New Faces

Meet Elena Santos, Education Coordinator

What interested you about joining Merck Forest’s Education team? After several years of agricultural work after graduating from Green Mountain College, I was excited about the opportunity to return to environmental education work. I was also drawn by the unique opportunity to dedicate my working time to a place close to home and where I have spent a lot of time as a visitor hiking, camping, learning, and exploring.

What excites you most about your new role at Merck Forest? I’m looking forward to connecting with learners of all ages and backgrounds and excited for the opportunity to share the joy and curiosity I have for the natural world with them. I am also delighted to interact with neighbors and familiar faces as an environmental educator.

What fuels your passion for Vermont’s natural and working lands? What do you think shaped that passion?

My passion is dually fueled and shaped by my sense of place within Vermont and my appreciation for the network of people who work the land here. I feel an urgency about the now palpable effects of climate change that we all witness and desire to make a positive impact on the climate during my lifetime.

This passion was shaped by my mom’s love for agriculture and also by a place- based education class I took in high school, which gave me a frame of reference for the place where I was born and raised. The class left me with a sense of responsibility for Vermont and inspired me to invest myself here.