Dear Burgundy Community,

We wanted to give everyone an update on a Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies interim leadership plan. A number of experienced Cove staff have stepped up to help us plan, and three will serve as a collaborating team of interim BCWS leaders. This group, along with Cove Caretaker David Sicree, will ensure that spring school groups and the summer camp go smoothly this year. The following interim BCWS leadership model will hold in place through August 2021. 

Former BCWS Assistant Director Annie Cohen will serve as Interim BCWS Director, and she will be working with fellow former Assistant Directors Eliza Malakoff and current Coopers teacher Jennifer Smith [BFCDS ‘10], who will serve as Interim Co-Directors. Annie and Eliza will be facilitating the school Cove trip groups this spring, and Annie and Jennifer, the summer camp sessions. (Jennifer, meantime, is continuing in her role as 4/5 Coopers teacher.) We are working for now off of the most recent school and camp seasons as baseline program templates, and the programs each may flex to conditions.

All three of these BCWS veterans are talented and experienced outdoor education, nature and environmental science educators! Annie, since she last worked a full season at the Cove as Assistant Director in 2015, worked as a trail crew leader for The Student Conservation Association before becoming a field instructor for the Voyageur Outward Bound School. She has a BA in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic (ME) with a focus in Environmental Education. From 2008-2013 Annie was a Cove camp counselor and cook; she has many wilderness experiences and certifications and has led many group wilderness trips for students and campers of various ages. 

Eliza worked at the Cove in the summers from 2013-2016 and most recently was BCWS Assistant Director for camp and school sessions in 2019. She currently is working remotely as a guest scientist for the National Park Service in Alaska. Eliza received her BA from Carleton College in Geology, with coursework in ecology and environmental justice and policy, Eliza after graduation was a teaching assistant in a Carleton geology program in New Zealand. 

Jennifer, who currently is doing a fantastic job as our Coopers 5 homeroom teacher, has a degree in Environmental Biology from Washington University in St. Louis, has served as BCWS Assistant Director and has been a well-regarded naturalist and science educator, including at the Ford Nature Center here in Alexandria. Jennifer also served as Student Consultant for the Interdisciplinary Environmental Law Clinic at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.

Taylor Bostick, another experienced Cove staffer and former BCWS Assistant Director now teaching school on the Alexandria campus (4th Redtails), and Lower School science teacher Carol Schwartz also will be helping facilitate the spring groups’ planning and communication with the Alexandria campus. Assistance from former BCWS Assistant Director Kyle Eichner as well as from additional current teachers and others with deep experience with the BCWS, school Cove trips and the BCWS camp will support the school trips this spring and the preparation for the summer camp. 

A search for a permanent BCWS Director will begin in the next several months.

Finally, again, we are very fortunate and grateful that David Sicree will continue as Caretaker and a senior staff person with deepest knowledge of many facets of facility, logistics, and program.

Jeff

Head of School