Meet the ELI Leadership Team

Jason BreMiller, Institute Director

Phillips Exeter Academy

Jason BreMiller teaches English and serves on the Environmental Stewardship Committee at Phillips Exeter Academy. He has taught extensively within the scope of field-based environmental humanities courses, including courses in environmental literature and adventure literature. Jason previously served as PEA's sustainability coordinator, supporting student environmental groups on campus, developing sustainability curriculum and teaching a project-based design thinking class. A former National Outdoor Leadership School instructor, Jason continues to develop curriculum for and lead place-based field excursion, most recently to Iceland and Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. He has presented and written on the intersection of Harkness pedagogy and experiential education, and his primary professional and intellectual interests involve the relationship between indoor and outdoor classrooms and orienting his students to the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change. His essays have appeared in NAIS, The Leader, and Terrain.org (forthcoming).

Stephen Siperstein, Assistant Director

Choate Rosemary Hall

Dr. Stephen Siperstein has been teaching English and Environmental Studies for over a decade at various secondary and higher education institutions, including the University of Oregon, Stonehill College and Vail Valley Academy. He currently lives and teaches at the Environmental Immersion Program at Choate Rosemary Hall, where he designs place-based curricula in the environmental humanities, co-teaches courses with educators from other disciplines, and organizes extra-curricular environmental programming. He also teaches in the English Department and directs the school’s Writing Center. His research and publications focus on developing effective strategies for interdisciplinary climate change education, and he is co-editor of the 2016 volume Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities. Stephen is also a poet and photographer, and his work has appeared in publications such as The Hopper, Saltfront, Poecology, and Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. A central goal across Stephen’s writing, teaching, and advocacy work is to bring attention to the personal and emotional dimensions of climate change and to empower young people to take action in their communities. His current joys include tagging monarch butterflies and exploring the forests and coastlines of New England with his family.

Camille Dungy, Featured Speaker

Colorado State University

Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan UP, 2017), winner of the Colorado Book Award. She is also the author of the essay collections Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Simon & Schuster, 2023) and Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History (W.W. Norton, 2017), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Dungy has also edited anthologies including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry and From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great. A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, her honors include NEA Fellowships in poetry (2003) and prose (2018), an American Book Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and two Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominations. Dungy’s poems have been published in Best American Poetry, The 100 Best African American Poems, the Pushcart Anthology, Best American Travel Writing, and over 30 other anthologies. She is University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.

Ben Sollee, Guest Artist and Speaker

Ben Sollee holds a BFA in cello performance from the University of Louisville School of Music. He has released multiple studio records and EPs garnering praise from The New York Times and NPR. His music has been featured in TV shows such as "Weeds" and "Parenthood" and his score for the ABC special “Base Ballet” earned an Emmy Award in 2018.

Ben is also known for his social and environmental advocacy. Growing up in Kentucky, he developed a deep affection for the land and its people and he has collaborated on projects with Appalachian Voices, The Nature Conservancy, and Oxfam America. Currently, he works as media and production lead for Canopy, a nonprofit helping Kentucky businesses incorporate, measure and grow their social and environmental good.  

Carol Irons, Guest Speaker

Carol Irons is an Abenaki elder living in the Northeast Kingdom. Walking in two worlds, she pursued academic training as well as Northeast Woodlands culture knowledge. Ms. Irons has a BA from UVM and an MSW from Atlanta University. Her various jobs included community organizing and casework in settings from Appalachia to cities to rural Vermont.

At the same time, Ms Irons received training in woods lore skills, spiritual practices, history, and social dynamics with specific focus on Northeast Woodland cultures. As well, she received training in shamanic practices in over 15 years. Now serving as Vice-Chair on the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs, she works to help Abenaki rebuild culture through the Abenaki Regeneration Project.