Conference Timing and Location
ACT for Change will take place July 24-27, 2025 at Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vermont. Originally built in 1905, the Resort is approximately 20 miles north of Dartmouth College, nestled in the Vermont hills between Lake Morey and the Connecticut River and surrounded by scenic hiking trails. Lake Morey Resort has several on-site dining options and provides access to a host of amenities and activities for overnight guests, as well as concerts and other summer events, which are open to the public. A tentative conference schedule is available here. Please RSVP for the conference here, so I can make sure we have enough lodging, meeting space, and food to accommodate all attendees.
Lodging
The Resort is a popular summer destination and rooms fill up quickly! The deadline for booking rooms in the conference block is June 25, 2025, but I encourage you reserve a room as soon as possible. You may book a room for yourself and another attendee directly or contact the organizer for help with a roommate match. Please mention that you are with our group when making your reservation. To ensure we can accommodate everyone, I hope that many of you will consider sharing a room with another conference attendee. A limited number of rooms with two beds are available in the conference block, so please reserve a room with a single bed if you would like a room to yourself.
Transit
Ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft are not reliable in our area and taxi services are limited. I plan to provide group transit from Hanover, New Hampshire (where Dartmouth College is located) to the Resort in the late afternoon on Thursday, July 24 and from the Resort back to Hanover in the early afternoon on Sunday, July 27. I recommend that participants fly into Boston Logan Airport and take the Dartmouth Coach to Hanover by Thursday afternoon, and arrange for return flights on Sunday evening if possible. Transit between Hanover and Boston on the Dartmouth Coach takes approximately 3 hours, service hours are limited, and tickets do not reserve seats or transit times, so please plan accordingly. Car rentals and on-site hotels are available at Boston Logan in a pinch. A car rental will likely be necessary if you plan to fly into other area airports, like Burlington, Vermont or Manchester, New Hampshire. If you need help with local transit, please contact the organizer.
Program Structure
The conference will include several different types of sessions. Distinguished scholars will give keynote presentations on ACT’s potential for addressing social problems, setting the stage for conference themes. Research presentations will review recently completed work on specific social problems and intervention strategies. Roundtables will provide a low-cost, high-return opportunity to share and receive feedback on work in planning or in progress. Incubator sessions will create space to develop new and invest in existing research collaborations. An interactive workshop will provide attendees with practical tools to develop and implement ACT-based interventions in their respective fields.
The conference will also provide opportunities for connection and conversation outside of formal sessions. Attendees will share living space and meals and spend time outdoors together in the time surrounding events – including informal gatherings on Friday afternoon and evening, group outings on Saturday afternoon, and a reception on Saturday evening. Similar, more intimate conferences held by this community in the past have been especially generative, enabling discussions that extend beyond the formal program and allowing for deeper connections between attendees. I hope the same will be true of this event.
I also hope to develop a program structure that will support the inclusion, visibility, and advancement of early career scholars. The conference will provide opportunities for feedback on completed research and work in progress, formal and informal connections with ACT community members at various career stages, and investment in new and existing collaborations. Limited funding support will be available to assist with travel and lodging costs for early career scholars and others on the program on the basis of need. I plan to cover select expenses for all attendees (e.g., breakfast and lunch Friday through Sunday, Saturday evening reception with light fare). Please reach out with any questions about costs or funding needs.
Conference Outputs
The conference program, research abstracts, presentation slides, and other conference outputs will be archived on this website. The program structure will create opportunities for all attendees to receive feedback on their work in progress and in development. Select presenters will be invited to contribute a chapter to an edited volume on the conference theme, which will feature contributions from early career scholars paired with those from senior scholars. Papers will be chosen from among those presented at the conference. If you would like to have a paper considered for inclusion in the edited volume that you do not plan to present at the conference, please contact the organizer.