Paul Dahm is a senior designer at Middlebury College, where he works closely with the creative director, fellow designers, writers, and campus partners to develop concepts and execute design solutions for Middlebury communications. Well-versed in disciplines from ranging from print to identity systems to interactive, his efforts support Middlebury College and its graduate schools. Paul is also a talented portrait photographer and his contributions can be regularly seen in the award-winning Middlebury Magazine and in other Middlebury publications.

Regan Eberhart works with magazines, book publishers, individuals, and nonprofit organizations to help them tell their stories to diverse audiences. She is a copy editor, ghostwriter, and storyteller, with a specialty in simplifying complex subjects. When her work began to focus on communicating about divisive, triggering topics, she went back to school to study mediation and conflict resolution, hoping to foster more understanding in the world. Other publishing experiences have included serving as photo editor for a national environmental magazine and wordsmithing for Middlebury College in the communications and donor relations offices.

Marc Lapin is Associate Laboratory Professor of Environmental Studies at Middlebury College where his teaching focuses on socioecological systems, ecology, the Perennial Turn, and land conservation. Marc is also the Middlebury College Lands Conservationist, coordinating and overseeing stewardship of Middlebury’s 6,000 acres of forest, wetland, and agricultural land leased to local farmers. As a consulting ecologist for nearly three decades, he works with state and federal agencies, conservation organizations, and private landowners. Exploring multiple ways of knowing, traditional ecological knowledge, ecophilosophies and Earth-based sacred practices, Marc has emerged as a leader at Middlebury in both contemplative pedagogies and place-based learnings.

Bill Vitek directs the New Perennials project, and is a scholar-in-residence and affiliate humanist chaplain at Middlebury College. Vitek taught philosophy for 32 years at Clarkson University, always with the objective of helping students understand that the philosophical imagination can and must do useful work in the world. Much of his work has engaged ecological issues, including collaborations with Wes Jackson for over three decades. Vitek and Jackson co-edited two books, Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and Place (1996) and The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the Limits of Knowledge (2008). A semi-professional jazz pianist, Vitek founded and performs in The Jazz Collective in Middlebury, Vermont.

Lisa Winkler, New Perennials project specialist, is a fundraiser, content creator, systems thinker, and advocate for anything that feels full of promise. She has spent a lifetime working with grassroots organizations helping to create sustainable change as defined by context and community. Her NP work involves outreach and conversations with a wide range of perennial collaborators and future partners, as well as contributing to New Perennials programmatic activities. Winkler was a potter, teacher, and tilemaker before becoming a development practitioner. A decades-long resident of Vermont, she and her family recently moved to the Hudson Valley of New York.

Diana Cortez ’24 is an Architecture and Environmental Studies Joint Major at Middlebury College. Her interest lies in exploring how humans and their built environment can foster more conscious and sustainable relationships with the natural world. She is particularly intrigued by the lessons humanity can draw from nature and its complex ecosystems. As the New Perennials intern for Spring 2024, she combines her research with the art of storytelling and illustrations in the creation of an animation highlighting the concept of perennialism and the value of perennial thinking. Additionally, she oversees the New Perennials' social media platforms, where she posts her original illustrations and graphics that resonate with the organization's ethos.