Our 2025 Teen Program Instructors
Angharad Davies (BA with Honors in English, from The George Washington University; MFA in Dance, NYU) is an award-winning dancer, choreographer and movement director, and teacher. Her choreography and direction for dance, theater, and opera has been presented by Artspace New Haven, Danspace Project (NYC); The Educational Center for the Arts (New Haven, CT), ODC (San Francisco), Radialsystem (Berlin); Walker Art Center and Mixed Blood Theater (MPLS); Paul Mellon Arts Center at Choate Rosemary Hall (Wallingford, CT), and Yale Repertory Theatre, among other venues. As a performer, she has worked with companies and choreographers across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including Ivy Baldwin Dance, Drastic Action, Gibney Dance, Hanna Hegenscheidt, SuperGroup, and Chris Yon. She has been on faculty at the University of Minnesota, the Lincoln Center Institute, Berlin’s Staatlicheballettschule, and the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, a public performing arts high school in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Additionally, she has been a guest artist, teaching master classes internationally at many universities and arts institutions, such as Yale, Princeton, Sasha Waltz & Guests, K3 Zentrum für Choreografie in Hamburg, Germany, and Yorkshire Dance Centre in Leeds, England. Angharad’s current teaching includes faculty appointments at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, CT, the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, CT, and Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury, CT. To learn more visit her website.
Kenter Davies is a vocal arranger, music educator, and choral facilitator based in Brooklyn, New York. He dedicates his work to creating spaces where people can engage with music without the pressure of perfection, but full of complexity and joy. He highlights the journey over the destination and firmly believes in making music for music-making’s sake. Kenter facilitates One Day Choirs and other music events with NYC-based creative community, Gaia Music Collective. Chances are you may have seen a video at some point of humans walking around a concrete basement as they sang a song together…that’s his work! He is thrilled to be returning to teach at Putney for his 4th summer to lead Vocal Ensemble, Songwriting, and our beloved morning Sing.
Hilary Douglass is an art jeweler living in West Dummerston, Vermont with her family. She feels honored and thrilled to teach, share her knowledge, skills and passion of metalsmithing with her students. Her art and metalwork is marked by a love of materials, reflecting an arsenal of traditional techniques, love of problem-solving, and a belief in beautiful craftsmanship. When not in the studio Hilary can be found hanging out with her chickens or working in the garden.
Ellie Elaine has always loved to create and experiment in all different artistic mediums, and studied at Parsons school of design with a focus on video and installation arts. She is very interested in the future of regenerative agricultural design, and she is excited to be returning to the The Putney School Summer Programs where the arts and ecology overlap.
Cecilia is excited to continue sharing a passion for the craft of theatre with students from all around the country and is delighted to spend her second summer at The Putney School Summer Programs.
Having completed 15 years of teaching Drama and Musical Theatre at Ransom Everglades School, Cecilia is also the Co-Founder of the REMS House System, where curriculum is developed to further students’ social-emotional growth and foster campus camaraderie. Each year, Cecilia directs and choreographs a production, providing students with opportunities to extend their arts education beyond the classroom. Believing in learning through play and creativity, Cecilia emphasizes building a strong ensemble in a safe, joyful space.
A graduate of New World School of the Arts High School, she earned a Bachelor of Music in Musical Theatre from the conservatory program at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and a Master of Arts also from UM. Prior to joining Ransom Everglades, Cecilia worked with the National Foundation for the Advancement of Arts’ YoungArts program, identifying exceptional young talent.
She continues to perform professionally as a member of Actors’ Equity Association. Favorite performances include Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, La Cage Aux Folles, Side by Side by Sondheim, August: Osage County, Anna en el Tropico (in Spanish), and the world premiere of I Love You Because. Additionally, Cecilia is a voice-over actor whose work spans a variety of projects in multiple languages for clients such as HBO, Telemundo, Univision, Nickelodeon, and Netflix.
In free time, she enjoys reading, paddle-boarding, snorkeling, and traveling. This vibrant life is shared with her partner of 20 years, Jorge, and their three incredible children: Joaquín, Belén, and Inés.
Jon Hubbard is a metal artist and teacher living in West Dummerston, Vermont. Growing up in upstate New York Jon’s love of the outdoors, and art gave him the opportunity to travel and live out west for the past 20 years. His artwork is a reflection of nature and his travels. During the school year Jon teaches a variety of art classes at here the Putney School. And when he is not in the studio he can be found riding his mountain bike, hiking through the woods, or restoring a vintage bicycle.
Colton Kempf (he/him) is a composer, sound designer, and audiovisual artist. He has an MA in Music: Audiovisual Cultures from Goldsmiths University (London), where he worked on a large body of work called ‘Audiovisual Techniques for Scoring Home Movies.’ Colton continue to conduct research in the music department at Goldsmiths and work as a freelance sound recordist.
He is the co-founder of a small production company called SparkBoom Productions, which creates experimental and artist films, documentaries, and fictional worlds. We play with the storytelling power of audiovisual mediums to move their audiences.
His practice is exploring the relationship between the audio and visual arts, asking questions like: “What role does sound play in an increasingly visual society?” He is ever interested in the production and performance of noise, sound, and music.
When Colton is not studying sounds, he is probably walking in the woods or swimming. This will be his third Summer at Putney, where he began as a Residential Life Teacher in 2022. He is delighted to return to such an enchanting place!
To learn more visit hisWebsite.
Eric Johanni is a rockstar dad to two kick-awesome kids, a better than average rock climber, a nomad of a traveler, and an all-around creative ninja. When he’s not doing the above, he can be found educating the students at Arcadia High School and Phoenix College.
