The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) announced that Denise Smith has been selected as its Executive Director, a role she will assume on September 3, 2024. The announcement was made at the Vermont Community Leadership Summit on August 6, a VCRD event where hundreds of community builders from across the state came together to develop skills, capacity, and connections to improve their local communities.

Denise has over 20 years of leadership, non-profit management, community development, and business experience. Since 2017, she has served as Director of Population Health Programs and Strategies at Northwestern Medical Center, a role that allowed her to work alongside community change makers on improving the health of Vermonters. While there, she led community health initiatives such as the Blueprint for Health in Franklin County.

Previously, Denise was Executive Director of Friends of Northern Lake Champlain, a non-profit organization focused on improving the water quality of Lake Champlain. In that position, Denise engaged local stakeholders in clean water initiatives throughout the watershed, secured many thousands of dollars for the Northern Lake, and advocated at a statewide level for increased funding for public waters in Vermont.

Denise also serves in several volunteer community roles including Chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee for Lake Champlain, Chair of the St. Albans Planning Commission, and Treasurer of the Vermont Public Health Association.

VCRD was searching for an experienced community leader who shared its passion to help Vermonters build prosperous and resilient communities through democratic engagement, marshalling resources, and collective action. In Denise, VCRD found an engaged statewide leader, skilled manager, effective fundraiser, and strong communicator and advocate.

“VCRD is a well-known organization and plays a vital role in Vermont’s evolution, its public voice and its future,” said VCRD’s Board Chair, Sarah Waring. “We are thrilled to be welcoming Denise Smith on board, because of her experience and breadth of knowledge, as well as deep commitment to rural communities and civic process. We are confident and excited about her leadership.”

“I feel like everything I have done in my career has led me to this organization and this role at this moment in time. I’m very excited to work with this incredible team, engaged board of directors, and community leaders across Vermont to help improve the quality of life for all Vermonters,” Smith said.

Denise holds a Master’s of Science Degree in Leadership for Sustainability and a Bachelor of Art in International Studies, both from The University of Vermont. Vermont has been her extended family’s home, and she continues to choose it for her family where she is raising 3 children with her husband in St. Albans.

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The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of the locally defined progress of Vermont’s rural communities. VCRD is a dynamic partnership of federal, state, local, nonprofit and private partners. Actively non-partisan with an established reputation for community-based facilitation, VCRD is uniquely positioned to sponsor and coordinate collaborative efforts across governmental and organizational categories concerned with policy questions of rural import. The organization has facilitated over 85 Community Visit processes, resulting in hundreds of locally defined projects including new childcare centers, wastewater infrastructure, downtown redevelopments, and much more.

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