Keynote Speakers
Mays Imad is a neuroscientist, an educator and a mental health advocate. She is an associate professor of biology and equity pedagogy at Connecticut College. Prior to that, she taught at Pima Community College for over 15 years and founded the Teaching and Learning Center. She is a fellow with the Gardner Institute and a senior fellow with the AAC&U STEM.
Peter Felten is professor of history, executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and assistant provost for teaching and learning at Elon University. During the 2022-2023 academic year, he has been named Fulbright Canada Distinguished Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, at Carleton University in Ottawa. Peter has published six books about undergraduate education including (with Leo Lambert), Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). His next book, a student guide to relationship-rich education, is co-authored with Isis Artze-Vega, Leo Lambert, and Oscar Miranda Tapia, will be published by Johns Hopkins in 2023 (with an open access online version free to all readers). He has served as president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) and also of the POD Network, the U.S. professional society for educational developers. He is on the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and is a fellow of the Gardner Institute, a foundation that works to advance equity, justice, and upward social mobility through higher education.
Alumni Panel
Read Emily Gold Boutilier's article "A Great and Lasting Impact" to understand how small gestures from compassionate professors had an impact on these five Amherst alumni and continue to shape who they are today. Article published August 29, 2022.
Amir Denzel Hall '17 is an interdisciplinary artist and writer. Their work considers spiritual and cultural technologies engaged by poor, Black, Caribbean, immigrant and queer people to survive oppression. Amir’s work has been seen in New York, Chicago, Nigeria, Switzerland, Germany and their home country, Trinidad and Tobago. They have been in residence at Alice Yard, A.P.E Arts at Hawley, Double Edge Theatre, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Amir has been awarded the Mojuba! Emerging Choreographers Fellowship and shortlisted for the Bocas Emerging Writers’ Prize. Amir holds an MFA in Fiction from New York University.
Mikayla Gordon Wexler '19 is a medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. At Mount Sinai, Mikayla serves as the Chair of Community Benefits for the East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership—a comprehensive student-led, physician-supervised clinic for uninsured patients—and is on the leadership team for the Human Rights and Social Justice Student Group.
Mikayla graduated from Amherst College in 2019 where she studied Anthropology and wrote a Senior Honors Thesis on the narrative use of social media by caregivers of children with chronic illnesses. After her time at Amherst, Mikayla spent two years as a research assistant at Boston Medical Center assessing interventions for addressing children and families’ unmet basic needs.
Mikayla’s research interests include narrative medicine, caregiver experiences, and improving health equity through clinical-community partnerships. Outside of work, Mikayla enjoys creative writing, running, and exploring New York City.
Olusade Gabriella Green '20 is a writer, activist, and poet from Long Island, New York. Sade currently works as the Program Coordinator at the Advocacy Institute, where she supports social justice organizations in building the advocacy skills, knowledge, and power they need to shape government policy for a more equitable New York.
Sade graduated cum laude from Amherst College in 2020 with a bachelor’s in English and is the recipient of the Charles Hamilton Houston Fellowship. While at Amherst, Sade wrote an honors thesis titled “Free, like no fear,” a collection of short stories that feature Black women and girls as protagonists and depict their lived experiences. So far, Sade’s work has been published in Forbes, Teen Vogue (including a second Teen Vogue piece), Harper’s BAZAAR, and ELLE Magazine.
Rachel Chaffin '20 graduated from Amherst with a double-major in Psychology and French. Her academic and career interests center around child development and education, and she has gained extensive experience working with children and adolescents across a variety of contexts. After moving home to Sacramento, California and finishing college online in the spring of 2020, Rachel's dreams of working with children and getting to spend time with her family came true all at once: her first niece, Clementine, was born, and Rachel started working as her full-time nanny. After two joyful and tiring years, Rachel transitioned out of that role this summer, and has been enjoying a period of rest before moving on to her next adventure (whatever it may be). There’s nothing about Amherst that Rachel values more than the theme of this retreat, and she is honored and delighted to be allowed to take part in this event.
Ryan McRae Arnold '15 is a writer, editor, and future high school English teacher. He arrived at Amherst College in the fall of 2012 as a transfer student, after completing his associate’s at Brookdale Community College. Ryan graduated from Amherst in 2015 with a BA in English, and went on to earn an M.Phil in Criticism and Culture from the University of Cambridge, where his research focused on Ralph Ellison and posthumous literature. He is currently pursuing a master’s in teaching at Montclair State University.