From up Route 125 to Ripton, Vt., down the coast to Washington, D.C. and across the country in Monterey, Calif., staff members across Middlebury’s far-flung campuses are crucial to the college’s success and its reputation outside of the Green Mountain State.
Many employees have worked for the college’s non-Vermont programs for decades, quietly solving problems and eagerly greeting each new generation of students, faculty and administrators. Others are recent additions to the Middlebury ecosystem, bringing new energy to their roles in Monterey, D.C. and Bread Loaf.
These staff have weathered Covid–19 or adapted in its wake; they wake up early or stay late to make up the differences across time zones. They love Middlebury, and most of all, its students.
Angie Quesenberry has worked for the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) for the past 22 years as assistant to the deans of the graduate school. She handles administrative tasks to track degree progress, manage timesheets and create opportunities for graduate students, while also tackling anybody’s problem that might come up, big or small.
“That’s always been my policy: come by my desk to get your problem solved, or at least get pointed in the right direction,” Quesenberry said.
She fixes problems wherever they run into her; the day before, after encountering a student dealing with an early morning chill, Quesenberry ran to her car to grab a blanket and warmed her up.
“It’s the little things that matter,” Quesenberry explained.
Though her job has evolved over the years — the Institute has consolidated from four dean’s assistants to just one in her time there — Quesenberry loves taking on new projects and adding things to her to-do list. She also appreciates opportunities to touch base with her east coast counterparts, eagerly waking up early to make up for the time difference so she can be ready for her own workday to start at 9 a.m.
“I get really excited when I get to call colleagues at the college and talk to them,” Quesenberry said. “I like being able to talk to people, rather than emailing. I think that connection is really important.”
Another long-time employee of MIIS is Molly Laughlin, advancement operations and stewardship officer, who has worked in her current position for 11 years. Collaborating closely with a few others in a small office, she writes reports for donors who have contributed to named scholarships and immersive learning opportunities for students. Yet her path to MIIS was not a typical one.
“I landed in this job quite by happen-stance,” Laughlin explained, adding that she previously received her master’s in medical journalism and worked for two nearby cities before starting in advancement.
A San Francisco native, Laughlin has now lived in Monterey since 1993 and knows its history like the back of her hand — easily rattling off facts about colonial California and John Steinbeck, who wrote his acclaimed novel “The Pearl” at 460 Pierce Street, the official address of the Institute.
“John Steinbeck is kind of the big draw around here,” she added, highlighting both the local history and diverse range of languages heard around campus as what make Monterey a unique place. “You can walk from your office to the parking lot and hear four or five different languages being spoken by students and faculty.”
Three hours ahead and near three thousand miles away from Monterey is Middlebury in D.C. It hosts the Washington office for the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) where Ian Stewart has worked as the executive director since 2020, when he arrived across the pond from King’s College London.
Stewart has worked on international security issues including sanctions, export controls and weapons acquisitions by Iran, China, North Korea and other states. He is also studying topics frequently in the news these days: the war in Ukraine and artificial intelligence.
“We certainly do pivot depending on world events, so after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I personally wanted to be working on that topic because it's such an egregious issue,” he explained. A major part of his work is also traveling to areas connected to difficult security issues and working to provide practical training on policy implementation.
In addition to his international travels — just last week Stewart was at the CNS office in Vienna, Austria — he will be trekking to Vermont later this month to conduct a research experiment with Open.AI and Middlebury students to understand if A.I. is capable of building real objects.
“Could you use ChatGPT to build a bioweapon? Or build a bomb?” he posited, hoping that students working with 3D printers in the Makerspace will help them answer such questions raised by the rise of A.I. Such exchanges with undergraduates, in addition to the interns hosted in D.C. every J-Term and summer, are an important part of Middlebury in D.C.’s contribution to the college experience.
“Middlebury, in addition to educating students. can also help to inform and shape issues,” Stewart said. “I am really keen to kind of find more ways of plugging the D.C. office into the broader Middlebury world.”
That sentiment is shared across the D.C office, where Director of the Middle East Nonproliferation Program Chen Zak Kane has worked for 14 years. In that time she successfully petitioned for the creation of her department and now conducts research into China’s role in the Middle East, among other topics, which has shifted in recent months because of the turbulent events of the region this past year.
“All those things happening while we are trying to implement the project, which make it much more interesting. Things in real life are actually influencing our policy findings and recommendations,” Kane said. “Our sustainability is based on money and funding, so anytime we manage to fund anything related to the Middle East, then we bring people with that expertise to help.”
One of her favorite parts of the work is mentoring young people on the ground through the Middle East Next Generation Arms Control Network, which aims to build regional dialogue.
“I think they are the future of the region, they are the ones who give me hope that there is hope in the region for a better future,” she added.
Across these campuses are also more recent staff additions to the Middlebury umbrella. Sasha Kingsley, director of student life and engagement in Monterey, has worked at MIIS for about a year, and manages programming, campus-wide events and other support for her students.
“I wear a lot of hats,” Kingsley said. Recent and upcoming initiatives she worked on have been a Lunar New Year celebration, finals week de-stressors featuring therapy dogs and a sanctuary spa and reforming the student council to be more representative of the students.
