Morse Fellows

Sara is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Research, and Sustainability at the Yale School of the Environment (YSE) where she works to cultivate a community of engaged problem solvers seeking solutions to a diverse set of environmental challenges. She received her Ph.D. from YSE in 2016, and completed the joint master’s degree program between the School of Epidemiology and Public Health and YSE in 2007. During her time at Yale, she has also had the opportunity to work in the University’s Office of Sustainability. Sara holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Political Science from Middlebury College (2004). She spent her childhood on the remnants of her family’s dairy farm in the small town of Winslow, Maine.

Jessica Spector is a cultural historian and former philosophy professor who founded the consultancy firm The Academy Drinks, and runs the experimental agroforestry farm Green Robin Farms. She is interested in the way story shapes identity, and societal taboos around alcohol, sex, and place. She holds an MA and PhD from The University of Chicago, as well as certifications and diplomas from several Scottish Whisky Academies and WSET. She is a member of the American Distilling Institute and the American Craft Spirits Association, and Director of Drink History and Culture at the Museum of Distilled Spirits. Her publications include work on philosophy, the sex industry, and cultural history. For the past several years, she has been teaching about drink culture and ethics in Yale College’s Residential Seminar program.

Toral Surti MC ‘98 is very glad to remain connected to Morsels. She majored in MB&B as an undergraduate and attended University of California San Francisco for medical school and a doctorate in biophysics. She returned to New Haven for residency in psychiatry and joined the Yale School of Medicine faculty in 2014.

Rebecca Toseland is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics and the Director of Research Support at the Tobin Center for Economic Policy. Previously, she was a Research Scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and a Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Her research and teaching interests span a variety of domestic policy issues including economic mobility, education, housing, health, and the environment. She received a B.A. in Economics and Environmental Studies from Yale University as a member of the other best residential college at Yale (Timothy Dwight – Ashé!). She also holds an M.A. in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. 

She is one of four Morse affiliates who provides advising and mentoring for upperclassmen through the Yale Department of Economics; an appointment can be booked here.