Excel at Williams College
2006 Staff Bios (back to program page)

Jessica Anthony (ESL, Creative Writing): Bates College, B.A.; George Mason University, M.F.A.; New World Teachers, ESL Certification.  Jess hails from Upstate New York and has lived twice in Eastern Europe. Her stories appear in McSweeney’s, Mid-American Review, CutBank, New American Writing, Best New American Voices 2006, Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005 and elsewhere. Awards for her fiction include the George Mason University Fiction Thesis Fellowship Prize, the Summer Literary Seminars Fiction Contest to St. Petersburg, Russia, nominations for the Pushcart Prize, and she is the first winner of McSweeney’s “Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award.”  She has received full fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.  She currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Southern Maine, and lives in Portland.  This is her first summer with Excel.

Paula Altman (Abnormal Psychology, Social Psychology): Oberlin College, B.A. Paula studied psychology at Oberlin, graduating with High Honors. She received the Stetson-Heiser Prize for her research on the topic of self-esteem and aggression and served as a research assistant for two social psychology professors. She took a semester off from College during her sophomore year to live and work at a homeless shelter in Santa Fe, NM. Since graduating, Paula has been living in New York City where she works for a non-profit organization in the Criminal Courts in Manhattan. She plans on pursuing studies in both law and policy analysis in the fall. She participated in the Excel program as a student in high school and this is her second summer returning as an instructor.

Patrick Burleigh (Assistant Director): Dartmouth College, B.A; Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland), M.Phil. After graduating cum laude with high honors from Dartmouth, Patrick shipped to Dublin, Ireland, where he earned his Masters at Trinity College on Dartmouth's Campbell Scholarship. While there, he worked as a staff writer for Irish Theatre magazine and had his first plays produced to acclaim at the Dublin Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe festivals. He then moved to Los Angeles, where he has continued to work as a writer and actor. His plays have received staged readings and productions starring the likes of James McDaniel and Reni Santoni. He has written numerous feature films and was recently hired by Redhouse Entertainment to pen the feature Fake I.D. He has twice been a top-ten finalist for the Chesterfield Fellowship and has been a finalist for the Sundance Filmmakers Lab. His acting credits include: the features Bereft for Showtime and the upcoming Illegal Aliens stage appearances with Ensemble Studio Theatre West, The Naked Angels, The Evidence Room, Padua Playwrights and Fox Television's Naked TV pilots; and episodic television. This is Patrick's fifth summer with Putney. He led Seeds for Progress Community Service programs to Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, taught Beatnik Literature at the Bennington Excel program and led the Cultural Exploration Theatre in Britain program. Patrick is fluent in Spanish.

Jonathan Brunstedt (International Relations, Public Speaking & Debate): UCLA, B.A.; Oxford University, M.Phil.; Oxford University, D.Phil. candidate.  Jonathan graduated summa cum laude from UCLA where he studied ancient and modern history.  After finishing UCLA Jonathan received an Ambassadorial Scholarship to Russia and was a one-year visiting scholar at Moscow State University.  He subsequently completed a two-year M.Phil., with Distinction, at Oxford University, where he is currently a doctoral candidate in History.  Jonathan speaks Russian and has received several grants for graduate study and research.  In his spare time he enjoys tennis, jogging, and films, and since arriving at Oxford has taken up rowing and cricket.  He is particularly passionate about overland travel, and has journeyed extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the former Soviet Republics.  Most recently, Jonathan hitchhiked along the ‘Silk Road’ through the mountains and steppe of Central Asia. This will be his second summer with Excel.

Margot Caso (Conversational Spanish): Haverford College, B.A.  Maggie graduated from Haverford with a degree in Art History.  After graduating, she interned at the MoMa in NY and worked as an educator at The Lower East Side Tenement Museum.  She has been in the education field for the past eight years both developing curriculua for museums and teaching in schools.  Maggie grew up in Guatemala and is an aficionado of Latin American film. She teaches a senior elective at Buckingham Brown & Nichols in Cambridge, MA on film in the Spanish-speaking world. Maggie loves to cook and is a novice gardener. This will be her first year with Excel.

