Meet the Team

Mark Somerville, PhD

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Mark Somerville, PhD, joined Greenway Institute as its founding president in 2024. Throughout his career, Mark has been dedicated to creating educational environments with students at the center, driving their own learning. He’s excited to take this to a new level, blending work-integrated education with a student-centered approach to ensure Greenway’s graduates leave with real-world experience, zero debt, and a drive for sustainability.

As an early faculty member at Olin College, Mark helped reimagine the education of undergraduate engineering education. Students were co-creators, actively shaping their learning experiences – and growing in amazing ways. His 23 years at Olin were transformative and where he caught the startup bug and began working with educational institutions worldwide, from Vietnam to Brazil, to develop innovative educational engineering programs.

Mark earned dual bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and liberal arts at the University of Texas Austin, was a Rhodes Scholar in physics at Oxford University, and earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering at MIT. He began his professional academic career as an assistant professor of physics at Vassar College.

Now, at Greenway Institute, Mark is building on these past experiences. His goal is to continue to adapt engineering education to the needs of society and make higher education overall more inclusive, accessible, affordable, and forward-thinking.

Troy McBride, PHD

Rebecca Holcombe, Ed.D., M.B.A.

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Rebecca Holcombe is a long-time educator of students, of teachers, and of administrators. She served as Director of the Dartmouth Teacher Education Program and as Secretary of Education for the State of Vermont. During her tenure as Secretary of Education, the Agency she led innovative statewide initiatives related to career pathways, proficiency-based learning, and nationally-recognized work on school quality reviews. Rebecca is passionate about equity, sustainability and our green energy transition. For her, Greenway is an opportunity to help students build the confidence, capability and networks they need to thrive in engineering, while they build a more just and sustainable future.

Hannah Root, M.S.

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Hannah Root is a founding member of the educational team at Greenway Center for Equity and Sustainability. She has a background in environmental education, with a masters in Environmental Science from Antioch University New England and 5+ years of experience teaching middle school science. Hannah joins the founding team at Greenway to coordinate, develop, and mentor students in our innovative hands-on, project-based, sustainable engineering programs. In collaboration with the Greenway team, she coordinates sustainable engineering courses and programs, mentors students towards mastery of target outcomes, and supports the development of a collaborative and inclusive culture on campus.

Kristin Cantu

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Kristin Cantu is the sustainable engineering program manager for the Greenway Center for Equity and Sustainability. She has a background in communications, program development, project management, and community building. As a Montpelier resident, Kristin is excited to help develop and build upon Greenway’s mission of creating a sustainable and equitable community in her hometown, as well as create a strong connection between the local community and Greenway.

Annick Dewald

Dr. Annick Dewald is a founding faculty member of Greenway College. She holds an undergraduate engineering degree from Smith College and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her dissertation research encompassed systems engineering, solar-electric aircraft design, multidisciplinary design optimization, and remote sensing for climate monitoring. Annick brings industry experience from Boeing Research & Technology as well as at Electra.aero, an electric aircraft startup. While working at electra.aero, she expanded upon her dissertation research by leading a team of undergraduate interns to manufacture and flight-test a demonstrator vehicle for the Stratospheric Airborne Climate Observatory System (SACOS). At Greenway, Annick will integrate her passions for teaching, mentoring, and hands-on learning to develop and teach Greenway’s reimagined engineering curriculum.

Thomas L. Peeples, Jr.

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Thomas L. Peeples, Jr. is a graduate and adjunct faculty member of RIT in Mechanical Engineering. Thomas is a Sr. Technical Project Manager, in the Global Off-Highway Product Development Group at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Thomas is a 5-time NCAA All-American, member of the RIT Sports Hall of Fame, and recipient of the Walls-Olsen Memorial Scholarship for “Outstanding Contribution to Student Life”. Thomas is a retired US Navy Officer where he served in various Surface Warfare roles onboard the USS Fletcher (DD-992) and the USS Hewitt (DD-966). Thomas is actively engaged in the community, current president of the Goodyear Veterans Association, and a graduate of the 2018-2019 Goodyear Community Leadership Institute. Thomas is the recipient of the US Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine 2020 Stephanie C. Hill Black Engineer of the Year “Legacy Award”. Thomas is passionate about student engagement and leadership. Originally from Boston, MA, he is married and has three teen-aged children.

Sean Andersson, PhD

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Sean B. Andersson received a B.S. degree in engineering and applied physics from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, in 1994, an M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA, in 1995, and a Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA, in 2003. He has worked at AlliedSignal Aerospace and Aerovironment, Inc. and is currently an Associate Professor of mechanical engineering and of systems engineering with Boston University, Boston, MA, USA. He received an NSF CAREER award in 2009, is a senior member of the IEEE, and was an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (2014-2018) and for the SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization (2013-2018).

Dr. Rachel Koh

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Dr. Rachel Koh is a founding faculty member at Greenway with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Vermont and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts. Koh has previously taught at Lafayette and Smith Colleges. At Smith College’s department of engineering, Koh taught engineering courses in Fluid Mechanics, Solid Mechanics, Sustainable Materials, and Dynamics. At Greenway, Koh will develop, pilot and teach our innovative, 100% hands-on, project-based, lecture-free engineering modules and programs. They will work to develop sustainable engineering courses and programs and support the development of a collaborative and inclusive culture on campus. Koh brings research expertise in wind turbine design and plant-based composite materials. Dr. Koh shares Greenway’s ambition to redesign engineering education and believes in the mission to empower every student to thrive in engineering.