Faculty & Staff

Rachel Ephraim

M.F.A., Columbia University

Rachel Ephraim received her M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University and a B.S. in Film and Television from Boston University where she studied screenwriting. While in grad school, Rachel worked as a reader in the fiction department of The New Yorker and as the managing editor at The Park Slope Reader. Her work has been published in The Washington Square Review, The Barcelona Review, and the Apple Valley Review. Before teaching at Bard, Rachel taught for Writopia Lab, a non-profit that fosters joy, literacy, and critical thinking in teens from all background through creative writing.

Antonio Ortiz

Antonio Ortiz is a Visiting Instructor in the Humanities at Bard College, teaching Language and Thinking (L&T) and First Year Seminar (FYSEM). Antonio graduated from Bard College in 2018 with a BA in Economics, specializing in macroeconomic policy and the economic history of Latin America. After graduating from Bard, he attended Yale Divinity School where he earned his Master of Divinity degree in 2023. During his time at Yale, Antonio’s research focused on the Hebrew Bible; in particular, how biblical narratives of violence were used to construct communal identity in ancient Israel, and surrounding ancient West Asian cultures. In addition to his teaching role, Antonio is also a Program Associate in the Office of the Dean of the College, working directly with the Associate Vice President for Academic Initiatives and Associate Dean of the College, Nicholas Alton Lewis, on building a climate of inclusion and community at Bard College. Outside of academia, Antonio is a practicing Buddhist, and an avid soccer fan.

Matthew Park

Director, Bard Early College Hudson Valley and the Bard Sequence

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in African History, Michigan State University, B.A. History and Secondary Education, The College of New Jersey.

Dr. Matthew Park oversees the Bard Sequence and Bard Early College Hudson Valley. He previously taught courses in African history, literature, and film at BHSEC Newark from 2012-2021 and served as the Program Chair of Second Year Seminar for Bard Early College.

Sarah Passino

Sarah Passino is a poet, artist, and educator. Her work has been supported by fellowships from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Rona Jaffe Foundation, Poet’s House, The Center for Book Arts, and by the 92nd Street Y’s Rachel Wetzsteon Poetry Prize. She has been published by The Brooklyn Rail, DIAGRAM, Berkeley Poetry Review, Poetry Daily, Boston Review, Wendy’s Subway, and Company Gallery. Her book Versioning Sappho Versioning came out with Stereoverse in 2021 and a series of her drawings and daybook poems is forthcoming at the Opalka Gallery, curated by Nancy Shaver and the artist collective, Wolf Tones. Sarah earned an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, a PhD in English from Vanderbilt University, an MA in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a BA in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has taught at Vanderbilt University, Riverbend Maximum Security Prison in partnership with American Baptist College and abolitionist leaders inside, with worker’s centers and community arts organizations, at Bard’s Microcollege at the Brooklyn Public Library, and at the Yale School of Art. She is a contributing editor at Ugly Duckling Presse and arts educator at Dia Beacon.

Jeff Roda

Jeff has written scripts for many movie studios and TV networks including DreamWorks, Paramount, Universal, HBO, CBS, and Warner Bros, and has been named to the Hollywood Screenwriting Black List three times. He did the production rewrite on the Universal Pictures comedy Pitch Perfect, and was also a producer on the Sony Pictures feature Love Liza, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival. His directorial debut, 18 TO PARTY, premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival in October 2019. He has written articles about film for The Atlantic Wire and taught screenwriting at the School of Visual Arts in NYC.

Miles Strucker

Miles Strucker is a fiction writer and educator whose work explores the relationship between nature and the imagination. He teaches Seminar in the Bard Early College program and a course at Parsons School of Design called Constructed Environments. He has previously taught at Columbia University, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Meredith College.

Erika van der Velden

Erika van der Velden earned her BA at Bard, where she studied psychology and music. She holds a Masters of Science in clinical psychology from Antioch University New England, and a Masters of Music Education from Longy School of Music. Erika has taught psychology and music in the Bard Sequence and Bard High School Early College Cleveland since 2014. She has also served as Director of Advising at BHSEC Cleveland and Director of Accessibility at Bard College. In addition to teaching, she also works as an executive function coach for high school and college students.

Dumaine Williams

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, Stony Brook University, B.A. Biology, Bard College.

Dr. Dumaine Williams (Vice President and Dean of the Early College) oversees academic programming across the Bard Early College campuses and promotes the Sequence’s academic quality and integration with the broader Bard network. Dr. Williams was previously the founding principal of Bard High School Early College Newark and Bard High School Early College Cleveland.

Todd Wilmot

Todd Wilmot did his undergraduate studies at George Washington University, and graduate studies at Fordham University, where he specialized in Medieval History. His graduate work focused on Late Antiquity / the Early Middle Ages, Patristics, and Church-State relations. He also completed studies in Latin at CUNY and library science at Rutgers University. From 2000 to 2007 he was librarian and history professor at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, PA, and since 2007 has taught history at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, NY, where he also currently serves as chair of the Department of History, Government and Economics. He regularly teaches courses on Western Civilization, Medieval History and U.S. History.

Mike Wood

Matt Zembo

BA SUNY Albany: MA War Studies, King’s College London; PhD War Studies, King’s College London (in progress)

Matt has taught at the college level for twenty years and is an Associate Professor of History and Military History at Hudson Valley Community College. His areas of personal research are: 18th Century Military Affairs, British Army of the American Revolution, Modern Military History. He is a regular consultant for New York State Parks and Historic Preservation on battlefield analysis, exhibit writing, and curatorial research related to Military History. He has also worked as an archeologist in Upstate New York and in Greece.

Forthcoming Publication (2024): Claiming the Land: A Critical Reassessment of the Sullivan Clinton

Campaign of 1779 (Rowman and Littlefield).