Our Mission
field is an ideas festival that brings together readers, writers, thinkers, visionaries, problem solvers, and experts across every discipline for a weekend of cultivated conversation in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Set against the cultural richness of Berkshire County,field creates a space where diverse voices driven by curiosity and a passion through learning engage the urgent challenges facing artists, writers, scientists, business leaders, environmentalists, health care providers, educators, policymakers, and learners of all ages, not through opposition, but through a shared commitment to listening and exploration of our world. Our mission is to ignite new thinking and foster collaboration by gathering remarkable minds and curious audiences in responsible, conscientious, and regenerative dialogue.
field asks something simple and radical of every participant both on stage and in the seats: Respect the other voice. Hear the other side. Stay in the room.
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Hunter Runnette
Founder. Board Chair
Hunter is the Founder of Field, launched after building a writers’, ideas, and thinkers’ festival in the Berkshires over the last four years. Rooted in a deep commitment to community, his work reflects ongoing collaboration with local cultural institutions including BIFF, Jacob’s Pillow, The Mount, and Chester Theatre Company – efforts aimed at protecting and thoughtfully sustaining a region he is grateful to call home.
He is currently focused on producing theatre with Eye Patch Productions, following years as an actor in New York City, Philadelphia, and Bucks County. Hunter and his husband ow reside in Lenox after spending 15 years on a 250-year-old organic farm, where they cared for more than 1,500 animals and devoted themselves to land conservancy projects across the United States and Canada.
Before graduating from Villanova University, Hunter spent his high school and college years volunteering at Philadelphia’s iconic Giovanni’s Room bookstore. He credits that experience with shaping his values and instilling a lasting commitment to openness and authenticity.
Elizabeth “Lizzy” Aspenlieder
Executive Producer
Elizabeth “Lizzy” Aspenlieder is proud to be a part of the founding team of the field ideas festival and to serve as its Executive Producer. She is an arts leader, producer, and award-winning actress with more than three decades of experience building cultural partnerships, producing festivals and events, and advancing the creative economy in the Berkshires. A longtime leader at Shakespeare & Company, she has served in senior roles including Publicist, Communications & Marketing Director, Artistic Associate, actor, and currently Community Relations Manager.
Aspenlieder recently produced the last two years of the Author’s Guild Foundation’s WIT Literary Festival and serves on the Advisory Board of the Berkshire International Film Festival, the Board of Directors of HomeFarm at Undermountain, and the Lenox Chamber of Commerce. In 2019, she founded Aspenlieder Productions, producing festivals, theater, film, radio plays, and audiobooks.
As a film producer, recent credits include Thickly Settled (short, producer/casting director; BIFF 2026), Unfinished Song (documentary, producer; BIFF 2026), Cold Wallet (SXSW and BIFF 2024), Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls (Sundance 2023), The Secret Art of Human Flight (Tribeca 2023), Skelly, I’m Not Him, and Stroke of Luck (Netflix). Theater producing credits include Rhinoceros starring Chris Noth at The Cutting Room NYC and Living the Dream by Mark Roberts at The 52nd Street Project. She also produced and narrated the audiobooks Choosing Joy: Alzheimer’s—A Book of Hope and Peregrine Island.
An accomplished performer, Aspenlieder has appeared in more than 50 stage productions, including leading Shakespearean roles, solo performances, and over a dozen world-premiere plays.
Bernard Schwartz
Director of Programming
Bernard Schwartz, field’s director of programming, is a veteran curator who has produced public humanities events, cross-disciplinary performance works, and exhibitions at major arts and advocacy organizations such as the Library of America, Theatre for a New Audience, Tanglewood, DIA: Arts, and 92NY. He oversaw the WIT Festival in the Berkshires on behalf of the Authors Guild Foundation in 2024 and 2025.
Alyson Brandt
Vice Chair
Alyson Brandt has a 37-year track record of driving profitable, organic growth as a senior leader at organizational performance consulting firms. She has led business transformations, mergers, and startups, and managed P&Ls, corporate strategy, and budgets for global businesses while overseeing multi-functional leadership teams.
Her roles have included EVP, President, and Global Managing Director at Forum Corporation (now part of Korn Ferry), Fusion Learning, and dss+ (formerly a DuPont company). She has advised clients across industries, including American Express, BlackRock, Deloitte, Starwood Hotels, Unilever, and GE. Aly has served on a Deloitte Advisory Board and has received numerous industry awards.
