Build the Board of Your Dreams: Recruitment, Diversity, and Retention

Has your nonprofit committed to building a board that reflects the community you serve? You are not alone if you’re not entirely sure what to do next! Join us for this 90-minute panel discussion with local nonprofit leaders about the steps they’re taking to recruit and retain a diverse board of directors. Many of them are doing this work right here in Addison County! Helena Van Voorst, Executive Director of the United Way of Addison, will moderate.

Panelists:
Sarah Audet - Board Member, Counseling Service of Addison County: Sarah Audet has served on the board of CSAC since June 2018. She is a member of the Development & Marketing Committee and Chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee. Earlier this year, she stepped down as Executive Director of a small nonprofit and joined the Addison County Chamber of Commerce as Events & Tourism Manager. In addition, Sarah is a nonprofit communications, board development, and strategic planning consultant. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and earned her Master of Education at Northeastern University.

Kerri Duquette-Hofman - Executive Director, WomenSafe: Kerri Duquette-Hoffman is honored to serve as the Executive Director of WomenSafe. Her roots in the movement of work against intersectional gender-based violence began early as a student volunteer, and she has been dedicated to this work professionally since 2002. She received her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Vermont, and has greatly enjoyed bringing her wealth of experience into classrooms as adjunct faculty at The University of Vermont, Community College of Vermont and Castleton State College. Kerri’s work as a social work professional, an educator, and a community leader has been recognized at the statewide and community levels.  She is a mom, and a hearty Vermonter who likes to meet the challenge at hand.

Nial Rele - Board Member, United Way of Addison County: Nial serves as the Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Middlebury College. He holds a master’s degree in higher education administration from Harvard University and an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in environmental policy and Chinese. Over the last decade, he has worked in several roles at colleges across the US. Nial is the Secretary of the Board of Directors for the United Way of Addison County and also serves on the Board of Trustees for the Bixby Memorial Library serving northern Addison county where he chairs the Personnel and Policy Committee. Nial is a native of India and moved to the US for college 12 years ago. He now calls Vergennes home.

Mia Schultz - Member, Rutland Area NAACP: Mia Schultz grew up in Tucson, Arizona and moved to Bennington with her two sons in 2015. She is Chair of Bennington's Democratic Party Committee, the first African-American woman to hold a top position in the organization. She has been a member and leader in the Bennington chapter of Rights & Democracy since 2016, serves on the Vermont Coalition on Ethnic and Social Equity in Schools advisory group, and participates in organizing through The Root Social Justice and NAACP groups here in Vermont. Schultz reports being most proud of her work in the schools where she was a driving force behind the initiative to provide implicit bias training to all teachers and administrators in the Southern Vermont Supervisory Union and later creation of its equity group. Schultz and her partner Shawn Pratt also do daily advocacy work for folks in Bennington regarding policing and employment. For her daily job, Mia is a property claims reviewer.


Brought to you in partnership with the United Way of Addison County and Sarah Audet, Nonprofit Consultant.