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, a Master's degree 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, taught at the Waldorf School of Garden City, and for the last ten years he has taught at 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 as 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:

Tim Esser -Haines  was raised Quaker in Philadelphia.  He left Philly at the age of 17 to live and work in Nicaragua.  Ti m spent a number of years working at a home for street children where he taught English, videography, recreation activities, and counseled youth recovering from drug addictions.  More recently, he worked for Bridges to Community ; a non-for-profit organization that connected North American volunteers with  community-based projects in Nicaragua.  He facilitated intercultural exchanges and service opportunities for the volunteers.  Tim is excited to be back in the United States and working for the Brown Ledge Gap Year Program.  The most exciting aspect of the Gap Year program for Tim will be living, and working, near the Mexican Border.  He hopes to help students explore and understand the unique issues associated with this part of the country.

Melissa "Mills" Knight first came to Brown Ledge in 2003 as a swimming counselor.  In addition to teaching swimming, Mills is, by her own design, our resident event planner.  Mills graduated from Wells College with a bachelor of arts degree in public affairs.  She is a thesis paper away from a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire.  An endeavor she hopes to complete while making sure that the Brown Ledge Gappers have the best group living experience ever [as well as the best Halloween costumes].  For the past three years, Mills has taught French at the Great Brook Middle School near her hometown of Peterborough, New Hampshire.  After the Brown Ledge Gap Year program, Mills is planning to work and travel and run marathons in Australia, New Zealand and Sweden.

Technical Skills Instructors:

Memphis Barbree has had a long and varied career.  She started out in journalism, working for the Charlotte Observer and the Sun News in Myrtle Beach.  From there she took a big leap to the Army, where she became a Specialist, training soldiers in nuclear, biological and chemical warfare defense.  She then moved to New Mexico, where she started a landscape and garden design firm, which she ran for fourteen years, overseeing many large landscaping and permaculture projects.  She found herself increasingly drawn to photography and studied with George DeWolfe.  She has recently dedicated herself full time to photography.  She went to India after the tsunami to do photographic work and has had numerous exhibits in New Mexico, Colorado and Vermont.  Some of her work can be seen on her website, memphisbarbree.com.

Paul MacGowan has been involved in video for twenty years.  In 1988 he founded  Vanguard Productions, which does video and digital multimedia work for schools and corporations.  In addition to running this business, he has worked as a producer and videographer for Vermont Public Television and as a freelance videographer for NBC, CNN, ABC and CBS.  In recent years, he has been increasingly drawn to education and he founded his second business, Video Expeditions, which does multi-day workshops at schools and the Vermont Folklife Center.  In these workshops, students are given an intensive course in video technique and documentary production, and asked to make documentaries about the world around them.  He has won both a New England Emmy Award for his television production, "Lives in Transition" and a Golden Apple Award for "Outstanding work in education."

Meghan Vigeant started off working in theater both as an actor and an administrator, but has recently dedicated herself to radio.  She is a graduate of the radio program of the prestigious Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.  While there she produced documentary features that were broadcast on NPR stations in Maine and Chicago.  She also worked as an intern for the environmental show "Living on Earth."  Before coming to Brown Ledge, she will spend the summer teaching radio production in Maine.

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 El Paso Road Trip with the gapers.

Wayne Banks has been working at Brown Ledge for 12 summers.  He grew up in urban Sydney and now lives in rural "paradise" on the north coast of New South Wales.  Since 1990, Wayne has been traveling the globe, alternating work and play in Switzerland, Vancouver, the US, and his native Australia.  Fortunately for the Gap program, Wayne will be helping out through the road trip to El Paso.  He can fix every kind of machine, including cars and boats, he can teach waterskiing, and he is an excellent cook.  Wayne will be helping the gappers prepare, cook, and serve dinners  nightly.

Chris Sorsby will be available to teach kayaking during orientation.  He's also pretty handy in the kitchen and will be assisting Wayne and the gapers prepare meals.  Chris hails from Derbyshire, England.  He is a natural athlete whose number one sport is rugby.  For the past year, Chris has been coaching the "under 9s" at a rugby club and setting up the Dronfield junior rugby team.  Chris completed his first half-marathon in Quechee, Vermont in June in less than 2 hours [with no training]!

Karine Nadeau will be our native guide in the wilds of Quebec, Canada.  She has been at Brown ledge for 12 years; 5 years as a diving counselor.  Karine is from Montreal, Quebec where she attended college and then studied dentistry.  She completed a year of dental residency during 07-08 in Denver, Colorado and will be practicing dentistry in Montreal while studying to take the Dental Board exams in the States.