Sound to Sea Staff

Penn Perry
Penn Perry is the new Executive Director of Trinity Center. Penn is a longtime staff member of Camp Trinity, the residential summer camping program of the Diocese of East Carolina and Trinity Center. He has served on the Camp Trinity staff since 1988, and has been the Director of Camp Trinity and Episcopal Youth Coordinator at Trinity Center since 2001. Penn is a firm believer in the many benefits of residential community-based programming, and he advocates for all children to have access to the various programs of Trinity Center. His passions are movies, literature, and poetry; in fact, in his prior life he was an Instructor for the English Department of the University of Georgia. Penn anticipates the challenges of maintaining and eventually expanding the many ministries of Trinity Center, and he is dedicated to protecting this fragile environment of natural beauty and spiritual access for all who come to partake of it.


Maggie Riley
Maggie is our Sound to Sea Program Director and Elderhostel Coordinator. She hails from Maitland, Florida. She attended University of Florida in Gainesville where she received a degree in Literature. Pre-Sound to Sea experience includes working as a reporter for the Palm Beach Post and volunteering in the Peace Corps, teaching English in Thailand. Her extensive travel experience has taken her from Thailand to scuba dive, to India to work in Mother Teresa’s Hospitals, to Nepal to trek in the Himalayas to France to tour in kayaks. Inside the US, she biked the length of the Outer Banks and the coast of Maine. In May of 2002 and December 2004 she and her husband welcomed their sons, Liam and Finn, into the world. Her most recent interests include sustainable living practices, water quality and global change.


Melinda Furrer
After graduating with a BS in Elementary Education from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Mindy wasn't sure she was quite ready to teach in the classroom. Instead, she joined the Peace Corps where for two years she lived on an island roughly the size of Bogue Banks, except that she was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, rather than 1 ½ miles from the North Carolina coast. As a Peace Corps Volunteer to the island nation of Kiribati, Mindy spent her time teaching Junior High School level ESL and Social Science classes. One afternoon while swinging in her hammock in her stick house Mindy came across an announcement for an Environmental Education Program in N.C.. She somehow knew this would be her next adventure. She has worked at Sound to Sea as an instructor for the past two years and is now taking on the exciting challenges of the Program Coordinator position.


Suzannah Crandall
Suzannah was born and raised eating cheese in northern Wisconsin. Her love for the environment began at a young age and led her to study biology at Beloit College in WI. She graduated in 2004 with a B.S. in Environmental Biology and then launched herself into a two and a half year adventure in South America serving in the Peace Corps and traveling. During Peace Corps, Suzannah served in Paraguay as an Environmental Education volunteer working with elementary and middle school teachers to design and implement environmental lesson plans. She also directed environmental awareness camps for youth focusing on human impact on the environment. Her desire to continue teaching kids and working in the great outdoors brought her to the Sound to Sea program. She's thrilled to be living in North Carolina eating hush puppies and sippin' sweet tea.


Meghan Dinneen
Meghan grew up in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. She chose to travel south for college and got her Bachelor's Degree in zoology at the University of Maryland. After graduation, Meghan decided she had more to learn so she spent a semester studying wildlife management and ecology near Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya. After working as a veterinary technician, she discovered that environmental education combined her passion for the environment and her love of working with kids. After spending one summer at Sound to Sea, Meghan returned during the winter of 2005 and has been here ever since.


Sharon Fuller
Growing up on the shores of Lake Erie, Sharon Fuller loved spending time exploring the great outdoors and swimming. She attended Villanova University, where she was an Academic All-American water polo player. After receiving her BA in Psychology, Sharon returned home and began working as a classroom assistant at a small Montessori primary school. As the school expanded, Sharon took up the challenge of creating and teaching an elementary classroom community where 1st-6th graders learned through guided inquiry. She was also assistant water-polo coach at her high school alma mater, leading the girls team to a state championship in 2004 and a second place finish in 2005. A fan of Shakespeare and skydiving, Sharon is delighted to be taking on the challenge of teaching Outer Banks ecology to the many different students visiting the Sound to Sea Program.


Sarah Lane
Sarah Lane hails from Townsend, Massachusetts. She is a recent graduate of Colgate University where her studies in environmental geography taught her that she would need to move south to avoid the central NY winters. She has spent time studying abroad in Australia learning about various environmental and cultural issues. Her greatest adventure while there was a trip to Tasmania where she camped on an uninhabited island with the kangaroos and wombats. Sarah can be located anywhere on the island by her distinct laugh. She was drawn to Sound to Sea by the call of the ocean, the warmth of the south, her love of the environment and the fun of working with kids.


Nick Mallos
Nick was born and raised just outside Hershey, PA. His obsession for the ocean and the outdoors began at an early age when his family spent their summers vacationing at the Jersey and Maryland shores. His love for the ocean led him to a degree in Biology and Marine Science which he recently received from Dickenson College. While at Dickenson, Nick was a member of the soccer team, and spent a semester studying abroad in the Turks and Caicos Islands. During this time, he conducted research on the movements of juvenile lemon sharks. As he prepares to continue his studies of sharks in graduate school, teaching children and sharing his passion for the marine environment seems the perfect opportunity.


Ryan Nepomuceno
Ryan was raised in a small rural town filled with forest and farmland called Beaverdam, VA. He left Beaverdam to study Environmental Education at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC. In addition to his classes, Ryan was also a member of the infamous Warren Wilson Landscaping Crew where he learned to climb and prune trees with a rope, harness and chainsaw. After graduation, he worked at a summer camp in Montreat, NC as the Environmental Education Coordinator. He loves fishing, hiking, canoeing, camping and fishing. He has a deep respect for the natural world and loves teaching others how to appreciate and care for their environment. He was drawn to Sound to Sea by the desire to teach young people about exciting ecosystems in an outdoor setting and the chance to develop his saltwater fishing techniques.

Claire Russo
Claire grew up in Massachusetts where as a child she was fond of exploring the outside world. She went North to Maine for college, where she majored in marine biology and swam on the swim team. Since graduating in 2005, Claire has driven to California and back seeing all the sights along the way. She has taught environmental education in Maine and on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and has also spent time coaching high school swimming. Most recently Claire co-taught a summer field and natural history program on Cape Cod. Claire was drawn to Sound to Sea by the awesome program and the desire to be learn about someplace new. When not teaching Claire can be found running, biking, swimming in the ocean and making up verses to the Sound to Sea theme song with Suzannah.


June Trimble
June Trimble has a weakness for bodies of water, happy children, and country music. She claims Annapolis, MD as her hometown. June attended Denison University in Granville, OH where she studied sociology, anthropology and communication. She explored environmental education through various positions with Squam Lakes National Science Center, the Potomac Conservatory, and the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD. She looks forward to adapting to her new home on the beach, energizing swarms of youth about the environment and exploring Southern luxuries.


Lindsay Vivian
Lindsay, a.k.a. Lviv hails from Grand Island, NE which though grand, is not an island. She got a B.S. in biology with a minor in Spanish from University of Nebraska at Kearney. While in college, Lindsay was on the women's golf team and conducted undergraduate research on the use of switchgrass as a future source of biofuel. After college Lindsay participated in an Americorps program in western Massachusetts doing environmental education and trail maintenance at state forests and parks. From this experience, she learned she liked teaching environmental education, and now finds herself at Sound to Sea. She enjoys teaching kids about environmental issues and about how to reduce their eco-footprint. In her free time, Lindsay enjoys reading, hiking, backpacking, jogging, learning about plants, baking, playing golf, and watching "What Not to Wear".