I have been involved in issues related to economic development and sustainability for my entire academic and professional career. I was a social anthropology major at Harvard College, graduating in 1984. While an undergraduate, I served on the Board of Directors of Save the Children Federation. After graduating, I served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Benin from 1984 – 1987, helping to lead a program to promote fuel-efficient cook stoves and helping to build a primary school in Godomey, the town I lived in.
Upon returning to the U.S., I worked for a year with the East Bay Conservation Corps in Oakland, CA. From 1988 – 1990, I received an M.A. in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University. For the next three years, I was a consultant at the World Bank, where I was a researcher for the World Development Report and an assistant task manager for education and health projects in Mali and Chad. I began my doctoral studies in economics at the University of Maryland in 1993, where I also was a researcher for the IRIS Center. I have been a faculty member in Middlebury’s department of economics and program in environmental studies since 1999, receiving tenure in 2005. From 2006 – 2009, I served at the Luce Professor of International Environmental Economics. In 2011, I was appointed the director of Environmental Studies and the faculty director of Middlebury’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) (which I co-founded with Liz Robinson and Heather Neuwirth.) In 2014, I was appointed the CSE’s director, completing that term in June 2016. In 2016-17, I was a Fulbright Scholar at Ashesi University College.
In 2005, I was chosen by Middlebury students as the first recipient of The Marjorie Lamberti Faculty Appreciation Award. In 2006, I received Vermont Campus Compact’s Engaged Scholar Award. In 2009, I was nominated by Middlebury College for Baylor University’s Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, for which I was chosen as a semi-finalist.
More about my research, teaching and service can be found on my c.v.