Susan G. Letcher is the Elizabeth Battles Newlin Chair in Botany at College of the Atlantic. She has written more than 50 scientific papers about human impacts on the biosphere, particularly tropical forests, and a two-volume memoir about hiking the Appalachian Trail. She earned a B.A. from Carleton College in 2000 and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in 2008. Before coming to COA, Letcher was a faculty member at Purchase College in New York and the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica. She lives in Bar Harbor with her daughter.