Ultimately, Eric is a collage artist that draws a vast skill set which includes, but is not limited to, sewing, printing, photography, drawing, wood working, digital design, assemblage, deconstruction, and repurposing. At the heart of his work he explores people’s connection to textiles and the impact that fabric has on our mood, memories, and relationships.
Eric has taught drawing, printmaking, photo and fashion design for the Putney Summer Programs. He gladly trades the Arizona heat for any chance to be in Vermont in summer.
Cooper Johnson will be returning as the animation teacher for The Putney Summer Arts Program. Although last summer was his first year teaching at Putney, his history here started when he was a student. Cooper attended The Putney School in high school (class of 2019) where he was a student dorm head, ultimate frisbee captain, and an avid animator. During the winter of his freshman year, he took his first animation class, and he hasn’t stopped animating since. After The Putney School, he studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design and received his BFA in Animation, graduating in 2023. Cooper has worked on several animated short films, both at school and independently.
Besides animation, Cooper’s interests include making pizza, ultimate frisbee, learning unique animal facts, and playing DnD. He is excited to be coming back for another summer to teach animation!
Website
Bella Meyer couldn’t be happier about returning to the supportive and creative Putney community for a second summer. The rest of the year she lives in London and works as a production freelancer in the film industry. In her time off she loves to travel, cook, read and leave unfinished craft projects all over her home.
Jake Noonan is a deep thinking, dynamic teacher and writer who approaches education in a creative and multidimensional manner.
Jake has over 10 years of teaching at traditional and alternative K-12 schools. In each grade, Jake specialized in working with neurodivergent students while offering authenticity and understanding. Jake is passionate about collaborating with each student to ensure that the individual goals are supported in all projects and discussions. Jake graduated from American Public University Systems in 2023 with an MFA in Humanities and from Temple University in 2014 with a BA in Secondary Education with a focus on English and Philosophy. Outside of academia, Jake spends time working on a multitude of creative projects at once such as music production, playing drums in several bands, writing fiction, and digital illustration.
Jackson Pelz is a musician and chess tutor from Asheville, North Carolina, currently living in New York City. A graduate of UNCSA’s Drama program, he loves to find places deeply involved in nature as well as the arts, which is why he’s very excited to be returning for his third summer working at The Putney’s Schools Summer arts program. When not practicing or writing music, he loves to read and go on walks. Sometimes he’ll learn more chess too, but only when he realizes how bad he still is.
Ella Pena is a live illustrator, exhibiting painter, and educator based in Sarasota, Florida. She began her artistic journey at The Putney Summer Program in 2017 and continued her studies at Ringling College of Art and Design. There, she majored in Illustration with dual minors in Graphic Design and Creative Writing.
Ella’s work encompasses a diverse range of styles, from monochromatic portraits with dramatic lighting to whimsical pen and ink drawings and product designs inspired by early 20th-century children’s book illustrations. In addition to her artistic practice, local exhibitions and live portrait work, Ella is committed to fostering young artistic talent, having taught art to students since 2013.
Website
Freya Sachs is a teacher and writer in Nashville, TN. She is chair of the English Department of University School of Nashville, where she teaches high school English and creative writing. Her poems can be found as part of Nashville’s “Poetry In Motion” series, in the anthology Extinguished and Extinct: An Anthology of Things That No Longer Exist, at Rove poetry, and elsewhere. Her fiction reviews can be found at BookPage. She holds an AB in Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Vanderbilt University.
Uriel Sandoval is a Mexican-American artist living in Los Angeles. His current art practice is a series of portrait and landscape paintings in oil and watercolor. Uriel has also focused on mixed-media drawings in charcoal and graphite pencils that emphasize the traditional use of shading with contemporary mixed-media newspaper and magazine articles.
Currently, Uriel is teaching at Alliance Piera Barbaglia Shaheen Health Service Academy High School. His art classes have conveyed units in painting, drawing, mixed media, and various other mediums. Uriel obtained a Master’s Degree in Art History in May 2024 from California State University of Los Angeles.
Born and raised in Vermont, Charlotte Sturm recently graduated from Oberlin College where she studied studio art. Her interests include oil painting, knitting, and cooking with friends. She will be returning for her second summer at Putney. She looks forward to being engaged with a community centered around art!
Haleigh Schmidt, a recent graduate of the University of Connecticut, will be joining Putney Summer Programs for their third summer. Legend has it they were found in a wizard’s den in a mountain cavern, swaddled in a Snoopy-print blanket and adorned with the tiniest cowboy hat. They have no intention of sharing their wizard secret. Please note that they absolutely did not finish the book they’re pictured reading, and they only read while they’re at Putney. They are super stoked to be returning to Putney Summer Programs again this year!
Jenalyn Warcup, a current graduate student at Bridgewater State University, is so excited to join Putney Summer Arts Program for her first summer. She loves all things art, nature, and community, so she can’t wait to experience all that Putney has to offer. An avid traveler, Jenalyn loves to explore Spanish speaking countries, where her adventures included creating a documentary on melting glaciers in Peru and building a water system for a water insecure community in Panama. When she’s not diving into creative projects or meaningful work, you’ll find her chatting with the farm animals or making new friends across campus.
Kiersten White’s passion is to be equitable and representational in making impactful and informative visual entertainment. She has directed and produced films independently and with production companies for the last 8 years. The last documentary she produced, “Dennis E. Thomas: Center Stage”, won a 2023 Silver Telly Award. Kiersten’s independently-produced short, “A Differently-Curated World”, won Best Story at the Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival.
She has had the opportunity to guest-lecture at the University of California, San Diego in an introduction to filmmaking course. She has a BFA in race and gender studies from Spelman College and a MFA in Film from Savannah College of Art and Design. Kiersten currently lives in Southern Vermont where she teaches film at the Putney School for their acclaimed summer arts program, she will be returning for her third summer.