Board of Directors

Andrea Cohen currently serves as Manager of Government Affairs and Member Relations for Vermont Electric Cooperative in Johnson Vermont. Previously she was Public Policy Manager (2006-2010), and then Executive Director (2010-2015), for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. Before joining VBSR, she worked for 16 years at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources in a variety of positions involving pollution prevention, resource conservation, and solid waste management. Andrea holds her M.A. in Environmental Science from Antioch University and her B.A. in Psychology and Economics from Vassar College.

Will Stevens (Vice Chair) co-owns Golden Russet Farm in Shoreham with his wife Judy. They have made this certified organic vegetable farm and greenhouse plant operation their livelihood since 1981. In addition to his farming activities, Will serves as Shoreham’s Town Moderator and as a Select Board member. He is also on the Boards of NOFA-VT and the Vermont Community Foundation. He was a State Representative from 2007-2014, during which time he was on the House Agriculture and Forest Products Committee. He spends a great deal of time pondering what it will take to keep Vermont from becoming just like everywhere else, and what his role could be in that effort. He knits for fun when there is nothing else to do.

Robin Scheu has over 30 years of business experience in both large and small organizations, in the corporate, nonprofit, and municipal sectors. In January 2017, she began her first session in the Vermont legislature as a Representative for Addison-1, Middlebury.  ​For 9 years, until the end of 2017, she ​was the Executive Director of the Addison County Economic Development Corporation where she works with businesses of all stages to support their growth. She was a commercial lender and senior manager at Bank of Boston and Bank of Vermont for fifteen years, and ran her own consulting business for several years. Locally, she ran the Addison County Solid Waste Management District, the Middlebury Area Land Trust, was Chair of the United Way of Addison County, Treasurer of the Middlebury Natural Foods Coop and on the Porter Medical Center Board of Directors. She chaired the Mary Hogan Elementary​ School Board in Middlebury.​ She has also been on several statewide boards, including the Vermont Land Trust, Smart Growth Vermont, Vermont Employee Ownership Center, and the Working Lands Enterprise Board. 

Ted Brady was appointed by Governor Phil Scott to be the Deputy Secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) in January 2017. ACCD works to grow Vermont’s economy, helps businesses create jobs, encourages the creation of affordable workforce housing, and supports vibrant and resilient communities. From 2013 to 2017, Brady served in the Obama Administration as the Vermont and New Hampshire State Director of USDA Rural Development. In that role, he led the investment of more than $1 billion in federal grants, loans, and loan guarantees in rural housing, economic development, and community infrastructure focused on growing rural communities. Prior to that, Brady served as U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy’s senior economic development, international trade, community development, housing, and transportation field representative. Brady has a degree in Journalism and Political Science from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. While earning his degree, he worked with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and volunteered with St. Michael’s Fire and Rescue. Today, Brady lives with his wife and two sons in Williston. He spends his free time skiing, fishing, and hunting musing about making Vermont a better place to live, work, and play.

Sara Gilbert is HR manager at Casella Construction Inc. Before joining Casella Construction, she was assistant director at Rutland Economic Development Corporation (REDC). Sara co-founded Rutland Young Professionals, which launched the annual Young Professionals Summit of Vermont in 2015. Sara also serves on the board of Heritage Family Credit Union. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and holds a Master’s degree in Political Geography from the University of Washington, where she was a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow. She is a proud Rutland City resident and a member of Project VISION. 

Nate Hausman is a project director for Clean Energy Group and the Clean Energy States Alliance, where he primarily works on solar energy policy. Nate is a licensed attorney and previously served as an associate attorney for the Austin Legal Group and as a visiting attorney for the Environmental Law Institute. Nate sits on the Board of Directors of the Catamount Trail Association and Montpelier Alive. He holds a J.D. with a certificate in Environmental & Natural Resources Law from Lewis & Clark Law School and a B.A. from Colorado College. Nate grew up in Newbury, Vermont and now lives in Montpelier.

Allison Hooper is a pioneer of artisan cheesemaking, entrepreneur and co-founder of Vermont Creamery. For more than 34 years, Allison has been at the helm of the artisan cheese industry, introducing goat cheeses, cultured butter, and crème fraiche to the American palate. In 2012 she and her business partner Bob Reese started Ayers Brook Goat Dairy in Randolph Vermont to supply goats’ milk to the creamery and practice improved genetics, nutrition, and goat husbandry as a resource for aspiring goat farmers. A former president of the American Cheese Society (ACS) and the founding president of the Vermont Cheese Council, Allison has been a voice for U.S. cheesemakers and a mentor to fellow entrepreneurs in the specialty food industry. She was named one of the “most innovative women in food and drink” by Food & Wine and Forbes magazines in 2015. Vermont Creamery was acquired by Land O’Lakes, a farmer owned Cooperative. Allison’s family retained ownership of the Ayers Brook Goat Dairy.

William (Bill) Murray is a Realtor with Berkley & Veller Greenwood Country Realtors and a licensed broker in Vermont since 1980. In 2004, he was named Realtor of the Year by the Southern Vermont Board of Realtors. Through his real estate career, Bill has developed a strong interest in green design, energy efficiency, historic preservation, and sustainable land use. Bill has worked with the Vermont Land Trust and Windham Regional Planning Commission to preserve Vermont’s working landscape and thoughtfully plan for Vermont’s future. Additionally, Bill has served on the boards of the Brattlboro Food Coop and Brattleboro Museum and Art Center. More recently he has served on the leadership team of the Green Building Innovation Hub, a tri-state economic development initiative. [Appointed by Governor Shumlin]

Nick Richardson is President of the Vermont Land Trust (VLT), having joined the organization as its VP for Enterprise and Finance in 2012. Prior to VLT, Nick served as the Director of Operations at Encore Redevelopment, a Vermont-based renewable energy development company. Nick lives with his family on a dirt road in Jericho Center, surrounded by green fields and happy livestock. Nick feels a deep connection to his adopted home state, a connection that was fostered from an early age through visits to family on Windham Hill, in Norwich, and in South Pomfret.  Nick received his MBA in 2008 from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he was the inaugural recipient of the James Allwin Award for Community Service.

Shelly Severinghaus is a senior consultant for Long Trail Sustainability, where she guides industrial manufacturers in their product development and sustainability programs, and works with them to leverage findings from their Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies to both decrease their environmental impacts and build their brand value. Shelly manages a diverse client portfolio, including Fortune 500 companies, manufacturers, startup companies and universities. She enables corporate professionals, product engineers, and university professors and students to incorporate environmental sustainability into every step of the work they do and the products they design. In addition, Shelly trains corporate professionals to use tools that allow them to work across brands and unify their sustainability initiatives, and develops training programs for institutional and corporate clients. Shelly serves on the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment Certification Board and resides in Morristown, Vermont.

Anson Tebbetts was appointed Vermont’s Secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets by Governor Phil Scott in January 2017. Prior to his appointment, Tebbetts spent more than twenty years as part of the WCAX news team, serving as the station’s news director since 2009. From 2007-2009, Tebbetts was the Deputy Secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, under the Douglas Administration. An avid bird enthusiast, he co-hosts “For the Birds” on WDEV & WLVB radio. Tebbetts, a graduate of Emerson College, is a native Vermonter with deep agricultural roots. He was born and raised on his family’s farm in Cabot, where he continues to reside with his wife Vicky and their two children. In 2001, the Vermont Farm Bureau honored him with their Friend of the Farmer Award. In 2015, Tebbetts was awarded the SMART award: Social Media in Arts, Recreation and Tourism. The prize was given by the Vermont Tourism Industry Conference highlighting Vermont’s critical fall tourism season.