Alumni

Meredith Devendorf                                         
MA, 1999

I am one of those “infamous” alumni—you know, the ones who have “wandered off.” Having “wandered” back home to coastal Georgia in 1993, I cofounded Seabrook Village, a livinghistory museum celebrating post–-Civil War African American landownership. That dovetailed into promoting heritage and nature-based tourism as a means to sustain our place-loving culture in a landscape succumbing to sprawl. To reconnect people with the land, my family opened Melon Bluff on 2,200 acres of family forestland for outdoor recreation and environmental education. The National Arbor Day Foundation awarded us the 2003 National Good Stewardship Award, and I am currently earning a Masters of
Environmental Management from Duke University. My resume may seem scattered, but Southern Studies ties all the threads together. Over the years, my passion for what makes the South special—its people and its environment—has fueled my holistic world view. As a “Life Dissertation,” my mother and I are establishing the Springfield Legacy Foundation to protect my postage stamp of earth forever while integrating humanities and the sciences through research, education, and good walks in the woods.