Who We Are

BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Kirstin Edelglass (Marlboro ’95) is a wilderness guide, ecological educator, and counselor whose passion for supporting young adults runs deep. In addition to teaching at Sterling College, Colby College, Marlboro College, and Lesley University’s Audubon Expedition Institute, she has founded several programs including the Canoe Expedition for Maine Girls and the Earth Leadership Cohort (for young activists learning to facilitate Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects). She is cofounder of the New England Council Collective and leads workshops in facilitating listening circles, song leading, and cultivating ecological consciousness. Kirstin and her family live on a homestead in Marlboro.

Jennifer Ramstetter (Marlboro ’81) taught at  Marlboro College for three decades, learning alongside her students in fields such as forest ecology, ethnobotany, agroecology, pollination biology, and plant taxonomy. Her own work includes conservation of rare plants in New England and biological diversity and ecosystem services in various landscapes including local woodlands, western U.S. grasslands, and Ethiopia’s coffee agroecosystems. She currently serves on the Vermont Flora Advisory Group and the board of the Green Mountain Conservancy, and she served on Marlboro’s Conservation Commission, Marlboro College’s Environmental Advisory Committee, and Vermont’s Endangered Species Committee. She lives on a farm in southern Vermont, and climate change and its impacts on the diversity of human and non-human life are central in all of her endeavors.

Robin MacArthur is a fiction writer and essayist whose work is rooted in themes of place, the natural world, and climate change. She is the author of two award-winning books (Half Wild and Heart Spring Mountain), lives on her family’s organic vegetable and berry farm in Marlboro, teaches writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts and Orion Magazine, and is the founder and director of Word House. Robin carries an ethos of stewardship, sustainability and reverence for the natural world into all of her writing, teaching, and community work.

David Eichelberger is a ceramic artist and educator, and taught at Marlboro College from 2017 to 2020. His work is exhibited across the U.S., and in 2014 David concluded a three-year artist residency at the Penland School of Craft. He co-owns TWO-ONE Ceramics, a small-scale ceramics production studio in Brattleboro, VT, with his wife, artist Elisa DiFeo. David’s ceramic work focuses on observation, subtlety, and the peculiars of narrative storytelling. He lives in Marlboro with his family, and he believes that immersive education and hands-on material studies can create a path to realizing one’s potential and to becoming an engaged participant in our modern world. Be sure to visit the Marlboro Studio School to learn about the launch of David’s new craft school!!!

Nelli Sargsyan is an anthropologist and educator who has taught at universities in Armenia and the U.S. for over two decades. She moved to Marlboro and joined the Marlboro College faculty in 2015. Nelli is currently an associate professor of anthropology at Emerson College in Boston and teaches courses in anthropology, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and peace and social justice. Her most recent research focuses on feminist political work that cultivates feminist political consciousness and collective care, whether it be through direct street action, public performance, or feminist storytelling. Nelli lives in Marlboro with her spouse and two children and is committed to the town of Marlboro’s social and political wellbeing. 

Todd Smith is an Associate Professor in the Marlboro Institute at Emerson College, where he teaches courses that connect fundamental concepts in chemistry and biology to contemporary social issues. He received his PhD from the University of Rhode Island, followed by a National Research Council post-doctoral fellowship at the National Marine Fisheries Service. Todd taught a variety of chemistry, biochemistry, and environmental studies courses over a 20-year career at Marlboro College. As an advocate for the liberal arts tradition of broad, interdisciplinary study and a student-driven approach to education, Todd worked with students on many campus projects, including the construction of the greenhouse at the Marlboro College farm, and the installation of a solar array at the farm. 

Andy Reichsman has worked in film and video for the past 35 years. He produced a feature film, Signs of Life, starring Arthur Kennedy, Kathy Bates and Mary Louise Parker; a PBS special with Laurie Anderson; an HBO special with Eric Bogosian; and documentaries on many subjects, including Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein and Dashiel Hammett. He production managed the award-winning documentary, Crumb. He currently writes, produces, shoots and co-directs films with his wife, Kate Purdie at Ames Hill Productions in Marlboro, VT.  He has lived in town for 30 years and has been a volunteer on numerous local non-profits and committees, including time spent on the volunteer fire department, the school board and selectboard.

Anna Bario is a designer, entrepreneur, and specialist in responsible gold and gemstone mining and sustainable craft. Drawn to the imaginative possibilities of jewelry, yet disillusioned by industry standards that turned a blind eye to metal and gemstone mining’s environmental and human tolls, Anna and co-founder Page Neal launched Bario Neal Jewelry in 2008 to create jewelry of lasting value and ethical origins. Anna also serves on the board of Ethical Metalsmiths and the Marlboro School Association. Anna moved to Marlboro in 2015 with her spouse Marco Panella, whose family first came to Marlboro in the 1960s, drawn by the Marlboro Music School and Festival. 

ADVISORY BOARD:

Cherrie Corey (Marlboro ‘76) is a field naturalist, educator, and photographer. Before returning to a Marlboro family homestead, she spent four decades living in Concord, MA where she was active in local stewardship efforts and working with local scientists and scholars to update the town’s incomparable natural history records deeply rooted in Thoreau’s writings. As part of her professional life, Cherrie served as Executive Director of the Harvard Museums of Cultural and Natural History, the New England Wildflower Society's first education director, and founding board member for the Massachusetts Environmental Education Society.

Wade E. Pickren is a psychologist, author, and editor with a sustained commitment to the practice of environmental, racial, and social justice. Prompted by the realization of the mutual interdependence and the co-constitution of all on the Earth, Wade is developing an earth-centered psychology, which he refers to as a Psychology Otherwise/Earthwise, to help create a new commons characterized by reciprocity and cooperation and guided by a deep relationality and respect for all beings.