As a native to Monterey passionate about education and former middle school science teacher and ESL instructor, Kingsley has always enjoyed the opportunity to interact with students in any line of work.
“I’ve always loved being surrounded by students, especially international students,” Kingsley said. “MIIS is different than any other institution I’ve worked at. Our students and faculty are really making change in the world.”
Kahar McCullum, a circulation specialist in Monterey’s library, has only worked at the Institute for three months, but he has already found himself busy with managing graduate student employees, updating the library’s emergency and disaster planning, and curating Monterey’s collection.
“The MIIS community here is really welcoming and they really try to get to know you,” McCullum said, adding that he enjoys the opportunity to learn from his colleagues as well as a wide array of students specializing in their fields. “They're definitely teaching me a lot. And I hope that I'm doing the same for them.”
McCullum previously worked at Monterey’s public library, an experience which has helped him develop exciting programming intended for busy graduate students.
“Just because they're here for research and to further their education doesn't mean that they don't want fun programs to go to and enjoy themselves,” he explained.
Nearby in the Monterey Library you can also find Joelle Mellon, a research and instruction librarian of almost five years. Her most innovative contribution to MIIS may also be the most unexpected one: gaming.
“I just love games. I love having them around, I love having people playing them in the library,” Mellon said, adding that the interest in games as a social activity and tool for educational instruction has grown over time at Monterey. “That's been the thing that I brought to this position that they didn't know they ever needed.”
In addition to other specialty and themed games available in Monterey, another favorite of hers, Dungeons & Dragons, can be a powerful tool for teaching students to collaborate and problem-solve.
“This is the best team building exercise you could ever, ever do,” she explained, remarking on the close communities gaming has built at the Institute. “Your character will literally die if you can’t work together in [Dungeons & Dragons].”
Working late nights and on Sundays, the naturally nocturnal Mellon helps students find sources for research projects, tests A.I. tools, manages the Monterey collection, teaches individual class sessions and gives tours to newly arrived MIIS Kids.
“I don't think that a day goes by where I do not say, people here are so smart, and people here are so nice,” Mellon said. “I'm just always very inspired by the people around me.”
Mellon has something in common with Quesenberry besides gorgeous California skies: both received the 2023 Above and Beyond Award, which recognizes the unique contributions and dedication of four staff members at the Institute each year.
“[Quesenberry] is the glue that holds the academic side of MIIS together,” wrote one person who nominated her work as a dean’s assistant last year. Another nomination form gave Mellon “kudos for this impactful, connective, and relational work.”
The winners shared their appreciation for the nominations and recognition as pillars of the MIIS community.
“It’s just awesome. It tells me that how I do my job doesn't go unnoticed here,” Quesenberry said, now a three-time recipient of the award.
While Mellon is indisputably the master of games in Monterey, across the country is another community built on stories: The Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Jennifer Grotz joined Bread Loaf as a young writer years ago, and started working there in 2005 before being chosen as director of the conference. In addition to being the program’s first female director and seventh overall, Grotz is a poet, translator and Professor of English at the University of Rochester.
Right now, Grotz is involved in reading over 3,000 applications for this summer’s conference, in addition to overseeing budgets, inviting faculty, planning workshops and lectures. Bread Loaf is rooted in a strong tradition of past writers for almost a hundred years of innovative contributions to literature.
“It’s where our notion of creative writing and the creative writing workshop began,” Grotz explained. “Now, it feels very commonplace, but it was quite a radical contribution to American letters, for better or worse.”
All these years spent writing and working at Bread Loaf have not diminished its beauty and creative capacity for Grotz.
“I find that when I come down from the mountain. I've got enough ideas to last me for the year,” she added. “There's something about sort of retreat into a beautiful natural space where we're a temporary idyllic community of writers trapped on a mountain, that gives an intensity to the experience.”
Gail Borden has worked for a year as the administrative associate & Oxford campus coordinator for the separate Bread Loaf School of English, having originally been hired to help with re-accreditation in 2010. Borden shared in an email to The Campus that her favorite part of the job is when all of the students, faculty and staff (including her office) arrive at the school’s campuses — in Ripton, Monterey, and Oxford, U.K. — in June.
“It is wonderful to see the things we have been doing all year come to fruition. Everyone is happy to be starting, or back, on campus,” Borden wrote. “Our campuses are beautiful, all in their different ways.”
Borden works closely with a variety of college departments from her office on Franklin Street, and helps prepare course registration, funding and special events for the summer through her spreadsheets and data platforms.
“I really enjoy collaborating with my colleagues to figure out the best way to do all the things we need to do,” Borden said. “It is an amazing program, bringing the best students and faculty together for more than 100 years,” she said.
Whether they commute past the U.S. Capitol, spend summers at Bread Loaf or surf on Monterey’s beaches after work, Middlebury employees across the country are intimately connected to the daily lives of students, faculty and administrators — and they would not have it any other way.
“There’s never a dull moment here,” Quesenberry said. “Thank goodness!”
Ryan McElroy '25 (he/him) is a managing editor for The Middlebury Campus.
He previously served as a news editor and staff writer.
Ryan is majoring in History with a possible minor in psychology or English. He also takes part in Middlebury Mock Trial and Matriculate.org on campus. He spent this past summer working as a research assistant in the History department studying Middle Eastern immigration to New England.
