Staff

Program Director and Designer:

Timothy Shuker-Haines, the designer and director of the Brown Ledge Gap Year, has a B.A. from Swarthmore College, an M.A.  in Cinema Studies from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in American Culture from the University of Michigan. He has taught at both the high-school and college level. He was a lecturer in the American Culture Program at the University of Michigan, and taught at both the Waldorf School of Garden City and Buxton School, a small, progressive boarding school in Massachusetts. He has taught many social studies courses as well as Film History, Video Production and The Theory and Practice of Documentary. He co-edited the documentary short "Portrait of Imogen," which was nominated for an Academy Award. He has made documentaries with students and for years organized Buxton's all-school trip, in which students traveled to an American city and studied social issues. The Brown Ledge Gap Year grows naturally out of his interests in American society, documentary film and experiential education.

Directors of Brown Ledge Camp, and Gap Year Staff:

Bill and Kathy Neilsen have been co-directors of Brown Ledge Camp for the past twenty-five years, and are driving forces behind the Gap Year Program. Bill graduated from the University of Vermont with a BA. in Psychology and an MBA. Before working at Brown Ledge Camp, he was an Advance Planner and Contract Administrator for General Electric. Kathy also went to the University of Vermont, where she earned a B.A. in Psychology and a Master's of Education-Counseling. In addition to helping run Brown Ledge Camp, for the past twenty years, Kathy has been a school counselor. In their successful leadership of Brown Ledge, Bill and Kathy have demonstrated tremendous skill at working with young adults and at making a strong community out of disparate talented individuals. Bill and Kathy will be advising and supporting the Gap Year Program throughout the year and will help run the four-week training session in Vermont.

House Parents/Advisors (2008):

Macon Reed will serve as both a houseparent and a radio instructor this year.  She comes to Brown Ledge with a remarkably wide background in the arts.  She has a BFA in sculpture and has studied theater in Serbia and crafts in North Carolina.  She has worked with Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Pro Tools and In Design, and has just completed a program in radio documentary with the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine.  This summer she will switch Portlands and make a radio documentary about the Rock ‘N’ Roll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon.  In addition to her varied artistic endeavors, she volunteered in New Orleans after Katrina and worked at the Louis August Jonas Foundation’s Camp Rising Sun Europe in Denmark, where she was an instructor in contemporary art.  She loves travel, adventure and documentary, and is looking forward to bringing all those interests together at Brown Ledge.

J Holt hasjust completed a program in radio documentary at the Salt Institute forDocumentary Studies.  Before thathe spent most of his working life on the water, as captain or mate on a numberof sailing vessels along the East Coast and the Caribbean.  He has captained groups of teenagersdeveloping team-building skills by sailing the Caribbean for three weeks at atime, so driving across country in a van is a piece of cake (you can get out ofa van).  He has a BFA from NYU andhas also been involved in teen theatre. He sees his time with Brown Ledge as one way to fulfill his dream ofdocumenting different communities around the country.

Technical Skills Instructors:

James McGuire (video) has a life full of both travel and media.  Growing up in a U.N. family, he lived in Madagascar and Rwanda before settling in Italy.  From there he went to Hampshire College to study music performance and competition, but found himself drawn to electronic music and through that to music recording, 3D animation and digital imaging.  He emerged with a degree in Multimedia Digital Production. Since college he has worked as a director of photography and camera operator on both documentaries and independent features (as well as the Chinese version of The Amazing Race).  He has also edited videos and started his own production company, Robofresh Productions, http://www.robofresh.com, which does video production and audio engineering as well as graphic and web design.  James is excited to share his passion for video production with Brown Ledge students this fall.

Ned Castle (digital photo) is a native Vermont photographer who focuses on documentary and ethnographic subject matter.  He has worked on several photo-documentary projects, including In Their Own Words, a collection of stories from refugees resettled in Vermont, Indigenous Expressions, comprising portraits of Native Peoples from the Lake Champlain Basin, and more recently, the HIGHLOW PROJECT, a conceptual documentary of Vermont's at-risk youth.  Ned attended photography school in Florence, Italy and in New York City, and is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in Biology and Psychology.  Samples of his work can be seen on his website, http://www.nedcastle.com. 

Macon Reed (see above) will be our radio instructor. 

Gap Year Support Staff:

Kim McManus graduated with honors from Tufts University with a dual degree in History and Political Science. While at Tufts, Kim sailed competitively for four years on the nationally ranked Coed and Women's sailing teams and was team captain. She then received her Juris Doctorate with honors from the Washington College of Law at American University. After law school, Kim practiced as a New Hampshire Public Defender representing indigent clients who were accused of misdemeanor, felony or juvenile delinquent offenses. Throughout Kim's legal education and career, she taught a variety of legal courses to adolescents and adults including constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure and juvenile justice.   Kim "retired" from law, switched gears and moved into the role of full-time educator.  She was the Assistant Head of School,  Social Studies teacher, and Snowsports Director for The Oliverian School, a small, progressive  private school in Northern New Hampshire.   Kim now works for the Brown Ledge Foundation year-round supporting Camp and the Gap Year Program in a variety of ways.  She is most excited about teaching sailing during orientation and planning the Road Trips with the gappers.