Allie Breyer (she/her) is a dedicated part-time faculty member at Castleton Communications Department. With over eight years of experience in private, government, and nonprofit sectors, Allie is a seasoned communications professional currently based in Seattle.

As a Senior Communications Consultant at PRR, Allie focuses on transportation and construction communications, community engagement, and partnership building for the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Her role showcases a commitment to effective communication in complex environments, ensuring information resonates with diverse audiences.

Previously, as the Communications Director for the Vermont Health Department’s Division of Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Injury Prevention, Allie specialized in crisis communications and creating clear, concise, and plain language materials to assist Vermonters in preparing for emergencies and keeping themselves and their families safe from injuries.

Allie taught the Media, Society, and Communication course at Castleton University in Spring 2023. Her teaching style emphasizes inquiry-based learning, encouraging students to participate actively in their education. Assignments are to simulate real-world professional work, providing students with practical experiences that mirror the challenges of the communication field. She looks forward to teaching this course again and inspiring the next generation of communications professionals.

Allie holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Oregon, focusing on Community and Regional Planning. In her downtime, she can be found immersed in a book, painting with watercolors, or walking and biking Seattle’s vibrant streets.

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Amy Kolb Noyes is an award winning journalist who has worked in print, broadcast and digital media in Vermont since 1991.

Her first job in professional radio was at WVMX in Stowe, where she worked as News Director and co-host of The Morning Show. More recently she spent 14 years as a reporter, host and producer at Vermont Public Radio. During that time she contributed to several national radio programs and podcasts, including National Public Radio’s flagship news programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Amy was the creator, curator and host of Dorothy’s List, a radio book club for middle grade readers that aired for six seasons on Vermont Public.

In 2019 Amy was named a National Reporting Fellow for the Education Writers Association. The fellowship funded a reporting project examining the struggles faced by Vermont’s small, independent colleges.

Amy is the author of Nontoxic Housecleaning, a guide to making and using nontoxic household cleaners, available in English and Chinese language editions.

In addition to teaching, Amy currently works as a freelance food writer for Seven Days and is pursuing her MFA at VTSU – Johnson.

I am passionate about writing: I love to read, to write, and to teach about reading and writing. I want to bring these pleasures to everyone I can. I have worked at VTSC since 1998. I also offer writing workshops in hospitals, prisons, libraries, rehab centers, homeless shelters – anywhere people are open to the adventures of writing. I graduated with a BA from Harvard University and an MFA from Bennington College.

Assistant Professor Kate Renner teaches Drawing, Animation, and 3D modeling courses for students who want to build a career in the animation industry. She creates a curriculum that both supports and challenges emerging artists as they expand their creative processes, while ensuring that they graduate with the
software fluencies necessary to be competitive in the job market. Her current writing and research includes a review of the recent Bloomsbury publication Coraline: a Closer Look at Studio LAIKA’s StopMotion Witchcraft for the Society of Animation Studies. Outside of the classroom, she is the Director of the Vermont Animation Festival, and loves to ski and bike in the hills of the Northeast Kingdom.

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Brendan Lalor has been a full-time philosopher with the Vermont State Colleges since 2008. He specializes in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, focusing on research in psychedelics and fungi. His teaching interests also include ethics, social and political philosophy, ecological philosophy, existentialism, and philosophy of language.

Brendan enjoys playing music, hiking, amateur mycology, food, and gardening. His “Navigator Stout” once placed fourth in the American Homebrewers Association stout competition. But now he brews only kombucha. He loves being a professor at the Castleton campus a few miles from his home over a gorge that’s jaw-droopingly … gorgeous.