Alumni and Careers

What have you been up to since graduating from Bowdoin?

After graduating from Bowdoin, I spent a year outside of the world of academia traveling, working, and completing a yoga teacher training course before beginning a PhD program in environmental history at Georgetown University. I received my PhD in 2025 and am now an assistant professor of environmental history at Elon University, a liberal arts college in North Carolina. I teach classes on the history of climate change, gender, and human relationships with the natural world, and I write for academic and public audiences about these topics, as well.

Why History?

At Bowdoin, I was fortunate to take courses in history and environmental studies that introduced me to the excitement of conducting research and historiographical analysis, especially at the intersection of disciplines. These courses, particularly Introduction to Environmental Studies with Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies Matthew Klingle, Culture Wars in the Enlightenment with Associate Professor of History Meghan Roberts, and Environmental History of East Asia with Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies Sakura Christmas, made me excited to pursue a coordinate major in history and environmental studies that culminated in an honors project which formed the basis of my doctoral research. The historical background of everything from my home state of Maine to the environmental changes which are the most pressing issue of our time fascinated me in college and continues to fascinate me now.

Are there any classes, professors, or experiences that had a lasting impact on you?

The opportunity to conduct an honors project, advised by Professor Roberts, gave me the experience of doing archival research in the UK and spending focused time writing, researching, and workshopping my project. That experience was crucial for my development as a scholar and helped me confirm my passion for academic research.

What advice would you give to current students or recent graduates interested in your field?

For current students, I would recommend taking courses across a wide range of disciplines during your time at Bowdoin and building strong relationships with faculty members whose courses fascinate you. The opportunity to conduct research on campus or elsewhere, or to conduct an independent study or honors project, will help you identify how much you like the academic process of creating and sharing knowledge and how you can best harness that skill. If you’re interested in a master’s degree or PhD, I really strongly recommend taking time off after college to do something other than school for at least a year. That experience will serve you well no matter what interests you end up pursuing after college.

Where was your Student Teaching placement?

Deer Isle-Stonington High School, Deer Isle, Maine

Following my graduation from Bowdoin in May of 2015, I moved to Deer Isle, Maine and worked at Deer Isle-Stonington High School as a paraprofessional until shifting into my student teaching practicum there in Spring 2016. I was able to teach two different courses in U.S. History. One of them covered traditional content, while the other was a team taught, interdisciplinary effort that was part of the high school’s offerings in their Marine Studies Pathway. Entitled “U.S. History Through the Fisheries,” the course sought to integrate skills and content knowledge of history, English, and marine trades. Throughout my practicum, I collaborated every day with my team of teachers and developed new curricula with the intent of giving each student as personalized a learning experience as possible. While I leave my student teaching experience with knowledge of how to develop better lesson plans or modified assessments, perhaps my most important take away is to remember the process of reciprocal transformation that occurs with teaching and learning. In order for learning to take place, I must first remember to ask not what I have to offer my students, but what we have to offer each other.

Why Education?

I first began to think about a career in teaching after my sophomore year of high school. I had always been a “good” student in the sense that I achieved high grades and was very studious. That year, however, my history teacher became the first to really challenge me to embrace failure and to get out of my learning comfort zone. His approach to teaching and assessing history was far different than anything else I had encountered to that point in my life – he made me actively bring the learning to him, rather than having me be a passive agent in the classroom where he imparted knowledge of the content onto me. After taking his class, I was hooked on history with a new sense of excitement and ownership of how and what I could learn. From that point on, I began to think that becoming a history teacher would not only allow me to continue exploring a subject that I found fascinating and exciting, but more importantly it could give me the opportunity to inspire students to develop confidence as learners in the same way that my teacher did for me.

At Bowdoin, I have taken advantage of opportunities provided to develop an understanding of and skills in educational policy, philosophy, and practice in a wide range of contexts from urban to rural. I took part in two Alternative Spring Break trips focused on learning about urban education, one as a participant in New York City, and another as a trip leader in Washington, D.C. For my pre-practicum experience, I was placed in a tenth grade Civics and Government class at Falmouth High School in a suburb of Portland, Maine.

More About Brian

Brian left Bowdoin knowing that he wanted to be a physician, but also that he wanted to better understand the health care system, and how it was changing. After graduation, Brian moved to Washington, DC and began working at the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), supporting their Leadership Consortium on Value and Science-Driven Health Care. While at the NAM, he developed a strong interest in the organization and financing of health care delivery. To further develop these interests, Brian enrolled in the joint MD-MBA program at Harvard.