Merck Forest & Farmland Staff

	Elaine Blodgett (Customer Service) Elaine is one of the Customer Service folks who work at the Joy Green Visitor's Center helping visitors with questions, purchases and camping reservations. She is a native of Chicago but calls the beautiful hamlet of West Haven, Vermont home. Elaine is a graduate of Green Mountain College with a degree in Environmental Studies and a focus of Natural Sciences. She enjoys camping, cooking and hiking with her future husband Dave and is an aspiring bird-nerd.

	Martha Brummitt (Winter Intern) Hailing from Milwaukee, WI, Martha graduated from Colorado College in 2011 with a degree in Geology. In her four years at Colorado College she led backpacking and mountain biking trips, co-chaired the college's outdoor club, and volunteered for an outdoor and environmental education program for middle schoolers. As an avid outdoors woman, she has led trips for summer camps in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the Quetico, and ventured with friends to paddle the Missinaibi River in Ontario and the Yukon River. She is passionate about knitting and aspires to knit a sweater (with sleeves) from Merck's wool. So far she has made a sweater vest along with many hats, socks, and cowls. She is thrilled to be an intern at Merck!

	Melissa Carll (Education Apprentice) The opportunity to spend a year working for a historic, natural landscape where people can learn about sustainability is what drew Melissa to intern, and then apprentice, for Merck. Her undergraduate degree from the University of Mary Washington in Historic Preservation taught her how people have interacted with landscapes in the past, and she feels that historic uses of a land can help shape future designs. While attending the Monticello Historic Landscape Institute ('09), she began to understand that the ecology of a site is as important as the man-made historic elements, and without care for and preservation of the natural systems the history loses its context. Melissa was drawn to the graduate program at the Conway School of Ecological Landscape Design ('11) to learn sustainable methods for designing and stewardship of landscapes. At Merck, she will be working on design projects that enhance visitors' understanding of the land's ecology, its history, and how we can all be a part of creating a resilient system.

	Meghan Fahey (Winter Intern) Meghan was born in MA, but grew up in Maryland. She moved to Middlebury, VT 5 years ago and fell in love with the New England outdoors. She graduated from Bates College in 2011 with a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Studies and a minor in Education. She has worked on Environmental Education curriculums and activities in Maine, Vermont and Costa Rica. She has also worked at Camp Keewaydin for 4 years where she explored the Green Mountains and Lake Dunmore. She hopes to continue working on education and learning more about farm and forest life at Merck before heading into the Peace Corps in May. Meghan hopes to learn as much as she can about farm animals and farm management before heading to Nicaragua in the Agriculture Program.

	Vance Griffith (Resource Technician) Vance was born in Kalispell, Montana and moved to Vermont when he was five. He was raised in nearby Danby, attended local schools and upon completion, returned to Montana to attend college. He graduated from Montana State University in 1997 with his BS in Biological Sciences. In 1995 he began working seasonally at the Triangle X Ranch in Moose, Wyoming and after college he began working there as a licensed wilderness and hunting guide. He has worked at Triangle X every year to date since then, and during the off season has guided snowmobile trips and worked for the Forest Service, the Department of Natural Resources in Iowa, and in construction. He started working at Merck in January of 2011 helping with the sugaring operation.

	Jamie Johnson (Produce Marketer) Jamie Johnson has been in Vermont since 2009 after the birth of her daughter. She is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio where she received a bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati in Electronic Media. After teaching radio and video classes for three years she moved to Vermont for its beautiful landscape and to run the farmers market for Merck Forest. When Jamie is not at the farmers market you can find her working in the Visitor's Center or at home with her two wonderful children and handsome husband.

	Kathryn Lawrence (Assistant to the Director) Kathryn joined the Merck Forest staff in October of 2010 as office coordinator and bookkeeper. Her professional experience includes book keeping for a local motel, a local contractor and most recently as office and finance manager for Riley Rink at Hunter Park, for six years. She has three married children, whom she home schooled while partnering with her husband Rick in the operation and management of a 90 cow dairy farm. Her farm responsibilities included farm bookkeeping, calf management, milking and driving tractor in whatever capacity needed. She has a love for farming and the outdoors, which attracted her to the opportunity at Merck Forest. Kathryn grew up in Arlington, has lived in numerous places in Vermont and Pennsylvania but chooses to call the beautiful Mettowee Valley home. She and Rick live in Pawlet and have transferred their love for farming to a small farm with perennial gardens, a vegetable garden and five horses. Their children and grandchildren come to Vermont to play as often as is possible.

