influenced by the work of the writers. Dan’s poem was picked three times at the partner institution in Israel this year. He also had a critical article published in New Hibernia Review, critically examining poetry by Greg Delanty, a St. Mike’s English colleague.

Todd Johnstone-Wright ’95, director of the College’s new Undergraduate Professional Endorsement (UPE) program participated in a case study with MindEdge Learning, with whom the College partners, producing a final product as an attractive pamphlet touting specific examples of Saint Michael’s students benefiting from the partnership through UPEs. He and Robert Letovsky (business) are teaming to offer professional certification as an option for Robert’s marketing/entrepreneurship courses.”

Terryl Kinder, distinguished visiting professor in fine arts, gave a slide presentation in Nicolle Hall on January focused on Pontigny Abbey’s future based on recent development plans there. Terryl’ research into the Edmundite archives at Saint Michael’s – as well as her knowledge of Pontigny’s history – were woven together in this presentation, sponsored by the Society of St Edmund, the Pontigny Society, and the Center for Global Engagement. The speaker has lived and worked in Pontigny (Burgundy, France) for more than 30 years.

Ari Kirshenbaum of the psychology faculty was a guest in September on Vermont Public in an interview with host Mitch Wertlieb, exploring the ramifications of JUUL Labs settlement regarding e-cigarettes. NBC5, the Burlington-area station, later featured Ari’s app that measures the neurological effects of cannabis. For the third and final seminar in the series, “Saint Michael’s College Presents: Solutions for Social Impact,” in October, Ari’s topic was “Weed and the Wheel: How recreational drugs affect behavior and motor skills.”

Amy Knight of the education faculty wrote a piece about supporting neurodivergent students, appearing on the website Harvard Business Publishing: Education, with the title “4 Ways to Design a Course That Supports Neurodivergent Students: Focus on Highlighting Their Strengths.”

Richard Kujawa, professor of geography and chair of environmental studies and science, presented the paper “Meet the Ferals, pigs, that is: A story of space, place and power” at the Centennial meeting of the New England and Saint Lawrence Valley Geographical Society (NESTVAL) held at Salem State University on November 5. Richard recently completed his service as NESTVAL’s representative to the National Council of the American Association of Geographers.

Michael Larsen is coauthor and statistician on an article on treatment of nonsymptomatic bacterial vaginosis to prevent preterm birth (accepted in December 2022). In fall of 2022, he presented at the AAAS STEM symposium on Saint Michael’s College’s NSF S-STEM grant.  In 2023, he will be the chair of the Record Linkage Interest Group of the American Statistical Association.

Howie LeBlanco and Kendra Smith of Human Resources organized a well-attended “Re-Orientation program October 14 on campus for staff and faculty, engaging a facilitated conversation on mission and values and explaining a “roadmap” of the “employee life cycle.”

Anna Lester ’98 has left the staff of Edmundite Campus Ministry to take a position in the College’s Admission Office.

Robert Letovsky of the Saint Michael’s business administration & accounting faculty wrote a commentary that appeared in late August on the Vermont news website VTDigger. In his piece, Robert urged a broader view toward global energy issues. Robert also teamed fall semester 2022 with Todd Johnstone-Wright of the UPE office to offer professional certification as an option for his marketing and entrepreneurship courses.

Nathaniel G. Lew of the Fine Arts/Music faculty (chair) was in the news before Christmas for his prominent role conducting a performance of a Vermont high school student’s choral composition during a series of holiday concerts around the state.

Crystal L’Hote of the philosophy faculty did an interview in February with reporter Melissa Cooney from WCAX Channel 3, the Burlington-area CBS affiliate. They talked about ChatGPT, a popular new Artificial Intelligence (AI) “chatbot” some educators fear might be used by college students to cheat on work they submit. Crystal brought to the interview her expertise on the ethics around AI in a higher education setting, focusing on ChatGPT.

Carolyn Lukens-Olson, professor of Spanish, gave the presentation “Five Models for Teaching Two–Credit CLAC Courses” for the panel “Starting and Revitalizing a CLAC Program” at the 2022 Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) Conference (December 2-3), sponsored by the Central New York CLAC Working Group (Cornell, Syracuse, Skidmore, Colgate).

