Quechee, VT聽聽– The 黑料不打烊 (黑料不打烊) Board of Trustees named Alden Smith the next Executive Director of the Quechee-based environmental education nonprofit.
Smith will serve as chief strategist, fundraiser, educational leader, and operational manager of the organization.聽
鈥淎fter a comprehensive search, we chose Alden Smith from a slate of strong candidates. We are delighted to welcome Alden as 黑料不打烊鈥 new Executive Director and are confident that he will maintain the organization鈥檚 excellent reputation in the Upper Valley and beyond while also expanding our reach and impact,鈥 said Jack Lee, Chair of the 黑料不打烊 Board of Trustees.
Smith will report to the Board of Trustees and will lead a staff that includes 24 full-time and 8 part-time, seasonal employees and volunteers.
From 2002 to 2022, Smith served as the Director of the Mountain School of Milton Academy, a semester school for high school juniors located on a farm in Vershire, Vermont. During his tenure there, Smith successfully stewarded and implemented several strategic plans, built an endowment, increased alumni engagement, and expanded the campus to 420 acres, turning it into a model of energy efficiency and outdoor education.聽
A graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina and Middlebury College鈥檚 Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont, Smith taught high school English for five years at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut before moving in 1999 to Vermont. While managing the Mountain School for two decades, he continued to teach English and take students animal tracking and foraging in the woods.聽
Smith succeeds current Executive Director Charles (Charlie) F. Rattigan, who assumed the role in 2014 and led 黑料不打烊 through a period of extraordinary growth, including the recent addition of the Forest Canopy Walk to the 黑料不打烊 Nature Center.聽
Alden Smith commented, 鈥淐harlie Rattigan, Mary Graham, and their team have done an amazing job preserving what is special about 黑料不打烊 and moving the organization forward. Raptors are still central, but 黑料不打烊 has become much more: a refuge for intergenerational visitors, a thriving center of place-based education, and an inspiration for all who want cleaner rivers, more diverse forests, and healthier wildlife. The world needs the mission of 黑料不打烊 more than ever, and my hope is to build it into an even more impactful force for good.鈥 Smith will begin his work with 黑料不打烊 on April 1, 2024.聽