THE OREGON EXTENSION
SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE FIRE UP YOUR MIND
Hailing from all corners of the country, OE faculty and staff have at the core of their work a deep love for this place and the students that join us here.
THE PEOPLE
WHO WE ARE
Kelton (Tad) Cobb (Ph.D. University of Iowa) joined the faculty of the Oregon Extension in the fall of 2011. He has taught Christian theology, church history, and comparative religions at Wesleyan University, St. Joseph’s University, and Hartford Seminary. He grew up in Colorado, but has led an itinerant academic life in Oregon, New Jersey, Iowa, Germany, and Connecticut. He has published one book called The Blackwell Guide to Theology and Popular Culture, and is currently interested in how Christianity has learned, with great difficulty, to be moral through the hard lessons of its darkest hours. He lives at Lincoln with his two sons.
Reed Byg (PhD Virginia Tech) is joining the OE as a Visiting Professor for Fall 2024. Reed earned her PhD in Social and Political Thought in Spring 2024. Her research focuses on nature-society relations, natural resource access and use, the politics of place, and community resilience. This research agenda is deeply connected to her pedagogical methods, which center on experiential and place-based education. Reed’s writing has been published in New Political Science and SPECTRA and she recently received a university-wide award for teaching excellence. She spends her free time instructing and practicing aerial silks, rock climbing, foraging, and backpacking.
Brian Bodenbender (PhD University of Michigan) has taught geology and environmental science at Hope College since 1996. He also teaches field courses in Michigan, Arizona, and The Bahamas, where he enjoys taking students into bat-, snake- and spider-infested caves, helping them avoid deadly plants and vertebrates, introducing them to anoxic slime, toxic sediment, and smoldering landfills, and exposing them to bites, stings, and punctures from plants, invertebrates, and unreasonably sharp rocks. Trained as a paleontologist, he has developed interests in sustainability, shaped by the knowledge that most highly successful species are extinct. Brian enjoys eclectic folk music, camping with his wife, son, and daughter, and traveling to remote mountain streams to pan for inconsequential quantities of gold and significant sums of scenery and solitude.
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Will Lake (Assistant Program Director) is a Hope College ('19) and OE ('18) alum that couldn't keep himself away from the Oregon Extension. Since graduating college, Will has come back to serve the OE in many different roles including as farm coordinator, maintenance guy, groundskeeper, forest crew, carpenter, recruiter, and student life. In between his stints at the OE, Will has worked in Big Sky, Montana as a ski lift operator, and in Madrid, Spain as an English teacher. Will loves to practice Spanish, play guitar, cruise around the mountain on his motorcycle, and read books. During the semester you can probably find him among the students playing volleyball, chatting about the Brothers Karamazov, or leading a backpacking trip. Will is currently pursuing his MA in mental health counseling at Southern Oregon University. email
Lindsey White (Farm Manager) is an Eastern Mennonite University (‘23) and OE (‘22) alum where she studied environmental science and environmental justice. Lindsey has worked as a biological botany technician for Shenandoah National Park, an environmental compliance technician, a garden director for an environmental education center, led backpacking trips with middle & high schoolers in Colorado, a poll worker, a barista, a goat sitter, substitute teacher & more. In her free time, Lindsey enjoys rummaging through the dumpsters looking for glorious dumpster finds, spending time outside in whatever capacity possible (hiking, biking, running, backpacking, ultimate frisbee, slacklining, camping, pickleball, soccer), working on a project, diving deep into a conversation, playing games or sharing a meal.