Maria Magalhaes, mathematics/statistics adjunct, is the author of a new book chapter: “Marketing and Demarketing Strategies for Hotel Operation under Epidemics and Pandemics,” published on June 30, 2022. Here is the formal citation about the book: “Magalhaes, M. J., & Marques, S. (2022). Marketing and Demarketing Strategies for Hotel Operation under Epidemics and Pandemics. In A. Sharma, A. Hassan, & P. Mohanti (Eds.), COVID-19 and the Tourism Industry Sustainability, Resilience and New Directions (1st Edition). Routledge.

Bhuttu Mathews (M.A. Clinical Psychology, ’21), head men’s rugby coach and former Bergeron counselor and Public Safety Officer, was elected the new chairperson of International Gay Rugby (IGR) in August 2022 in Ottawa, Canada. IGR comprises over 100 clubs around the world and over 5,000 members, and they host the three largest amateur rugby tournaments in the world. Bhuttu began an independent private practice in downtown Burlington after leaving Bergeron in July 2022.

Declan McCabe of the Saint Michael’s biology faculty writes a regular nature column for Northern Woodlands Magazine, syndicated in several newspapers in Vermont and elsewhere in New England, called “The Outside Story.”  Recent topics have been spotted lanternflies, isopods, galls and more. This fall he went fishing with students in the Gilbrook Reservoir through a Vermont Fish and Wildlife program; and16 students in his Aquatic Biology class traveled to Mystic, CT, this fall and Declan led and accompanied the group.

Ben Morton, assistant director of the Saint Michael’s Adventure Sports Center in July 2022, participated as an instructor at Paddle Tribal Waters/Rios to Rivers. For this event, Maqlaqs Paddle Club with the support of Rios To Rivers, World Class Kayak Academy and Otter Bar Kayak School, conducted a two-and-a-half-week kayak and river advocacy training program for 15 indigenous youth from the Klamath Basin (Oregon and California). The program continues with weekend kayaking trips and kayak roll training sessions.

Elizabeth Murray ’13 started work on July 27 as the College’s new Associate Director of Public Relations in the Office of Marketing and Communications. Previously, she spent nine years as the public safety reporter for the Burlington Free Press. She lives in Williston.

James Nagle, chair of the College’s Education Department, was a guest on a recent podcast titled “The Deeper Dig: Exiting Education” posted on the Vermont news website VTDigger. The podcast conversation explores why so many school employees in Vermont and elsewhere are leaving the profession. James also was featured in the most recent Saint Michael’s College Magazine  (fall/winter 2022) in the lead article, “Can Higher Ed Save Education?”  He also published papers for professional journals.

Joshua Norberto started work November 14 as the College’s manager of classroom technology. He previously worked for Swiss Re, a large international company specializing in reinsurance, commercial insurance and digital insurance. Josh lives in Westford with his wife, Melissa and their two dogs, Odin and Orion.

Sarah Nosek of the psychology faculty and Kaitlyn Root ’22 have published a paper in the journal Medical Humanities, “Understanding how college students characterize and cope with chronic pain: A thematic analysis of expressive writing samples.” Root, a graduate student in the Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology Program and a Resident Director at the College, collaborated with Sarah on this research as an undergraduate while completing the Psychology program’s PS 406/408 Senior Research Capstone option.

Ken O’Connell, the College’s director of military community enrollment and resources, accompanied three military-affiliated Saint Michael’s students in attending the 15th Student Veterans of America (SVA) National Conference in Florida from January 5 to January 7.

Aislinn O’Connor started work August 1 as an athletic trainer in the College’s Athletics Department. From February-May of 2022, she did per diem work for Cornell University, covering men’s and women’s tennis and squash matches, as well as diving competitions. She was a Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer at Ithaca College from 2020-2022, working with the women’s gymnastics team and the men’s and women’s crew teams.

Paul Olsen of the business administration and accounting faculty had three cases (and teaching notes) published or to be published soon in professional journals. The titles are “Good Samaritan or poor performer?” (Journal of Critical Incidents. Winter 2022); “That’s so gay: Kellogg’s faces backlash to its “Together With Pride” cereal. Journal of Critical Incidents, Winter 2022) and, “Land O’Lakes abandons Native American logo: Brand authenticity or virtue signaling?” Business Case Journal (in press). A student, Brandon Mitchell ’22, co-authored the last two.

