M.G.H. Gilliam
President & Publisher
With an early background in music and opera production, Marion Gilliam went on to earn a law degree at the Sorbonne in Paris. He worked for Schroeder’s Bank in London and New York before founding Givens Hall Capital Management, an investment company. He is the founder of Orion magazine and The Orion Society.
H. Emerson Blake
Executive Director
Chip Blake was trained as a biologist but has worked in the field of publishing, editing, and nonprofit administration for almost twenty years. He has worked at The Orion Society since 1992 and has served as its Executive Director since 2005. Originally from Philadelphia, he attended undergraduate school at the University of Colorado and graduate school at Antioch New England Graduate School. Chip serves as a panelist for several literary awards. He lives in Great Barrington with his wife Lisa and son Jay.
Scott Walker
Marketing & Circulation Director
After a career in book publishing at Graywolf Press, Scott worked as an editorial director at Utne Reader. He then joined with several early internet companies in senior marketing and business development positions. He’s worked as an organizational development, strategic planning, and marketing consultant, and founded several businesses. Currently he lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children; his older son attends college in California. He serves on the board of directors of Greylock A Better Chance and the Williamstown Film Festival.
Madeline Cantwell
Director of Development
Before coming to The Orion Society, Madeline was most recently a fundraiser for public radio; she also worked in development for small environmental nonprofits in midcoast Maine, including The Morris Farm Trust and the Herring Gut Learning Center. She is a graduate of Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington, where she studied sustainable development, food security, and creative writing. She is an avid gardener, loves to dance and play piano, and has been reading Orion magazine since she was a teenager.
Chris Nye
Development Officer
A professor and then college administrator for many years, Chris has been active in instituting programs that promote college-to-community partnerships and place-based education. Chris holds a Ph.D. in American Studies, is active in local conservation efforts, builds stone walls, and writes poetry.
H. Emerson Blake
Editor-in-Chief
Chip has been with Orion since 1992, when he was hired as an Associate Editor. He served as the magazine’s Managing Editor from 1993 until 2003, when he left to become Editor-in-Chief of Milkweed Editions, a nonprofit book publisher. In 2005 he returned to Orion to serve as Editor-in-Chief and Executive Director of The Orion Society. He has been the editor of hundreds of magazine articles, as well as many books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Work he has edited has been nominated for or won many awards, including the National Magazine Award, the Pushcart Prize, the PEN Literary Award, the John Oakes Award in Environmental Journalism, the Minnesota Book Award, the Oregon Book Award, and The New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Chip has also served as a panelist for several literary awards. He lives in a tiny house in Great Barrington with his wife Lisa and son Jay.
Jennifer Sahn
Editor
Jennifer has been on the magazine’s editorial staff for the past fourteen years, during which time she edited a number of award-winning articles and worked closely with the education and outreach programs of The Orion Society. Her writing has been published in a variety of print venues, including Wild Earth, The Berkshire Review, and Resurgence, and she has served as an editor for several book projects. Jennifer is also a board member of BerkShares Inc., a model local currency project. She moved to the Berkshires in 1996, when The Orion Society relocated there, and lives with husband Nick Thielker, son Henry, and chocolate Lab Molly in South Egremont.
Hal Clifford
Executive Editor
Hal has worked as a journalist and writer since 1984, and is the author of numerous articles and three books. For details please see the Hal Clifford website. He was a finalist for the 2002 Society of Environmental Journalists Awards for Reporting and the 2001 John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, and a top-three finalist for the 2001 Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for Environmental Reporting. He is a pilot, flyfisherman, foodie, a student of zymurgy, and shares a big Victorian house in the Berkshires with his wife and two children.
Tara Rae Miner
Managing Editor
A native of Oregon, Tara grew up hiking, horseback riding, canoeing, and telemark skiing in the wild mountains, forests, and deserts of the West. She received a B.A. in English from the University of Oregon and an M.S. in Science from the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Montana, with an emphasis on environmental and creative writing. Tara’s professional life has been dedicated to editing, writing, and nonprofit work, including stints at the magazines Camas, Headwaters News, and the Chronicle of Community as well as the Center for the Rocky Mountain West and the Oregon Natural Desert Association. In her free time she loves to knit, travel, play frisbee with her Australian shepherd Austin, and work on restoring her home—a former school house built in 1849—which she shares with her husband Jason.
Jason Houston
Picture Editor
Orion magazine Picture Editor Jason Houston began making photographs for magazines during the last year of a misguided college degree over a decade ago. He has since worked on stories ranging from cycle messengers in San Francisco, poverty in South Africa, conservation work in Nicaragua, and local and sustainable agriculture in his home place in the Berkshires. His work has also been exhibited recently at Yale University, the DeCordova Museum, and Spike Gallery in NYC. Jason joined Orion in 2000 following a brief stint running marketing for a high-end bicycle component manufacturer on the west coast and began working directly with the magazine in 2002. To see more of his personal work, visit http://www.jasonhouston.com.
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Hannah Fries
Assistant Editor
Hannah feels most at home in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, where she grew up. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in English and a minor in music. She worked at The Frost Place museum and arts center at the homestead of Robert Frost in Franconia, NH, and in marketing and sales at the University Press of New England before coming to Orion as an intern in 2005. Hannah’s poems have appeared in several literary journals, and she is currently working toward an MFA in poetry at Warren Wilson College.
Katie Yale
Editorial Intern
Katie grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, but has spent the last several years roaming about the country, mostly out West, looking for wild animals. She received a B.S. in Conservation Biology from the University of Wisconsin, and a M.S. in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in writing, from the University of Montana. In addition to working various wildlife biology gigs, swimming in cold water and getting dirty, she’s done some freelance writing here and there. Her essays and poems have been published in assorted journals and anthologies. While out East she is looking forward to enjoying green leaves, fireflies and mountains you can summit in an afternoon.
Erica Dorpalen
Editorial Intern
A Connecticut native, Erica grew up hiking and skiing the mountains of New England. She received a B.A. in English from Colby College and an M.A. in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College. In between, she worked as an Outreach Associate at the American Red Cross and interned at Beacon Press and McGraw-Hill Higher Education in Boston. She will feel right at home at the foot of the Berkshires.
Orion is also made possible with the assistance of:
Circulation: John Brink, Greylock Media
Design & Production: Impress, Inc.
Studio Director: Hans Teensma
Design Director: James McDonald
