Sophia Calvi

Director of Programs, Franklin Environmental Center | Middlebury College

As the Director of Programs, Sophia works closely with students, faculty and staff, as well as broader local and global communities, to continuously evolve sustainability. Her passion is holding space for us to dream into being the world we want to live in. Her work explores inner and outer sustainability, collective wellness and how we remember and practice our interconnectedness and interdependence.

As an undergraduate, Sophia took all the food classes at Middlebury! Bill McKibben’s first class “Local Food” shed light on her passion for cultivating collective wellbeing. She spent the summer of 2004 implementing her thesis work, which became the first children’s garden program at the Knoll. She then ventured out into the wider world of food systems, sustainability and wellness. Sophia returned to Middlebury in 2012 as the Food and Garden Educator to manage the Knoll and help develop a Food Studies program as well as the FoodWorks summer fellowship. They became the Director of Programs in 2019. Sophia earned a master’s degree in Food Culture and Communications at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy and a BA in International Studies and Women & Gender Studies at Middlebury. She is a trained Koru mindfulness teacher and healings arts practitioner.