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Peter Goff

Science Department Chair, Master Teacher, Volleyball Coach, Athletic Director for Volleyball - Appointed 1997

Graduate Degrees

  • M.S. Zoology, University of Vermont
  • ABD (PhD Evolutionary Biology), Vanderbilt University

Undergraduate Degree

  • B.S. in Biology, Hobart College

Activities in College

  • Swimming

Honors and Awards

  • Science Teacher of the Year, Vermont Academy of Science and Engineering, 2012
  • Best Student Paper, American Society of Zoologists annual meeting, Vancouver, BC, 1992
  • Received two National Science Foundation grants over six years to integrate VCS students with ongoing research projects.

Best VCS Moment

Watching Sarah Mueller (’12) and Shana Wolfstein (’11) present their system dynamic model of Whirling Disease in trout to the faculty of the graduate program in Ecology at Montana State University, seven months after they had won VCS’s third straight State Championship in Volleyball.

Brief Biography

Growing up in the backwoods of southern Maine gave me a life-long love of the outdoors and started my fascination with animals. I spent most of my high school years in the swimming pool. While swimming in college, and then coaching high school swimming, I began to see how important it was for young student-athletes to have healthy competition in their lives. I have since transitioned from the pool to the volleyball court, and (as president of the Vermont Youth Volleyball Association) have worked for two decades to spread volleyball throughout Vermont.

Scholarship. Community. Global Responsibility.

Students emerge from their time at Vermont Commons School intrinsically motivated to seek out their role for improving the world, with the skills and competencies to do so.