Sustainable Summer is an environmental leadership program for high school students. It is a program of Sustainable Learning Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit incorporated in the state of New York for the purpose of facilitating experiential and theoretical learning on the subject of environmental sustainability. Day to day management of Sustainable Summer is overseen by Executive Director and Founder Jeff Sharpe. Governance is the responsibility of a Board of Directors.
Board of Directors
Jeff Sharpe | Founder & Executive Director
Jeff is the co-founder and Executive Director of Sustainable Summer and Sustainable Learning (Sustainable Summer’s 501(c)(3) parent organization). He is a former partner and director of Career Explorations, a summer internship program for high school students, and Vertex Academic Services, an educational consulting company. Jeff has been working with young people for two decades as an educator, mentor, and coach. Jeff has a BA from Bucknell University and a MA from Dartmouth College. You can learn more about Jeff here.
Anne Fenton | Co-Founder & Board President
Anne is a non-profit and education professional with expertise in programming, facilities, finance and business operations. She graduated from Wesleyan University with high honors from the interdisciplinary program College of Letters, and earned her MA in Classics from St. John’s College and her MBA from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. Anne is the CFO/COO of the Washington Montessori School. She was formerly the Director of Operations at Berkeley Carroll, an independent school in Brooklyn, and prior to that she worked in the education travel and pre-college field and as a classroom teacher. She is also a certified Master Gardener
Beth Conklin
Professor Conklin is a cultural and medical anthropologist at Vanderbilt University specializing in the ethnography of indigenous peoples of lowland South America (Amazonia). Her research focuses on the anthropology of the body, religion and ritual, health and healing, death and mourning, the politics of indigenous rights, and ecology, environmentalism, and cultural and religious responses to climate change. She teaches courses on anthropological theory, medicine and healing, indigenous peoples, and environmental issues.
Katherine Tsai
Katherine is a tech attorney with experience serving on the board of directors or as pro bono counsel for various educational non-profit organizations. Katherine formerly practiced law at at Davis Polk & Wardwell, and holds a B.A. in English from Yale University and J.D./LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Duke University School of Law. She has studied and worked in Europe and East Asia and loves rock climbing. She is also currently on the board of the Outdoor Alliance and the Peninsula Open Space Trust.
Kiska Kosagomez
Kiska is the Experiential Programs Coordinator at Sonoma Academy, where she also previously taught Spanish. Her professional experience in education also includes field work at Americorps, community-based nonprofits, and public schools. Kiska also previously led multiple global learning programs for Sustainable Summer and helped develop curriculum and staff training for field staff. Kiska has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and is a Master’s candidate at the School for International Training.
Maclaine Sorden
Maclaine is the site manager and vocational skills lead at The Urban Farm, a non-profit farm promoting youth and community education in Denver. Maclaine is also a former Program Director for Sustainable Summer and has considerable experience in the field working with youth at Sustainable Summer and other organizations. Maclaine has Master’s degrees in Agroecology, Sustainable Agriculture, and Landscape Architecture from Iowa State and a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Planning from Iowa State.
Patrick McMurdo
Patrick has more than a decade of experience in international and experiential education. He currently works for the University of Oregon coordinating U of O’s Global Education programs and is also a part-time instructor of wilderness medicine courses. He previously served in the Peace Corps in Ukraine; led gap year programs in Africa, Asia, and South America; and was a Director of an international education company’s programs in Costa Rica. Patrick has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Oregon and a Master’s from the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterrey.
Robin Pendoley
Robin is a social impact educator with expertise in international development, higher education, and the disconnect between good intentions and meaningful outcomes. Robin has a M.Ed. from Harvard and a B.A. from UCLA.