TDI Staff Members
We typically have 20-30 staff members at the TDI Summer Camp each summer, as well as staff members who help with planning, logistics, marketing, and outreach throughout the year. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds; some have Master’s Degrees in Gifted Education, others are teachers in Vermont schools, and many are camp alumni who have grown to become experts in their own fields, enabling us to teach a huge range of topics and create a diverse set of activities for each year.
Lucy Bogue
Lucy was the co-director of the TDI Summer Camp for over 25 years before passing the baton for 2024. She started the TDI Leadership Program in 2004, and has directed that program ever since. Lucy earned a Masters in Gifted Education from Johnson State College in 2002. She is delighted to share TDI with her two grown children, Emily and Max, who have remained very involved in TDI for much of that time. Lucy lives in Colchester, VT, with her husband, Dave. Together they are developing some property they own in Alburgh, VT. She sings for hospice patients (as a hospice volunteer) with the Noyana Singers in Chittenden County.
Ellen Koier
Ellen joined Lucy as the second co-director of TDI for over 25 years before also stepping down in 2023. She has run the Gifted and Talented Program at Cambridge Elementary School for over 30 years and was an active member of the Vermont Council for Gifted Education, where she coordinated an "On the Road" Saturday morning outreach program.
Carol Story
Carol founded the Talent Development Institute in 1998 as part of her responsibilities as a Professor of Education at Johnson State College. She also directed the graduate program in the Education of the Gifted while at the college. She continues to enjoy TDI in her retirement, visiting camp each year to join the young learners and bring smiles to the community. She serves as an honorary member of the board of the Green Mountain Center for Gifted Education, providing invaluable insight and advice for the organization. She also consults with families and schools regarding the nature and needs of gifted learners.
Lynne Jakubauskas
Lynne loves writing, reading, being outdoors, exploring new places, cooking, eating, and fixing things. She especially likes fixing things with stuff she has in her garage instead of going to the hardware store for new parts. She has been a school nurse and a camp nurse in New England, Old England, Germany, and Turkey; now she joins TDI to be our nurse at the Summer Camp and ensure the well-being of all our participants.
Nicole Dagesse
Nicole is a Site Specific Dance artist and teacher. Nicole earned her BFA in Dance and BS in Environmental Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. After several years of dancing in the Boston area, Nicole moved to Boulder, Co. to pursue an MFA in Site Dance and Somatic Practices. Nicole founded Murmurations Dance while living and working in North Carolina. Now Murmurations has found its home in Vermont where Nicole lives with her incredible family. Besides directing Murmurations Dance, Nicole teaches contemporary dance, aerial dance, and aerial yoga at Saint Michael's College and North End Studios. Learn more about her offerings at worldtreeyoga.org.
Emily Bogue
Emily was a camper at the inaugural kids' TDI in 1999 and became one of its first alum teachers over 17 years ago. She is now a Quality Engineer Developer on the Photoshop team at Adobe, where she puts her passion for digital art and design, her automation skills, and her ability to break anything to productive use. In her past lives, she's been a manager of non-profit programming and communications, tutor, freelance designer/illustrator, commercial background actor, and even a spy. Emily has lived in New York City since graduating from Wellesley College in 2008 with a B.A. in Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences, and began studying improv and sketch at Upright Citizens Brigade Training Center in 2010.
Max Bogue
Max graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2013 with a BS and MS in Computer Science. His passions include tennis, rock climbing, and video games. He is a software engineer, previously at Google, then at Second Street in St. Louis, and now at PathAI in Boston.
Colin Spencer
Colin is a former camper and long-time TDI veteran, now a staff member and our resident technology guru. He is enthusiastic about breakfast, music, cookies, engineering, dogs, video games, gadgets, DIY projects, Pink Floyd, and more. A passionate musician fascinated by synthesizers, he loves to spend his free time designing and constructing his own musical toys. He serves on the board of directors for the Green Mountain Center for Gifted Education. Colin works as an Electrical Engineer at Beta Technologies in South Burlington, VT, developing circuit boards and electronic devices for experimental electric airplanes.
Will Frick
Will is another long-time TDI veteran, and usually teaches the wildly popular Computer Game Design and Rube Goldberg Machines strands. A graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, he currently works as a technical writer. In addition to teaching and supervising every summer he is also a member of the Talent Development Institute’s board of directors and leads the TDI Youth Advisory Board, a group of alumni staff members that coordinates events and fundraising efforts outside of the Summer Camp.
