Dr. Valerie Esposito has been at Champlain since July 2010 and is the Director for the Applied Sustainability program (formerly Environmental Policy). She teaches courses on Environmental Studies, Sustainability and Environmental Policy, Environmental Justice, Place-Based Environmental Study, Ecological Economics, Women's Leadership, and the Capstone.
Valerie attended American University, earning a B.A. in Justice. She received an M.A. from Brown University in Environmental Studies. She obtained her Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Ecological Economics from the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. She served as the Executive Director of the Vermont Earth Institute and has taught at UVM.
After graduating from college, Valerie spent two years living abroad in Costa Rica and Chile, where she participated in environmental volunteer work and taught English. She pursued her international interests in her doctoral work, conducting research and working with local non-profit and non-governmental organizations in Costa Rica, Peru and the Dominican Republic. She is very interested in bringing this experience to the classroom to ensure relevant local, national and global issues are addressed.
She is also active in Vermont's Localvore food movement and is on the Advisory Board of the Caribbean Agroecology Institute. Valerie enjoys spending time with her husband, 2 daughters and friends by taking advantage of Vermont's many features, through skiing, hiking, mountain biking, canoeing, camping, theater visits, soccer, and seeing live music. Sustainable travel, gardening, cooking, reading, photography, and cultivating her inner yogini also keep her busy.