David Denhard (Music Composition & Performance): State University of New York at New Paltz, B.A.; Binghamton University, M.M. David is a performer, composer and educator.  His compositions for theatre, chamber opera, solo voice, chorus, chamber ensemble, and orchestra have been performed throughout New England and the Northeastern U.S., as well as Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Canada, England, Mexico, and Cuba.   David has been composer-in-residence at the Chamber Music Conference and Composer’s Forum of the East, and has been the recipient of grants and awards from the Massachusetts Arts Council, the Massachusetts Arts Lottery, Meet the Composer, the Rensselaer County (NY) Council of the Arts, and Buxton Faculty Fellowships.  He taught music at the Bennington July program for fifteen summers.  During the academic year David is the Director of Music and Composer-in-Residence at the Buxton School in Williamstown, Massachusetts and an adjunct instructor of music at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.  This will be his fourth summer with Excel.

Josh Duclos (Philosophy): Connecticut College, B.A.; Josh graduated magna cum laude from Connecticut College in 2004 with honors in Philosophy.  His first post-college job was teaching a summer course on ancient Greek culture at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire.  Upon leaving St. Paul’s Josh worked as a freelance research assistant for UNICEF and the Canada Chair on Pluralism and Islam.  In January of 2005 he traveled to Tamil Nadu, India to continue his work for UNICEF and to spend five months volunteering as a youth coordinator with an Indian NGO.  Josh currently teaches philosophy at The Maine School of Science & Mathematics, a boarding school in northern Maine.  He will begin graduate school at the University of Chicago in the fall of 2006.

Jessi Duston (Resident Advisor): University of Massachusetts at Amherst, B.A.  Jessi receieved a B.A. with magna cum laude honors from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in an independently created major entitled Politics through Theater and Film. During her time at UMass she spent a semester abroad studying film at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Jessi also studied Spanish in Salamanca, Spain during the summer of 2003, and backpacked around Spain, France, Italy and Greece. Jessi has been a member of the UMass Theater Guild for 4 years and served as artistic director, stage manager, actor, secretary of the executive board, and various other positions. She has also worked for the UMass theater department as a stage hand, working backstage and setting up and running shows. Jessi enjoys international volunteer work and has built houses in El Salvador and worked in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. Other hobbies include writing, music, photography, reading, skiing, watching plays, and of course, movies.

Todd Grennan (Resident Advisor): Pomona College, B.A.; University of Virginia, M.F.A. candidate. Todd recently graduated from Pomona College with a major in English. During his tenure there, Todd worked as an intern at Pomona College Magazine, studied creative writing with David Foster Wallace, spent a semester at University College, Oxford, analyzing the novels of Evelyn Waugh and wrote his senior thesis on blended fiction (specifically Philip Roth's 1994 novel "Operation Shylock"). Currently, Todd is a Henry Hoyns Scholar in Creative Writing at the University of Virginia where he is a MFA candidate in Fiction. He's recently been on a Amelie Nothomb and Hiyao Miyazaki kick but still makes time in his busy schedule to watch trashy MTV reality shows. A native Vermonter, Todd grew up within walking distance of three defunct family farms but has never milked a cow. This is his first summer with Excel.

