The Mission • The Meadow • The Team

Molly Simmons

Molly comes from a family of teachers who prized books and writing and learning. She spent her childhood on boarding school campuses where life and learning, home and school blended into one experience nourished by the granite hills of New England. After high school, she took a Gap Year, teaching in South Africa and Botswana where the history and culture are shaped by the rusty Khalari sand and gaping velds. She continued her teaching career in California at the Ojai Valley School where she learned the value of blending experiential expeditions with a traditional classroom setting. This curriculum helped her shift her teaching toward project-based learning and portfolio defense to create authentic, accessible, and engaging classrooms in urban, public charter schools—first at High Tech High and later at Impact Academy. She furthered her passion for experiential education as Program Director and English teacher for the Tall Ship Education Academy, a semester school for girls which included bringing students to sea on a tall ship for six weeks. Upon leaving California and moving back to New England in 2011, she first worked in admissions for Coastal Studies for Girls, a semester school in science and leadership for 10th grade girls, before joining her husband Jason BreMIller in the English department at Phillips Exeter Academy where she used Harkness teaching to explore an alternative approach to student-led learning. Most recently, Molly moved into the world of executive coaching with the Handel Group where she worked in both the operations and sales divisions while coaching individuals to recognize the power, opportunity, and choice available in their lives. As you can see, while Molly has followed her heart on a wending educational path, the throughlines are clear: adventure, joy, curiosity, and place–touchstones that shape her vision for Bald Mountain Meadow and its programs.

IAN RAMSEY

Ian Ramsey is the author of Hackable Animal, finalist for the Prism Climate Prize. His writing has been featured in Terrain.org, Orion, High Desert Journal, and many other journals, as well as in collections like The Gift of Animals, Writing for Peace, and Maine Voices. Based in Maine, Ian is the founding director of the Kauffmann Program for Environmental Writing and Wilderness Exploration at North Yarmouth Academy, where he has taught environmental writing, expeditioning, neuroscience and human performance, creative entrepreneurship, and music for 26 years. A licensed Maine Guide, Ian holds the highest sea kayak leadership award in the world, British Canoeing’s Advanced Sea Leader. He has led trips and backcountry expeditions on four continents, with a special focus on Alaska. An ultrarunner and backcountry athlete, Ian has worked with a number of brands, and serves as senior guide for Aspire Adventure running and as the editor of the Aspire Journal. He has lectured at Hirosaki University, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Pacific Lutheran University, and often works with universities and the military on human performance practices. He is a founding board member of Physiology First, a global non-profit that teaches students, families and educators how to manage anxiety, perform and learn better. Ian has also directed a community steel drum band for over two decades.

Jason BreMilleR

Jason is a lifelong educator, adventurer, and writer whose 20 years teaching reflect Bald Mountain Meadow’s core mission of connecting people to places. His love for the natural world—and for inspiring that feeling in others— has been a throughline in his career. In his early days teaching at Taft and Hotchkiss, he taught environmental literature and led learning expeditions around the world to places like Utah, Tanzania, Iceland, and Alaska. Currently, he is an educator at Phillips Exeter Academy where he teaches field-based environmental humanities courses, directs the Environmental Literature Institute, and works to develop the Academy’s Climate Action Plan. Jason is Bald Mountain Meadow’s core program director and lead instructor.

Stephen Siperstein

Dr. Stephen Siperstein has been teaching English and Environmental Studies for over a decade at various secondary and higher education institutions, including the University of Oregon, Stonehill College, and Vail Valley Academy. He currently lives and teaches at the Environmental Immersion Program at Choate Rosemary Hall, where he designs place-based curricula in the environmental humanities, co-teaches courses with educators from other disciplines, and organizes extra-curricular environmental programming. He also teaches in the English Department and directs the school’s Writing Center. His research and publications focus on developing effective strategies for interdisciplinary climate change education, and he is co-editor of the 2016 volume Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities. Stephen is also a poet and photographer, and his work has appeared in publications such as The Hopper, Saltfront, Poecology, and Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. A central goal across Stephen’s writing, teaching, and advocacy work is to bring attention to the personal and emotional dimensions of climate change and to empower young people to take action in their communities. His current joys include tagging monarch butterflies and exploring the forests and coastlines of New England with his family. 

LEAH TITCOMB

Leah Titcomb is a Registered Maine Guide, Naturalist, and Educator who has been guiding professionally since 2003 throughout the US and abroad. She is medically trained as a certified Wilderness First Responder with over twenty years of experience managing and running backcountry expeditions. She has led extended wilderness trips, taught natural history and led technical outdoor leadership trainings.  Leah is also the founder and director of Forever Wild Yoga, an outdoor yoga company. While practicing yoga, Leah found a similar sense of happiness that echoed her time in the wilderness and decided to combine her wilderness guiding expertise with yoga.
Her passion is being on the rivers while practicing presence and mindfulness. She brings a sense of lightheartedness to groups and enjoys moments of still concentration as well as the ability to laugh at oneself.