Meet the VACD Team
Jill has nearly thirty years of non-profit management and sustainable development experience, mostly overseas. She lived and worked in Thailand and Cambodia for eleven years, managing relief and development programs for several organizations. She returned to the US to attend graduate school, where she earned two masters degrees – one in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, and the other in Economics from Boston University. After graduate school, Jill moved to one of her favorite places – Vermont – where she worked for eleven years at the Institute for Sustainable Communities managing civic participation and sustainable development programs. After traveling the world, Jill began learning more about conservation and community development in Vermont and in the beautiful Mad River Valley, where she lives and facilitates sustainable agriculture initiatives. Jill is particularly interested in supporting local food production and building bridges between different segments of the community.
Joanne Dion is a Program Assistant in the Middlebury NRCS office and also works part-time as the Program Assistant for VACD. She was previously employed as an office manager at Vermont Adult Learning (VAL). Prior to working at VAL, she was a program services clerk at the Vermont Fire Academy in Pittsford. She’s also worked as a hot lunch lady! She left VAL in April 2015 to join her daughter and her family in Greeley, Colorado to assist them with the preparation of having their 2nd child, selling their house and packing up the moving truck for the road trip to Vermont where her son-in-law secured a teaching/research position at UVM. She is thrilled that her grandchildren are now close by, and she is the proud mother of 4. She is an advocate for recycling, composting and reducing waste of all kinds. She enjoys walking, camping, growing red zinnias in the summertime and quiet time in the morning with a good cup of coffee.
Luke Rackers loves to learn new things, help people solve problems, tell stories, inspire creativity, and build community. As a two-time Goddard graduate (BA ‘09 & MFA ‘12), Luke fell in love with the Vermont landscape and culture, inspiring a move to the state in the fall of 2016. He is the founder and Executive Director of a nonprofit arts organization that is dedicated to supporting the work of living composers and encouraging creativity in the 21st Century. Luke grew up on a family farm in central Missouri and designed a small urban farm in Denver, CO. He is very excited to build on his agricultural and environmental roots through his new position as Communications Coordinator for the VACD. Luke and his spouse, Tonya, live in Montpelier with their spry hound dog, Sprocket. Most of his free time is spent teaching piano and composition lessons, performing new music, keeping Sprocket out of trouble, container gardening, and enjoying the beautiful Vermont outdoors and local food scene.
Meet the VACD Technical Staff
Michelle joined VACD in the summer of 2011 as a CREP planner and is now working as a Land Treatment Planner. Prior to her role with VACD, Michelle worked as a Conservation\GIS Technician with USDA Farm Service Agency for more than four years where she gained extensive experience in GIS and conservation programs. Michelle is a MA native but has been living in Vermont for over thirteen years. She earned her undergraduate degree at Green Mountain College in environmental studies with double minors in biology and geology. As a graduate student, Michelle studied environmental sciences with a focus in conservation biology. She attributes her life-long love of the environment largely to her parents, who always encouraged her to explore the outdoors through backpacking, hiking, and family canoe trips.
Lauren grew up in Ohio and moved to Vermont to pursue a degree in forestry from the University of Vermont. She spent her summers in Ohio working in a leasing office and helping people find apartments. Lauren discovered her love of working with spatial data and GIS after taking Intro to Geographic Information Systems and decided to pursue a minor in Geospatial Technologies. Her capstone project was working to create a planting prioritization map for the Winooski Tree Board looking at spatial data, inspiring her to continue working with GIS in Vermont.
Jimmy graduated from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Science degree in Energy & Environmental Policy. He also completed a Graduate Certificate in Wetlands & Water Resource Management from the University of Florida. Before joining VACD’s technical staff, Jimmy served as an ECO AmeriCorp member with the Northwest Regional Planning Commission and the Missisquoi River Basin Association in Northwest Vermont. As a Land Treatment Planner, he hopes to gain a deeper understanding of agricultural-water quality concerns in the state and learn as much as he can about conservation planning through various inventory analysis tools. In his spare time, Jimmy enjoys going to concerts/music festivals, snowboarding, and chilling by Lake Champlain with friends.
Brittany Choiniere is a native Vermonter from Orleans County with a passion for agriculture and water quality. In 2014 she earned a B.S. in Integrated Environmental Science and wrote a thesis on cumulative precipitation and temperature data from 2000-2013 and its relationship for climate change in Vermont, called “A Comparative Study of Local Climates in Vermont”. While at Northern Vermont University – Johnson she participated in Vermont EPSCoR’s Research on Adaption to Climate Change (RACC) program, which lead to her weather data and analysis thesis. Prior to joining VACD she was apart of Crothers Environmental Group, LLC as an Indoor Air Quality Specialist. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, fishing, kayaking and hunting with her husband Josh and German Shepard Winston.
Cindy Watrous grew up in Piermont, NH on a small dairy farm. She attended Becker Junior College earning an Associate of Applied Science for Veterinary Assistant. Cindy was a Dairy Herd Improvement Association Technician for 23 years and enjoyed her work with the farmers in Addison County. Cindy received her training on GIS from FSA and joined VACD in December of 2006 as a Land Treatment Planner covering Addison, Rutland and Bennington Counties. Cindy owns a small sheep farm and is a fiber artist who dyes and processes her own sheep’s wool into felted creations. In her spare time, Cindy enjoys gardening, seeking treasures at yard sales, repurposing items and spending time with her two grand-daughters.
Lauren began working with VACD as a Land Treatment Planner in the spring of 2015 in the St. Albans NRCS Field Office, and she is the now the Conservation Programs Technical Coordinator. She graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology and has done graduate work in wildlife biology. She moved to Vermont in 2013 with her husband after living in 7 other states working on various wildlife management projects. Lauren grew up on Long Island, New York and has always had a passion for wildlife and the outdoors, fostered mainly by her father. She is an avid birdwatcher and enjoys kayaking and hiking. She gardens exclusively with native plants and propagates her own wildflowers.
Brittany, a native to Franklin county in northwestern Vermont, graduated from Plattsburgh State University with a Bachelor of Science in Ecology. During her undergraduate years Brittany focused on wildlife ecosystems and completed two independent research projects; the first focused on white-tail deer behaviors over a season gradient in urban, rural, and agricultural settings and the second examined utilizing beaver baffles for dams and culverts. After graduation Brittany returned to her Franklin county agricultural roots with VACD and since has been furthering her knowledge on water quality and soil health while aiding the small, conserved farms. While not at work Brittany enjoys hiking, nature walking, or simply relaxing outside with her dogs.
Born and raised a stones throw away from the Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, Olivia moved to Vermont in 2012 to attend Saint Michael’s College. She earned her B.A. in Environmental Studies and International Relations, and wrote her undergraduate thesis on the water footprint of livestock production. Olivia is passionate about supporting local, sustainable food systems, and working within Vermont’s strong non-profit community. Prior to joining VACD in 2017, she was a livestock and produce apprentice at Simple Gifts Farm, a diversified organic farm in Amherst, MA. Most of her free time is spent exploring the local food scene, bouldering, container gardening, or expanding her house plant collection.
Justin Michaud is a native Vermonter who grew up on a family dairy farm. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Sierra Nevada College and a Master of Science degree in Biology from Eastern Kentucky University. Justin joined the VACD team in 2015 and currently works as a Land Treatment Planner and Conservation Planner in the Newport field office. He loves playing with his two children, working on a diversified farm, fishing, gardening, and snowboarding.
