Leadership Upper Valley Program Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Largest Class Ever
The largest class yet – 30 participants – graduated from Vital Communities’ Leadership Upper Valley program on June 8 in Windsor, VT. The year-long program aims to inspire, educate, and engage established and emerging leaders to better serve their communities.
“This program changed the very way we think and interact with one another and with our community,” said graduate Markell Ripps, an attorney at Grossman & Ripps PLLC, who spoke on behalf of the Class of 2016 at the ceremony. “We entered this program as individuals, bankers, nonprofit employees, lawyers, educators, entrepreneurs, CEOs, family care givers, business owners, Vermont and New Hamphsire residents, and we leave as volunteers, future public servants, board members, questioners, and best of all classmates, fellow Upper Valley community members, and friends.”
Established in 2007, Leadership Upper Valley engages participants in 10 day-long sessions from September through June focused on key aspects of community life in the region. Topics include Economic Development, Education, Government and Politics, Arts and the Creative Economy, Communication, Health and Human Services, Environment, Transportation, and Justice.
Including this year’s graduating class, there are now more than 200 Leadership Upper Valley alumni. The Class of 2017 will begin in September.
This year’s graduates include:
Addy Mae Williams, Mascoma Savings Bank
Ayeshah Al-Humaidhi, Upper Valley Humane Society
Brent Edgerton, Kendal at Hanover
Christopher Coughlin, Dartmouth Printing
Cynthia Twombley, West Central Behavioral Health
Daniel McCarthy, Sage Dining Services
Diane Reinhardt, COVER
Elizabeth Long, Twin Pines Housing Trust
Emily Rogers, Hanover Consumer Co-op
Frank Gould, Mascoma River Greenway Coalition
Georgie Sawyer, David’s House
Irene Green, Northern Stage
Jeremy Coylewright, WISE
Jessie Farnham, Frazer Insurance Agency
Kyle Fisher, Listen Community Services
Lindsey Klecan
Lyn Miller, Our Hybrid Lives, LLC
Margaret Monroe-Cassel, TLC Family Resource Center
Marion Steiner, Lake Sunapee Bank
Markell Ripps, Grossman & Ripps, PLLC
Michael Baymiller, Hypertherm
Rachel Abendroth, Dartmouth College
Ron Miller, Sustainable Woodstock
Sadie Wells, Mascoma Savings Bank
Shawn Bard, Ledyard National Bank
Sue Nadeau, Southwestern Community Services
Terri Decker, Claremont Savings Bank
Tim Condon, Cook Little Rosenblatt & Manson, PLLC
Tina Stearns, City of Lebanon
Wendy Farnsworth, Dartmouth-Hitchcock
See more photos from Graduation here.