Alden Jones (Director): Brown University, B.A.; New York University, M.A.; Bennington College, M.F.A. At Brown, Alden received dual degrees in Comparative Literature and Hispanic Studies and graduated with highest departmental honors. She spent terms abroad in Paris and in Seville, Spain. After college, Alden spent a year in rural Costa Rica as a volunteer English teacher for WorldTeach then completed two advanced degrees in creative writing and literature. She is now a professor in the department of Writing, Literature and Publishing and in the Honors Program at Emerson College. Alden has received numerous awards for her writing, including a Bread Loaf scholarship and an NYU creative writing fellowship, and her fiction and essays have appeared in such prestigious publications as The Best American Travel Writing, Prairie Schooner, and Agni.  In the fall she will travel around the world as a Lecturer in English on UVA's "floating campus," Semester-at-Sea. Alden has led Putney trips to Spain, Australia/New Zealand/Fiji and Costa Rica, taught creative writing at Excel/Amherst, Excel Oxford/Tuscany and Excel/Cuba, twice directed the Excel/Cuba program, and, most recently, directed the Excel Paris/Provence program. This will be her tenth summer with Putney Student Travel.

Josh Kletzkin (Video Production, Film Studies): Wesleyan University, BA; Sarah Lawrence College, MFA. Josh is a writer and filmmaker who lives in Brooklyn, NY. He started making movies at age 10 with a Super-8 camera he found in the basement. After graduating from Wesleyan University’s film program, he spent two seasons working on ‘ER’ as a camera assistant. Josh then moved to Washington DC to teach writing and music at The Field School. His directing credits include a short film, Boy (1998), a feature documentary Burn Baby Burn (2002), as well as numerous music videos and short subject films. He also co-produced Obstinato (2004) and Bring It Home (2006) for Sony Records Classical. An avid long-distance runner and triathlete, Josh is also a rock and roll practitioner/enthusiast. This will be his second summer with Excel.

Avram Kline (Art of the Essay): Sarah Lawrence College, B.A.; Teachers College, Columbia University, M.A. Avram majored in philosophy and literature at Sarah Lawrence, and spent his junior year at Wadham College, Oxford. He went on to the summer intensive immersion program in French at the Middlebury College before receiving his master's at Columbia University Teacher's College.  Avram has worked at The New York City Museum School for ten years as an English and humanities teacher.  He is also on the faculty of Pace University.  Avram has taught creative writing at Excel at Williams College, as well as Shakespeare at the Oxford/Tuscany program.  This will be his sixth summer with Excel.

Jennifer Lafleur (Acting, Theatre Production): Westfield State College, B.A.; Brandeis University, MFA.  Jennifer is an actor, producer, and teaching artist who lives in New York City.  She is the Artistic Producer of The Grid Theater, which recently debuted with the world premiere of the award-winning play Things Beyond Our Control by Jesse Kellerman. Jennifer is a teaching artist with The Shakespeare Society, working with high school students all over New York City covering the vast scope of the Bard’s great works. Teaching always has been an important part of her professional life, working at Brandies University, Actors Shakespeare Project in Boston, the Cambridge School of Weston, the JCC in Scarsdale, NY, and with Shakespeare on the Sound in Long Island.  In addition to performing with The Grid, Jennifer was most recently seen as Juliet in the acclaimed production of Romeo and Juliet at the New Repertory Theater in Boston. She is very excited to be with Putney for the first time this summer!

Ginger Legon (Acting, Theatre Production): NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, BFA. Ginger is an actor, director, and educator based in New York City. She is a teaching artist for Creative Arts Team and The Leadership Program, working with youth of all ages using theatre as a tool for growth, empowerment and social change. Recently, she worked with NYU Law School using role play to train first-year law students. Ginger performs with Synaesthetic Theatre, creating original theatre works such as Arcana: Cycle of the Fool (2004) and The Trial of K (2005). This will be Ginger's fourth summer with Putney. She co-directed Hold on Tightly, Let go Lightly at Excel Bennington, U.S. Undressed, a performance of Putney's Theatre in Britain program at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Can I See Your I.D.? at Excel Williams.

