Putney Leadership

For the past 58 years Putney has scoured the globe each winter in search of outstanding leaders for our programs. We know that good leadership is an essential element for creating a magical, enriching, and growth-filled Putney experience abroad. Putney leaders are fun, energetic, creative, safety-conscious, and knowledgeable. Below, you will find the bios of several leaders who will be at the helm of Putney programs around the world this summer. We hope you enjoy getting to know them!

JESSIE DAVIE: St. Lawrence University, B.A., cum laude, English and Environmental Studies. During her junior year Jessie spent a semester abroad in Kenya participating in a cross-cultural experiential learning program. She considered this experience so valuable that after graduating from college, Jessie traveled back to Africa and lived and volunteered in a small rural village in Ghana for nine months. She worked for the Kopeyia Ghana School Fund and was responsible for administering activities at the local school as well as teaching English classes to Junior Secondary students. Jessie has traveled to southern Africa where she has explored Mozambique, Swaziland, and South Africa; she has also traveled extensively throughout East Africa, including Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. She worked for Clean Air-Cool Planet as a coordinator for a global warming campaign in New Hampshire. Currently, Jessie lives in Missoula, Montana, where she is pursuing a Master's degree in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana, while also serving as UM’s Sustainability Coordinator. This will be Jessie’s third summer leading a Putney Community Service program in Tanzania. She is proficient in Kiswahili and is pictured above, far left.

KAREN RUSSELL: Northwestern University, B.A. summa cum laude & Phi Beta Kappa, English Literature & Spanish, Columbia University, M.F.A. During her junior year at Northwestern University, Karen studied abroad in Spain at the Universidad de Sevilla, where she was a member of the government-sponsored Solidarios volunteer program participating in leadership seminars in Jerez de la Frontera and Cádiz alongside dozens of Spanish teenagers. Karen currently teaches as an adjunct English professor at Williams College and Columbia University. She will be a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library for 2009-10. Her story collection, "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," was published by Knopf in 2007 and was named a Best Book by the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Chicago Tribune. Stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Conjunctions, Best American Short Stories and the New York Times. Her novel, Swamplandia!, is forthcoming from Knopf/Randomhouse. This is Karen's fourth summer leading a Putney program. She has led a Cultural Exploration program in Australia, New Zealand, & Fiji, Cultural Exploration Creative Writing in Cuba, and this Language Learning program in Spain. Karen is pictured above, second from left.

NOAH SABICH: Bates College, B.A. in French and History. Middlebury College School in France, M.A. University of Connecticut, M.A., Ph.D. (ABD) . Noah has extensive travel, residential and academic experience throughout France after having enrolled at both the University of Poitiers and the Sorbonne in Paris at various points in his academic career. Drawn by literature and culture beyond the borders of prescribed French texts, he opted for the study of post-colonialism and, more specifically, this theory in relation to contemporary Tahiti. As part of his Ph.D. dissertation he intends to show how indigenous Tahitians navigate their often opposing, combative identities (French/Tahitian) in a colonial island society. In his personal life, the latitudes and longitudes he crosses forever mark his life. Unparalleled sunrises, wheezing streams, torrential rains, refreshing winds, morning temperatures, and tropical airs are the beckoning landscapes and natural delights that he hopes to share with his students. Noah is pictured above, second from right.

MICHAEL BUCKLER: Cornell University, B.S., magna cum laude, Electrical Engineering; Duke University, Juris Doctor. Michael was raised in LaPlata, Maryland, a small town outside of Washington, D.C. After college and law school, he returned to the D.C. area to clerk for a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia. Following a federal clerkship in Memphis, Tennessee, Michael spent four years practicing as a patent litigator in Portland, Oregon. From 2006-2008, he served as a Peace Corps teacher in Malawi, Africa, where he helped a rural village to construct a boarding facility for female students, and led the planning and implementation of a nationwide education camp for indigent students. Michael has traveled extensively in Malawi and is fluent in both of the national languages – English and Chichewa. Since repatriation, he has been living in D.C. and writing a book about the Peace Corps experience. In his spare time, Michael likes to travel, read, write and do anything active and outdoorsy, especially hiking and long-distance cycling. Michael is pictured above, far right.

For a complete list of our leaders from last summer (summer 2008) including bios, click on the following link: Summer 2008 Leader Bios.