Flying Cloud Institute Welcomes New Board Members

08:09AM / Friday, April 15, 2022Print Story | Email Story

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Flying Cloud Institute (FCI) announced that Catherine Burns, Daniel Medwed, and Dana Vorisek have joined the Board of Directors.

Catherine (Kate) Burns has worked in the financial services profession for over 10 years and has been elected FCI's Treasurer. She began her career in higher education, where she developed a passion for helping families plan for the costs of college. In her current role as a financial advisor with Apella Capital, she helps families navigate and plan for their financial futures.

Kate says, "Flying Cloud Institute's involvement in our local schools inspires me, as I attribute my career to the extracurricular activities I participated in as a student in the Pittsfield Public School system." She currently resides in Pittsfield with her husband where they embrace the active outdoor lifestyle of the Berkshires.

Daniel S. Medwed is a University Distinguished Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, and the Legal Analyst for GBH, Boston's local NPR and PBS affiliate. His latest book, "Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution," was published by Cambridge University Press in April 2017.

"My wife Sharissa Jones and I, along with our daughters Clementine and Mili, are absolutely devoted to Flying Cloud – and have been ever since Mili started to attend the summer program about a decade ago. We are continually amazed by the creativity, energy, and good cheer of the program, and I am thrilled to be a member of the board," said Daniel.

Dana Vorisek is an economist for the World Bank Group in Washington, DC. She has worked extensively on the institution's outlook for the global economy, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Caribbean, and has published on a variety of macroeconomic and international development topics. Her professional and academic path to economics was not direct, however, and through her own experience she has a great appreciation for the application of skills across fields. As an FCI board member, she hopes to contribute to the organization's fostering of varied intellectual and skills development among school-age children.

These accomplished professionals join an already impressive Board of Directors, which includes Susan Russell as Chair, Cathy Ingram as Vice Chair, Kenzie Fields as Clerk and Directors Lindy Marcel, Mary Nash, Barbara Viniar, and Julie Webster.

"We are excited to have such a supportive Board to help us fulfill our mission to inspire young people and ignite their creativity. How lucky are we to have wonderful members like Kate, Daniel, and Dana join us in this important work?" said Executive Director Maria Rundle.

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Lee Wants Bioremediation in Housatonic River Vernal Pool Study

05:24AM / Thursday, September 03, 2026

LEE, Mass. — The town has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric to include PCB bioremediation in its vernal pool study on the Housatonic River.

Lee officials are urging the EPA to require GE to add a bioremediation treatment arm to the vernal-pool study or provide the public with a clear explanation for why such testing is being excluded.

"This is exactly the kind of question EPA and GE should be asking before final remedy decisions are locked in," Select Board Chair Bob Jones said in a statement released to the press. "The town is not asking to slow the cleanup. We are asking EPA and GE to make the cleanup smarter, less destructive, and more protective over the long term."

An open house was held in Pittsfield earlier this summer for the Vernal Pool Pilot Study on Reach 5A of the Housatonic River, a five-mile stretch between the river's confluence and Lenox border.

EPA has required GE to conduct a Vernal Pool Pilot Study as part of the Housatonic River Rest of River remediation, comparing excavation and restoration with activated-carbon-based treatments, including a product called SediMite and powdered activated carbon, the town said.

Ten vernal pools will be cleaned of polychlorinated biphenyls in total, five with excavation and five with active carbon, and seven additional vernal pools will be monitored as controls. Construction will be complete around October, but the pools will be left to their natural processes and monitored with surveys and sampling for three years.

The Lee PCB Advisory Committee wrote a letter calling for the 21st-century approach it said could reduce long-term toxicity, avoid unnecessary destruction of sensitive habitats, and improve the effectiveness of the cleanup.

It states that Lee supports the study's purpose and agrees that EPA and GE must understand how cleanup activities affect sensitive vernal-pool ecosystems.

"The current pilot includes 10 treatment pools and seven control pools, while local officials understand that roughly 100 vernal pools may occur in the broader remediation corridor," the Aug. 27 letter reads.

"That makes the pilot study consequential: the methods tested now could shape how many sensitive wetlands are excavated, reconstructed, treated, or left with PCBs managed in place."

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