Melanie Mowinski (Drawing and Painting): Case Western Reserve and the Cleveland Institute of Art, B.S. Art Education; Yale University, M.A. Religion and the Visual Arts; The University of the Arts, M.F.A. Book Arts and Printmaking. When not enrolled in school, Melanie teaches studio art and art history, fixes old books, makes new ones, draws, goes on epic walks, and travels. Her wanderlust stems from her time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Caribbean where she served as an art teacher. Her current artwork evolved out of that time on a rainforest island and led to her commitment to the environment and her active engagement in contemporary issues. Melanie recently completed M.F.A. highlights this philosophy and showcases her creativity ingenuity. Her work has been exhibited in the Caribbean, across the United States and Australia, where she was awarded a month long artist residency last summer in Tasmania. This is Melanie’s fifth summer with Excel.

Rachel Ray (Resident Advisor): Whitman College, B.A. Rachel majored in Art History with a minor in Spanish at Whitman, where she was a recipient of the A.J. Anderson Merit Scholarship.  In spring 2005, she studied at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina.  Rachel has mentored English-speaking and bilingual “at-risk” students at the Walla Walla Community Center for Youth, served as a Life Coach at the local Juvenile Justice Center, and will continue working with youth as an AmeriCorps member this fall.  Her black and white photographs have been published in Whitman's Blue Moon art and literary magazine, and her photos and paintings have been exhibited in several gallery shows.  Rachel loves outdoor activity, singing, reading, cooking, salsa dancing, and exchanging ideas. She participated in the Excel Cuba program in 2001, and was a Resident Advisor for Excel at Amherst College in 2004.

Elizabeth Redden (Journalism): Swarthmore College, B.A; Columbia University, M.F.A. Candidate. Elizabeth graduated Phi Beta Kappa with high honors from Swarthmore College, where she majored in English literature with a minor in psychology. Throughout college, she interned and wrote for Swarthmore’s quarterly alumni magazine, The Swarthmore College Bulletin, writing a variety of feature stories, profiles and shorter news stories for the publication. Since graduating, Elizabeth has worked as a reporter at The Delaware State News, the daily paper in Delaware’s state capital. She also has freelanced for publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and Abroad View Magazine. Elizabeth plans to begin a M.F.A. program in nonfiction writing at Columbia University in the fall. She enjoys running, reading and being outside, especially at the beach. This will be her first summer with Excel.

Abby Russell (Administrative Coordinator): Plymouth State University, B.A. Abby majored in Communication Studies with concentrations in Visual Art and Corporate Communications. While at Plymouth, Abby was a member of the women’s softball team, and was elected co-captain. She was a C.H.A.M.P.S. Life Skills Representative, focusing on helping incoming freshman balance their studies with athletics. Abby was also involved in fundraising for the Athletic Department and various community service initiatives. A native Vermonter, Abby spent much of the winter giving ski lessons to young children and leading snow shoe hikes. On graduation, Abby worked in the advertising department for Media Newsgroup. Currently she works for Putney Student Travel full-time as program coordinator for both Excel Amherst and Williams colleges. Abby loves photography, skiing, reading and spending time outdoors.  This will be her second summer with Excel.

Senseney Lea Stokes (Fashion Design): Rhode Island School of Design, B.F.A.; University of New Mexico, M.F.A.  Senseney is a versatile artist and designer currently based in the Pacific Northwest.  She majored in Textile Design at RISD and earned her M.F.A. in Photography from the University of New Mexico, where she received a Relational-Artist-in-Residence Grant awarded by the P.L.A.C.E. program for projects that promote art as a catalyst for community vitality. Senseney's work has been exhibited around the U.S. and abroad, at the Lionel Rombach Gallery in Tucson, the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, the Instituto Allende in San Miguel, Mexico, and the Tèxtil Café: Museu Tèxtil in Barcelona, Spain.  She was a senior designer for Toltec Fabrics in New York, and worked as a freelance fashion stylist and costume designer in that city.  She has traveled in Spain, Morocco, Mexico and Cuba. Senseney has taught Fashion Design at Excel Bennington and Excel Williams.  This will be her third summer with Excel.