	Jack O'Wril (Forester) As our staff forester, Jack is responsible for planning and managing all our forestry activities on the property. This past year, his main tasks included: planning and administering two timber harvests; performing a timber cruise on the property; writing a 10-year stewardship management plan; sugaring during the 2011 season and planning the location of our sugarbush for the 2012 season, and beyond. Jack has a master's degree from Yale, and has worked for the University of Vermont's Proctor Maple Research Station in Underhill and for Southwind Forestry in Pawlet. He loves to canoe, ski, split wood, and eat food. He's married to Heather O'Wril who also works at Merck. His dog Ole (Oh-LEE), spends just as many days in the woods as Jack does.

	Heather O'Wril (Customer Service) Heather works part time in the Visitor Center talking with customers and campers, canning maple syrup, and checking on the cabins. She was born and raised in the Boston area, but frequently came to Rupert, Vermont to spend time with her grandparents. She has many fond memories of Merck Forest throughout her life including her engagement to her husband Jack with the chickens and pigs as witnesses. Heather is in graduate school working on a master's degree in Conservation Biology from Antioch in Keene, New Hampshire. When she is not working at the Visitor's Center she is surveying the ridge tops at Merck for a rare natural community called "Dry Oak Woodlands" for her thesis project.

	Dena Paolilli (Winter Intern) Dena comes to us from California. The last couple years she has been splitting her time between working in the backcountry of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and working on a small CSA farm outside of Sacramento. She's with us to learn the sugaring process, about draft power and how to live in the cold. She enjoys hiking, baking bread, bike touring, and making (and eating) yogurt and other foods.

	Trent Stephens (Facilities Specialist) Trent Stephens is originally from the quaint little town of South Lebanon, Ohio. He graduated from Hocking College with a degree in Ecotourism and Adventure Travel, and has a particular passion for Agri-Tourism. Trent is responsible for the buildings, vehicles, trails and cabins, and needless to say, stays quite busy with the amount of work all of that entails. He loves the fact that every day at Merck provides new adventures, and obstacles. Trent is the proud father of two beautiful children who he believes are his greatest achievements to date. His other hobbies include geocaching, whitewater paddling, and brewing his own DELICIOUS beverages.

	Dan Sullivan (Resource Technician) Dan grew up in the rural western New York town of Le Roy. Wandering through the forest and abandoned fields of this small town led to the development of a deep appreciation of the natural world. This appreciation guided him in his decision to enroll in the Environmental Science program at SUNY Plattsburgh, where natural science classes based around the ecosystems of the Champlain Valley and the Adirondacks developed in him an understanding of the complex ecological processes that he had been observing throughout his life. In May of 2010 Dan graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh with a B.A. in Environmental Science and a Minor in Ecology. Dan came to Merck Forest as an intern in August 2010. When the opportunity to become the Caretaker at Merck Forest arose he happily accepted the position. He finds the work extremely rewarding, and lives a content life in the Caretaker Cabin with his dog, Sadie, and the farm cat, Crookshanks.

	Sarah Ullman (Director of Education) Sarah is a Massachusetts native, studied Environmental Science at the University of Vermont and fell in love with outdoor teaching during her summers working at the W. Alton Jones' Earth Camp in Rhode Island. In 2006, she headed west to Bainbridge Island, WA where she attended a graduate residency in Education, Environment and Community and finished up a year later with a master's degree in Teaching and Curriculum from the University of Washington. During her time in WA, Sarah taught first through sixth graders at The Silverwood School, developed farm to school programs with Global Source Education and was a naturalist at Seattle's Camp Long. This past October, Sarah found her way back to VT and is thrilled to be joining the Merck staff as Director of Education. Although she sometimes misses the moss and the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, she is delighted to be returning to her New England roots.

	Tom Ward (Executive Director) Tom is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University (BS, Marketing 1969) and The University of Vermont (MS, Forestry 1981). After graduation from undergraduate school he served as a Maintenance Officer with the United States Air Force and with the New Jersey and Vermont Air National Guard when a graduate student. On active duty he oversaw as many as three functional areas with over one hundred enlisted men and women under his supervision. He has prior experience in non-profit management as the Director of Smokey House Project in Danby, VT, and Executive Director of the Community Agriculture Center in Manchester, VT. He has served on numerous non-profit boards of directors and chaired the Manchester, VT, school board for four years. Tom also has over twenty years' experience managing his own business as an investment advisor. He is an avid birder and gardener and enjoys hiking, biking and long winter walks with his wife, Jean.