Ray Patterson, Saint Michael’s NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR), attended the 5th Division II FAR Advanced Leadership Institute from Sept. 30- Oct. 2 at NCAA Headquarters in Indianapolis.

Fran Pepperman Taylor, adjunct in Fine Arts/Music, performed on violin as concert master of the Burlington Civic Symphony Orchestra, in the pit for the Lyric Theatre’s production of Into the Woods, for the Hinesburg Artist Series Holiday Concert, and for numerous weddings. She also was assistant concertmaster of the Vermont Philharmonic summer pops concert.

Jennifer Purcell of the history faculty appeared on the national news station NBCLX to speak about the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. She has been researching the royal family for an upcoming book about the public’s perception of the monarchy as part of the Bloomsbury Academic book series, Mass Observation Critical Series. Jen also was quoted by the New York Times in a recent story about the newest season of Netflix’s series, “The Crown.” She also has more book projects and new positions leading professional groups in her field.

Scott Robar, Saint Michael’s Public Safety dispatcher, and Public Safety Officer Jacob Giroux  received recognition in January from Michael DesRosiers, assistant director for Public Safety at Saint Michael’s, “for going above and beyond by covering numerous shifts throughout the year, and also, ” for doing well more than what they are required to do for their jobs.”

Lara Scott in the MOVE office of Edmundite Campus Ministry won the Fr. Maurice Ouellet Service Award during the staff awards assembly in late September.

Kate Soons ’92, P’21, lecturer in biology, taught the first EMT course for credit at Saint Michael’s fall semester 2022 and it was nearly full with 22 students, the majority not affiliated with Fire & Rescue but pursuing other health professions. SMFR Chief John Keating ’17 purchased all of the equipment necessary to teach the program. They are integrating clinical observation with the Rescue Unit into the curriculum, further reinforcing the concept of purposeful learning and aim to expand offerings soon.

Patrick Standen of the philosophy faculty was awarded the major faculty award for teaching during the Academic Convocation in September.

Trevien Stanger of the Environmental Studies and Science faculty coordinated in October with the campus environmental group Green Up to harvest trees from the Ecological Restoration Nursery in the center of campus this week and replant them in the College Natural Area. He also contributed to an environmental podcast called “In the Weeds,” discussing with host Nicole Asquith a book by David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous.

Heidi St. Peter ’96 of the Purposeful Learning Office won the Edmundite Founders’ Award during the annual staff awards ceremony in late September.

Samantha Trajkovski, a new member of the economics faculty, was quoted in a story airing in November by reporter Calvin Cutler of the Burlington-area TV news team at WCAX Channel 3, a CBS affiliate about Vermont Gov. Phil Scott’s paid family leave plan. Then in January, Cutler interviewed her again about Vermont’s child care crunch.

Leslie Turner of academic enrichment won an Unsung Hero Award during the annual staff awards ceremony in late September.

Adam Weaver and Ruth Fabian-Fine of the biology/neuroscience faculty alongside eight of their well-prepared student researchers presented a program this past fall semester 2022 in the  McCarthy Recital Hall, first in an exciting new “Solutions for Social Impact” series at the College, about “Shedding Light on Neurodegenerative Diseases for non-scientists.”

Catherine Welch ’10, the College’s associate dean of student success, was interviewed for a significant story in the Burlington Free Press daily newspaper and website that appeared in the August 19 edition. The piece by staff reporter April Barton had the title “Why is Vermont doing so well graduating high schoolers but not college students?”

Greg Wilson begins work August 29 as head strength and conditioning coach for the Saint Michael’s College Department of Athletics. Greg previously worked at Washington and Lee University (VA), University of Lynchburg (VA), Newberry College (SC), and University of South Carolina.

Rosemary M. Yargici started work on February 1 as Director of International Student and Scholar Services. She previously worked for Central Texas College’s Pacific Far East Campus (Japan Headquarters), and Central Texas College- Main Campus in Killeen, Texas. While working for Central Texas College she held several positions including Director of International Student Services.” She also taught linguistics to ESL students in Asia, Europe and the United States. Most recently, she worked a school district in San Antonio, TX.