Mark Snelling

Mark is the volunteer president of the Snelling Center. He is also president of Greenleaf Metals, a distributor of copper and brass wire products. He has owned and operated a number of businesses in the ski, bike and hardware industries. Mark served as chair of the Vermont Governor’s Council of Environmental Advisors, and chaired the Governor’s Commission on Downtowns and Growth Centers. He has previously served on the boards of Key Bank Vermont, the Vermont Land Trust, Medical Center Hospital of Vermont, and as Chair of Housing Vermont and the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. Mark resides in Starksboro, VT with his wife Linda.

 

Val Gardner

Val Gardner is the Director of the Vermont School Leadership Project. Val has worked as a teacher and coach, as well as Associate Principal and Principal at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, Vermont. CVU has been recognized at the state and national level for innovative programs. In 1993 – 1994, Val served as the first Principal in Residence in the U.S. Department of Education under Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin. Val earned a Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Vermont and a Masters from the University of Oregon. She currently serves on the Snelling Center for Government and the Vermont Youth Orchestra Board. In the past she served on the Vermont Economic Progress Council, St. Michael’s College Graduate Advisory Panel. The Snelling Center School Leadership Project Advisory Board, and as President of Vermont Headmasters. Val has been recognized in numerous awards, including the Robert F. Pierce Award for service to youth in Vermont (1984); National Distinguished Principal for Vermont (1990); and has been inducted into the UVM Hall of Fame.

 

Colleen Newschwander

Colleen Newschwander is the Director of Events and Business Operations at The Snelling Center for Government. She has been with The Center since January 1994 and handles all of the financial and business matters. She is also our conference manager. Colleen is a graduate of Champlain College. She is an active Board member of the Vermont Women’s Health Center.

 

Katelyn Ritchie

Katelyn worked as the Administrative Assistant at The Snelling Center five years ago and is now back as the Development Coordinator. She graduated from Champlain College with an Associate Degree in Business Administration. She has worked for the Department of Homeland Security, worked as an intern at Ben and Jerry’s and has also spent the last five years with The Spencer Group here in Burlington. Katelyn is married to Tim Ritchie and they have two great, energetic kids, and one very lazy dog.

 

 

Linda Wheatley

Linda Wheatley was Leadership Programs Director at the Snelling Center from 2000 to 2007. She has returned this summer as Director of the Vermont Leadership Institute. During these past five years, she launched Sweet Mango Tours, a small meaningful-travel company, and established Gross National Happiness USA (GNHUSA), a Vermont-based, non-profit organization that aims to increase well-being by expanding our definition and measures of progress.  GNHUSA worked with UVM’s Gund Institute and the non-profit Common Good to support the passage of related legislation this past session, calling for the development of a Genuine Progress Indicator for Vermont. Vermont is the first state to pass such a bill.

Linda has served as Associate Peace Corps Director for the Peace Corps in Thailand, and coordinated the Vermont Prevention Institute and its Consultation Team for the Agency of Human Services. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in nutritional sciences. Her studies and her work have taken her all over the world. She especially enjoys the Buddhist cultures of Southeast Asia and the Himalaya.

Linda lives in Worcester with her youngest, pretty-good kid, Nipa (19), and her chow-husky Madison. Her son, Kelly (23), will graduate from UVM’s Community Development and Applied Economics Department in 2013.

 

Judy Warriner Walke

Judy Warriner Walke, a former director of The Vermont Leadership Institute, has been associated with VLI since helping to launch the program in 1995.  She has also contributed to the Vermont School Leadership Program and seminars/conferences for the Vermont Leadership Network.

Judy is an organizational development consultant and facilitator whose work has been energizing inspired teams and reflective leaders since 1993, with a wide range of organizations, companies, institutions, and communities.  To her work with groups, Judy Walke brings fifteen years’ management and planning experience in manufacturing with Digital Equipment Corporation, where she led her 60-person production group from a traditional hierarchy into a network of successful self-managing teams, with substantial increases in business results and employee morale.  She has worked in a variety of nonprofit organizations, in both staff and board roles, and in government at the local and state level.  Judy holds an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and an undergraduate degree in history of art from Smith College.  She is certified to administer the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Judy has been a resident of Montpelier for over forty years, serving in many volunteer roles, including  long-range planning for the schools and as steering committee member for enVision Montpelier, a very long-range citizen engagement effort to plan for a sustainable city.  She loves travel, reading, singing, tasteless jokes and terrible puns, and time outdoors.  She and her husband Steamer Walke are grateful to have all three of their young grandchildren now living in Vermont.