Goshen College’s Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center is unexpectedly starting the spring 2026 semester without Ryan Sensenig, their interim executive director. A search for a new executive director started on Jan. 30, and the center announced the opening via Instagram on Feb. 2. In the meantime, Ann Vendrely, vice president of academic affairs and academic dean at GC, is acting as the interim executive director.

Sensenig resigned from his position in early December. He was appointed to the temporary position in August, after the resignation of Jason Martin in late July, following the college’s sudden decision to put Martin on administrative leave a month earlier. Details surrounding that decision are still confidential; both GC and Merry Lea declined to comment. Sensenig was meant to continue serving in the role for the entirety of the 2025-26 academic year.

Martin served as director of Merry Lea for five years. Shortly following his departure, the position he held was split into two positions: managing director and executive director. Foy Spicer has been the interim managing director since that split.

Sensenig was a professor of biology at GC until 2023, and was chair of the department of biological sciences from 2011 to 2019. He was also the director of the J.N. Roth Marine Biology Station from 2007 until his departure in 2023. 

Since then, he has worked full-time at the University of Notre Dame as an assistant professor of biology, where he researches the ecology of both savannah grasslands in Kenya and reconstructed tallgrass prairie in Indiana.

During his time at Merry Lea, Sensenig continued to work full-time at Notre Dame. In a meeting with Merry Lea staff before his departure, Sensenig explained that his decision was partially based on the heavy workload that came with both jobs.

Kayla Beasley, the associate director of communications and marketing at Merry Lea, said that while the staff was surprised by the decision, it was understandable. “Still being a full-time professor on the campus of Notre Dame, having to drive from South Bend to Merry Lea … it’s a lot,” she said.

Despite the turnover, however, employees stressed that their work has still continued. “The day-to-day activities are completely fine,” Gonzalo Barahona Hernández, Merry Lea’s operations assistant, said. “But, it just brings up questions of ‘What’s going to be the bigger picture at Merry Lea?’ Who’s thinking about what we are doing five years from now, 10 years from now?”

Beasley agreed that the lack of permanent leadership did raise questions: “But we all rallied together, all of the staff, and faculty, to support each other,” she said.

One student, however, did not mind the shifts. Levi Moser, a sophomore environmental science major, said that his love for Merry Lea was unshaken. “It’s a major reason why I chose to go to Goshen College,” he said. “For somebody like me who is an environmental science major, who is interested in those kinds of things, it is a really great place.”

One way for students to get more involved with Merry Lea is through the Sustainability Leadership Semester — a semester-long program where students live and study at Merry Lea. During their time at the center, they do field research, ecological restoration and community-based projects. The semester is a key part of GC’s sustainability program but it was cancelled this fall due to a lack of students; Moser was only one of two who planned on attending.

The program will run again fall of 2027. “Sustainability Semester 2027, pull up. If you don’t know it exists, now you do,” Moser said. “It could be you and me at Merry Lea.”