Aly currently focuses on board advisory roles. She serves as an advisory board member of ShiftUp, Main Street Hospitality Group, and Quearis, and sits on several nonprofit boards, including the Berkshire International Film Festival, and field, a Berkshires Ideas Festival. She also chairs Naked Angels Theater Company in New York City.
She and her husband, Charlie Miller, split their time between the Berkshires and New York City. Aly brings a deep appreciation for the performing arts and has been actively involved in New York theater for over 25 years.
Ann Lombard
Treasurer
Ann began her professional career in JPMorgan’s corporate finance department where she specialized in the technology sector. While at JPMorgan, she was an inaugural member of its Equity Research department. Next, she joined Scudder, Stevens and Clark, an investment management firm serving global institutional and government clients, to be a member of its tech sector analyst team.
After a hiatus from full-time work to raise a family, she re-entered the workforce as a Research Associate at Harvard Business School. While there, she served as Project Director and Senior Researcher for a joint project between HBS and Harvard’s Graduate School of Education to develop online leadership and management courses for K-12 school principals.
Ann is a graduate of Vassar College and New York University’s Stern School of Business where she was awarded a Glucksman Fellowship. She and her husband, Peter, have been living part-time in the Berkshires since 1993.
Anne MacDonald
Anne MacDonald’s career has spanned the globe as a senior marketing executive. She spent 13 years in the advertising industry driving share and profits for Fortune 100 clients, followed by 20+ years as CMO at PepsiCo’s Pizza Hut, Citigroup, Macy’s and Travelers Insurance. In her CMO roles she spearheaded significant growth through break through creativity, new product development, use of new technologies and initiating digital sales and communication.
Anne operates at the intersection of consumer insight, strategy and creative execution. Work she has led garnered over 200 awards for creativity and media execution, including the prestigious Emmy Award. Throughout her career, she has championed bold ideas and the power of storytelling to connect brands with people. Anne has served on the public company boards of Catalina Marketing, Rentrak, Hiscox Insurance and Boot Barn, where she continues as a Non-executive Director. She has also held board seats for non-profits focused on civic leadership, global health and education, and continues to serve on the board of Visiting Nurse and Hospice of Litchfield County and the FIELD ideas festival in the Berkshires. Anne resides between New York City and the Litchfield Hills.
Kelley Ryan Vickery
Kelley Ryan Vickery is an accomplished arts leader and the founder and Artistic Director of the Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF), which she launched in 2006 to elevate film into the vibrant cultural landscape of the Berkshires. A graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, she began her career in arts public relations at the John F. Kennedy Center. Vickery later expanded her expertise abroad as a museum docent, photographer, and gallery owner, while raising her family in Germany and Asia. Back in Massachusetts, she spearheaded BIFF into a significant event that attracts submissions worldwide and fosters creative exchange through its signature Filmmaker Summit. Her visionary leadership has earned her numerous honors, including the Moxie Award, Berkshire Trendsetter Award, and inclusion among the region’s 25 Most Influential People. In addition to guiding BIFF, Vickery has served on the boards and committees of cultural institutions such as Chester Theatre Company, Jacob’s Pillow, Tanglewood, Naumkeag, and Shakespeare & Company, championing the arts across the region.
Mary Mott
Mary Mott began her twenty-five-year career in advertising in New York and then San Francisco. She eventually moved on to Sun Valley, Idaho, where she continued her passion for writing through a weekly column and radio show. She also spearheaded the area’s first year-round performance theater and Shakespeare festival. Twenty years ago, she and husband Gordon fell in love with an old farmhouse and created a home in the Berkshires. Continuing her passion for writing, Mary moved into performing her words. She has now done four one-women shows in the Berkshires and Sun Valley. She continues to write for her website and podcasts. Mary serves on the board of the Berkshire International Film Festival and divides her time between Stockbridge and Sun Valley. With husband Gordon and beloved pups Rosie and Emma.
Tyler Whisnand
Tyler Whisnand is a writer and creative director working in advertising, communication, editorial, and publishing. He has held executive creative director positions at Apple, Google, and Wieden+Kennedy working with global brands, including Nike, Levi’s, Benetton, COLORS Magazine, and the City of Amsterdam. He is an adjunct professor at ArtCenter College of Design, and a guest lecturer at Stanford d.school and Stanford Continuing Studies. Tyler is the author of several books, including Helpful Communication, Captain Charlie, 101 things to do©, 2 Kilo of KesselsKramer, and All American. His work and artwork are in the collections of MoMA, the Baltic Mills, and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Tyler has a bachelor’s degree in English Literature, and Fine Arts from the University of Virginia.
