Faculty & Staff
Francesca Arnoldy
StoryListening Investigator
Program Director, UVM End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate Program
Interests: Reading, nature walks with my pup, making memories with loved ones, engaging conversations, and all things doula
Life Advice: My motivational mantra: “You’ll never have more time than RIGHT NOW!”
Steve Berns, MD
TalkVermont Director
Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine
Interests: Hiking, running, camping, traveling, baking pies, indie rock, and anything Harry Potter
Life Advice: “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the water chute, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute”
Greg Brown
Storylistening Doula Interventionist
End-of-life Doula Instructor, UVM End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate Program
Interests: Late-night conversations, music-making, dancing, laughing, long flat bike rides, hors d’oeuvres, building empathy, cooperation
Life Advice: “Collect friendships, not stuff”
Katharine L. Cheung, MD, PhD
Telemedicine Investigator
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Nephrology ; Center of Aging
Interests: Hiking, kayaking, cooking, gardening
Life Advice:”Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking.” -W.B. Yeats
Bradford Demarest, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
Interests: language, science, machine learning, interdisciplinarity, hiking, music, cooking, biking, games. Interstitial stuff. Analogies. Collaboration.
Life Advice: Practice compassion toward yourself and other people. Lift with your legs, not your back. Drink water. Take walks. Do new things.
Matilda Garrido, CT
StoryListening Doula Interventionist
Certified Thanatologist
Interests: cooking, going to the movies, outdoor exercise, playing with my dog, spending time with family and friends
Life Advice: “Let life be a dance between letting it happen and making it happen” – Arianna Huffington
Maggie Eppstein, PhD
Machine Learning Investigator
Research Professor and Professor Emeritus, Department of Computer Science
Interests: Research-wise, I love discovering things about how the world works using computational modeling and analysis in a wide variety of application domains. Aside from research, I love being in Nature – especially camping, hiking, kayaking, and rock-hounding. Around the house I love designing remodeling projects (that my husband implements), landscaping and perennial gardening, sewing, upholstering, and other creative crafty projects, and hosting family get-togethers over the Holidays for my two grown sons and various other siblings, cousins, in-laws.
Life Advice: A wise piece of advice passed down to me from my Mom: “If you’re going to feel guilty about something, don’t do it. Once you decide to do something, don’t feel guilty about it.”
Robert Gramling, MD, DSc
Principal Investigator
Holly and Bob Miller Chair in Palliative Medicine, Professor of Family Medicine
Interests: Laughing, hiking, biking, writing, dancing, sharing big ideas, iaido
Life Advice: “Watch for a second arrow”
Maija Reblin, PhD
Health Psychology Investigator
Associate Professor, College of Medicine
Interests: Running, rowing, playing outside, beach reads, exploring mechanisms in social contexts, dogs & friends.
Life Advice: ” Spend your time with people who make you better.”
Donna Rizzo, PhD
Machine Learning Investigator
Professor and Dorothean Chair, School of Engineering
Interests: Machine-Learning and developing computational tools to improve the understanding of human-induced changes on natural systems and the way we make decisions about natural resources and multi-scale environmental problems.
Life Advice: “Learn a lot and have fun!“
Students
Advik Dewoolkar
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Interests: Hiking, Snowboarding, Tea, and Popular Culture
Life Advice: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present.” – Oogway
Katie Flynn
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Major: Neuroscience
Interests: Skiing, hiking, piano, medicine, music
Life Advice: “Take a moment once and a while to look back and see how much you’ve accomplished”
Ali Javed
PhD Student – Computer Science
Interests: Food, traveling and fitness
Life Advice: “Persistence, determination and patience.”
Jeremy Matt
PhD Student – Computer Science
Interests: Machine learning and computational methods, mountain biking, hiking, blacksmithing, telemark skiing, woodworking, and reading
Life advice: My mom’s response when I resisted getting off the couch to go do something (a bike ride, a school assignment, a cross-country ski, etc): “Tough”
PS: My kids HATE that response as much as I used to
Aidan May
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Major: Biochemistry
Interests: Running, biking, origami, nonfiction, and bagels
Life advice: “Just breathe”
Max Perrotto
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Major: Data Science
Interests: Music, Cooking, Snowboarding, Community Activism, Jeopardy
Life advice: “There’s always more than meets the eye, so pay attention to everything, big and small.”
Joseph Wills
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Major: Computer Science
Interests: research wise: natural language processing, human computer interaction. in general: filmmaking, books about space, and Frasier
Life Advice: Be yourself.
Ann Wong
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Major: Biology
Interests: Skiing, surfing, playing the piano, and drinking tea
Alumni
Bridger Banco
Environmental Engineering
Interests: Hiking and backpacking, paddling, fishing, dogs, skiing, and birding
Life Advice: “Be kind to others and others will be kind to you. Also, always have fun!”
Larry Clarfeld, PhD
Computer Science
Interests: My interests outside of academia include field ecology, birding, hiking, camping, playing guitar and spending time with my family.
Brigitte Durieux
Biochemistry and French
Interests: Music, language, painting, hellbenders, space, stand-up, comedy, and trees.
Life Advice: “Enjoy all that you can”
Cailin Gramling
Philosophy
Interests: Dance, statistics, debate, coffee
Life Advice: “I feel like I have not lived long enough to give life advice. When I am older and wiser, I will get back to you!”
Laura Hirsch
Chemistry
Interests: Cycling, Irish Dancing, gardening, hiking and chemistry poetry
Life Advice: “If the grass is greener on the other side, there is probably more manure there“
Liam John
Study Coordinator
Interests: Work: Aging, dementia care, and end of life decision making. Play: Cello, cross-country and backcountry skiing, gravel road cycling, and trail running.
Life Advice: “You only have enough time for the things that are important to you”
Viktoria Manukyan, MS
Product Engineer at Global Foundries
UVM Complex Systems Master’s Degree 2018
Interests: Big Data, Machine Learning, SUP Yoga and Dancing
Life Advice: “Being confident and believing in your own self-worth will make everything possible“
Lindsay Ross
Computer Science
Interests: Cooking, running, singing, crafting
Life Advice: “If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time.” –Billy Joel
Aidan Ryan
Civil Engineering
Interests: Playing guitar, anything outdoors, and of course diner breakfasts
Life Advice: “To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.” – Steve Prefontaine
Jack Straton
Statistics
Tess Braddish, MS
Laboratory Manager
Interests: Exploring the outdoors, teaching yoga and practicing meditation, cooking up creative new dishes, hiking and camping in the green mountains, fighting for social justice, listening to music, talking to my plants, and playing with puppies!
Life Advice: “You cannot pour from an empty cup, remember to refill yourself.”