Welcome to our New Employees!

On October 31st, we had our largest in-person New Employee Orientation since resuming the program this fall. Join us in welcoming these eight new members of the Middlebury community!

Kaitlin Buerge, College Archivist in Special Collections

I’m from a small town called Margaretville in New York’s Catskill Mountains. I graduated from Middlebury in 2013, and I just returned from a year in the UK, where I was completing a program in the History of the Book. It’s great to be back at Middlebury.

Benjamin Dwinell-Janopaul, Kitchen Utility Worker in Dining Services

I was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida. I recently moved to Vermont with my family and found a job at Middlebury College. And, in my spare time I enjoy writing and spending time with family.

Adrian Bernhard, Retail Associate in the College Store

Hello, I’m Adrian. During my spare time I like to go for walks/hikes. My favorite time of the year is Fall and Winter. People call me crazy for liking winter but not doing any outdoor activities like skiing etc. I spent most of my time growing up in West Rutland, I have been living in Brandon for about 5 years now. I have a 2 year degree in IT.

Casey Volk, Kitchen Utility Worker in Dining Services

I was born in Northern VT. I took culinary my last 3 years in high school. I worked at the NWMC as a food service worker. After having my first son in 2000 I ended up taking a different career path working in healthcare for many years. I met the love of my life in 2012 and we married in 2016. Together we have 6 children ages from 15 to 23. I really enjoy cooking, harvesting my garden, doing home projects, kayaking and swimming with my husband, photography, traveling to different countries, going to my children’s softball and football games and learning about Herbalism. I have 1 pet a Rottweiler named Kane. I really enjoy working at Atwater Dining because the students and staff are really great and I am able to learn and do many different things. I look forward to staying at Middlebury until retirement.

Alex LaVin, Technology Specialist in Information Technology Services

Alexander—or Alex LaVin hails from the Lake Champlain Islands in Vermont. Son of Spanish-born Martin Lavin (MIDD ’65) and Barre, VT’s own Patricia Lavin née Bisson, he grew up well fed (if not well behaved like brother Cam) in a place where you could dial four numbers on a rotary phone and get somebody on the other end.

Eager to expand his horizons but with no pressing ambitions to round life’s bases, he bounced from city to countryside and back, cobbling together a formidable education in the moving image while toiling away at whatever news outlet, arts organization or foodie destination fit his conceits.

Since 2016 he’s been vigorously involved in local, state and nationwide reform campaigns for public office and ballot referendum, helped introduce a canned beverage to market, led a team for the census, and is restoring a barn in Clinton County, New York.

Alex’s credits include the mixed media series “The Un-funnies”, critical essay “Elephant and the Failure of America’s Avant-Garde Cinema”, fiction short Sleep-Date, guerilla projection Gentrification Is Not Progress, television series Our Democracy, Edwian Stokes’ documentary Conversations: The Black Radical Tradition as Co-Producer and is currently producing the series Facing Facts About OneCare.

He works at Middlebury College in Vermont, where you’ll find him off hours with his lady, Allison.

Deanna Fielder, Cook in Dining Services