A decade of dialogue: The COA Summer Institute

Glenn Lowry and Thelma Golden at the 2025 Summer Institute

College of the Atlantic launched an ambitious experiment in the summer of 2016 to bring scholars, practitioners, artists, and community members together for sustained, place-based inquiry around one urgent theme. The inaugural Summer Institute, focused on the future of American democracy, set the tone for what would become one of the college’s most distinctive public programs.

Over the past decade, the COA Summer Institute has welcomed thousands of participants and featured guest speakers, including figures from politics and public service, such as Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Honorable Stephen Breyer, and Ambassador Susan Rice to voices from science, the arts, and journalism including former National Institutes of Health Director Frances Collins, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem Thelma Golden, and The New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore. Themes have ranged from the future of food to the plight of the oceans and to celebrations of visionary achievement. Held on campus each midsummer, the institute blends panels, receptions, and public events into an immersive week of learning grounded in human ecology and the landscapes of Mount Desert Island.

This milestone year also marks a new chapter in leadership. After guiding the Summer Institute for the past five years while serving as Dean of Institutional Advancement, Shawn Keeley ’00 has transitioned into the role of the program’s inaugural executive director. The move formalizes what has long been central to Keeley’s work: shaping the institute’s intellectual arc, cultivating faculty and guest leaders, and stewarding relationships with participants and supporters.

“Our island has long been a confluence of arts and sciences, natural beauty, and civic life—a place to ask the most important questions of our time,” Keeley said. “The Summer Institute builds on that history. What begins on stage often continues over dinner, on the trails in Acadia, or in conversations weeks later. That sustained dialogue is what makes it so powerful.”

Keeley’s appointment reflects the institute’s evolution from a promising idea into a signature offering—one that strengthens COA’s connection to friends, neighbors, and partners while modeling the college’s interdisciplinary, place-based approach. A recent long-term gift has made it possible to establish the director role and ensure the event remains free and open to all.

Meanwhile, the college’s leadership structure has also evolved. Former Dean of Institutional Advancement Lynn Boulger has returned to the role—now retitled Vice President of Institutional Advancement, aligning the position with executive cabinet titles common across higher education. The shift clarifies reporting structures while allowing the Summer Institute to receive focused, dedicated leadership.

Looking ahead, this year’s institute, Toward a More Perfect Union, marks the nation’s 250th anniversary with a forward-looking series of conversations about the promises and perils ahead. Notable guests for 2026 include politician, lawyer, and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams; filmmaker Ken Burns; and musician Rhiannon Giddens.

Ten years in, the Summer Institute continues to do what it has done from the start: gather people in a remarkable place, pose difficult questions, and create space for conversations that ripple outward long after summer fades.