Chris Peterson
Chris was a camper (with Emily!) at the inaugural kids’ TDI in 1999, became one of the first alum staff members and instructors, and now serves on the Board of Directors. For more than a decade, he has been an admissions officer at MIT, and also occasionally teaches on the social aspects of networked culture in its program on Comparative Media Studies, from which he earned his graduate degree. Chris has a longstanding autobiographical and professional preoccupation in developing the autonomy, curiosity, initiative, and sociality of students with unusual interests and aptitudes. Outside of work, he enjoys powerlifting, yoga, firespinning, and accumulating tattoo tributes to children's books.
Susan Flint
Susan has been coming to TDI for over a decade. She is currently pursuing a degree in Philosophy and Creative Writing at the University of Massachusetts, and hopes to do a lot more writing in the future. When she's not teaching and supervising at TDI, she's reading, drawing, or hanging out with her cat, Sebastian.
Mina Bozeman
Mina graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2019 and now lives in Somerville, MA. Currently she works for a book publishing company as part of their marketing & publicity team and loves spending her time convincing people to read more books. Outside of work, she suffers through half-marathon training, plays ultimate frisbee when it's above freezing, attempts new baking projects, or reads the day away. A Vermonter at heart, she's been attending TDI since 2009 and been teaching since 2012.
Keenan Villani-Holland
Keenan likes playing music, going snowboarding, and making dumb jokes. People pay him to program computers. He’s only missed 3 years of TDI since he found out about it at age 13(?).
Will Bright
Will is a former TDI camper, and current Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at DROP. Over the last eight years, he's worked to scale DROP from 0 to 100 employees while attracting multiple rounds of venture funding. Will has been through every stage of company-creation and is excited to share those costly lessons with campers in his strand.
Adam Browe
Adam has been attending TDI since he was entering sixth grade. As a film studies major, he enjoys all forms of art and technology. He loves to teach creative videography classes which are always popular at the TDI Summer Camp.
Bill Pinney
Bill first came to TDI as a fourth grader, and hasn’t missed a year since. He recently graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. Bill is always excited to return to TDI each year to help give back to a program that was a major driving force in his life. He is well-loved in the TDI family for bringing his scientific expertise to creative strands as well as making a fool of himself in an entertaining manner.
Grady Farnum-Rendino
Grady would very much like to believe he's still thirteen years old. Since that's starting to get hard, though, he figured teaching at summer camp was probably the next best option. He enjoys figuring out why people speak and write the way they do, and can usually be found analyzing your grammar in the middle of conversations.
Jameson Hurd
Jameson is another TDI Summer Camp alumnus and hopes to create a TDI experience as mind-blowingly-awesome as it was for him. A long-time theatre enthusiast, veteran nerd, and now a biology major at UVM, Jameson deeply values the power behind fostering a love for learning. As a result of his studies, he also likes pondering which chemical pathways make him want to embarrass himself in front of large groups of people. He is the emcee of the TDI “Talent” Show, bringing a unique pizzazz to the event.
Alice Russell
Alice is a graduate student at Manhattan College in New York City. She has been a part of TDI since 2006, and loves every part of it. Alice has a passion for reading, writing, dogs, and being as goofy as possible.
Cam Tagatac
Cam is a student at the University of Vermont and majoring in Film and Television studies. He has been a part of the TDI family since being a camper in 2011 and is now a teacher and administrator. He is excited to spend each summer exploring new interests and bringing some big smiles to the TDI family.
Max Kriff
Max (endearingly referred to as “Kriff”) is a student at the University of Vermont and is vastly disappointed that becoming an adult doesn’t just mean ice cream for breakfast.
Sierra Makaris
Sierra, a historical costumer and reenactor, is proud to represent the "history geek" side of TDI. An only child by birth and a TDI kid since 2003, she delights in her passel of honorary siblings. Catch her giving tours at the Ethan Allen Homestead or sewing tunics with the Society for Creative Anachronism.
Mary Markley
Mary is a student at Stanford University majoring in the somewhat obscure field of linguistics, which she absolutely LOVES to talk about with anyone who will listen. She is beyond excited to spend another summer at TDI crafting dragon eggs, playing the nose flute, and eating ice cream at every meal. Teaching is one of her all-time favorite things to do, and she seeks out opportunities to do so whenever possible. She also loves to bake, but isn't sure if that's because she actually likes cooking or just because she's addicted to eating desserts. She lives in Burlington, Vermont, where she spends her time browsing Wikipedia, climbing trees, and painting. And holding chickens!
Johannes Everse
Johannes has been attending TDI for more than half his life now, and is only slightly disappointed it hasn’t been longer. He teaches classes based around engineering and problem-solving, particularly insisting that the latter extends to card games.
