Meet the CLiF Team
As a writer from Vermont Magazine once observed, CLiF does a lot with a little. We are able to accomplish so much thanks to our dedicated, creative, and energetic staff, board of directors, and board of advisors.
As a writer from Vermont Magazine once observed, CLiF does a lot with a little. We are able to accomplish so much thanks to our dedicated, creative, and energetic staff, board of directors, and board of advisors.
Laura Rice joined CLiF in March 2023, stepping into the big shoes (literally and figuratively) of CLiF founder Duncan McDougall. Laura has worked in leadership roles for mission-driven organizations for over two decades, including The Mentor Network, a national home and community-based care provider; Grassroot Soccer, an international adolescent health organization; and WISE, a Lebanon, NH-based non-profit that seeks to end gender-based violence.
A proud alumna of Mount Holyoke College and Boston University School of Public Health, Laura has lived, worked, and raised her family in Hanover, NH since 2002. She loves each of the beautiful seasons of New England, and is quick to get outdoors to kayak, cross-country ski, run, bike, or hike at any opportunity. Her three young adult children believe she has found her true home with CLiF as they often lament that their parents failed in exposing them to cool movies or music during their childhood years, but knocked the ball out of the park when it came to library visits and book-reading snuggles.
As Program Manager, Jana works to identify and recruit potential partners and award and implement Community Literacy, Summer Readers, and Children of Incarcerated Adults program grants. Jana grew up in the small town of Fair Haven, Vermont and earned degrees in Literature and Spanish from Ohio Wesleyan University. She went to law school at The Ohio State University College of Law and worked as an Assistant Attorney General in both Ohio and Vermont. She joined CLiF in 2014. She loves exploring Vermont with her husband, son, and golden retriever Wilson.
Kat keeps the CLiF HQ running smoothly by maintaining office operations and manages donations and our donor database. Kat has many years of administrative, marketing, and sales experience, primarily in the fields of education, and travel and leisure. Beginning with her Liberal Arts degree from Colby College in Maine, Kat believes in building a well-rounded education through life-long learning, life experiences, and travel. Over the years she has cultivated her personal skills by enrolling in classes ranging from massage therapy, cooking, and spreadsheets, to real estate, interior design, and graphic design. Kat joined CLiF in the summer of 2020. Kat brings her analytical thinking and knack for fine-tuning systems to her role as Data/Office Manager at CLiF. In her free time she enjoys running, paddling, skiing, reading, dabbling in graphic design, and making memories with lots of family adventures.
Sarah joined CLiF in 2022, and oversees the organization’s publicity and outreach efforts. A lifelong bookworm, she studied American Literature at Middlebury College, and earned her master’s degree from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. After grad school, she worked for E! Entertainment, chronicling celebrity exploits on and off the red carpet, before leaving Hollywood behind to return to her East Coast roots. She has also worked as a creative consultant, copywriter, social media manager, and startup cofounder. Sarah lives in Fayston, Vermont with her husband, two children, and an array of spoiled animals.
Cassie Willner joined the CLiF team as the literacy program manager in August 2022. She is a communicator and collaborator dedicated to ensuring equal access to high-quality learning and literacy opportunities for all. Previously, she worked in a public school library, at Vermont Afterschool as a communications coordinator, and taught middle and high school English at the Mt. Mansfield Winter Academy. When not consuming sweets, reading, traveling, or playing outside with her husband and daughter, she loves to garden and grow lots of flowers at her home in Montpelier. She is also a Jan Brett superfan. Cassie holds a M.A. in communications and journalism from the University of Colorado and a B.A. in English from Colgate University.
Mary Edith Leichliter joined CLiF in December 2022 as Project Specialist. She comes to the role from a career spent working in K-12 and adult basic education. Originally from Pennsylvania, she most recently supervised a community education program serving adult learners there. Along the way, she has taught female inmates at a local prison, worked with returning citizens pursuing high school equivalency diplomas and further education in the local community, and taught out-of-school youth and middle school language arts. She also served as school climate regional coordinator in the public schools there.
A brand new Vermont resident, she is enjoying all that the outdoors offers here, from biking and kayaking to a first outing on snowshoes and ski lessons. Mary Edith shares a home in Duxbury with her husband, Mike, and two pups who have gladly stepped into the attention-gap created when their three children became adults and launched their own lives across the Northeast.
As a State of Vermont employee for over three decades, Samantha Kelley has 20 years of experience in the financial field. (And counting!) Though technically retired, she was lured back into the workforce as a very welcome addition to the CLiF team in November 2023. When not at work, she can be found gardening, doing needle crafts, or playing with the grandchildren.
Lisa is a reader, writer, and former corporate attorney who left the legal world to become a serial volunteer in her community – first with her children’s schools and sports leagues and later with non-profit boards throughout the Upper Valley.
Posie was the Executive Director at The Aloha Foundation in Fairlee, VT. She has worked as a nonprofit consultant and has served on many nonprofit boards.
Kathy currently works as an elementary school math specialist coach. She has been in the teaching profession for 18 years and has taught 4th and 5th grades. Prior to becoming an educator, Kathy worked as a credit analyst for an investment bank. She is actively involved in several Upper Valley community organizations.
Jeremy grew up in a small rural community in upstate New York. After high school, he attended the University of New England, where he received a BS in marine biology, and later attended Champlain College, where he received an MBA. Jeremy works as a data analyst on the finance team for Ben & Jerry’s, and has been with the company since 2012. In his free time, Jeremy enjoys gardening, fishing, and going on adventures with his kids. He currently lives in Barre, VT with his wife and two children.
Sandy is a board-certified Emergency Physician and also Pediatrician who has practiced in varied locales in New England. He has participated in a number of International Medical trips to South America where he provided Pediatric and General Medical care to indigenous populations.
Caroline is an education leader and strategist who helps build and grow mission-driven organizations. Much of Caroline‘s career has centered around college access, and she previously served as CEO of the Joyce Ivy Foundation, a nonprofit that broadens the college aspirations and leadership development of talented young women. Caroline was born in Bennington, Vermont, grew up in Michigan and upstate New York, and is a graduate of Dartmouth and Harvard. She has served on multiple boards, including the Dartmouth Board of Trustees, and several organizations that serve Upper Valley youth. Caroline, her wife, Dr. Darcy A. Kerr, their three young children, and rescue pup, Onyx, enjoy adventuring in the woods and waters around Hanover, New Hampshire, and Fairlee, Vermont.
A fifth-generation New Hampshire native, Catherine’s love of reading sparked an early sense of limitless possibility. As a graduate of Dartmouth College, she became an educator, focused on the role curriculum plays in shaping wise, informed citizens of the world. Catherine’s expertise in marketing and community development was honed as the chair of the Visit Big Sky Montana board. She returned to education, serving as a philanthropic advisor at Dartmouth where she specializes in the development of future leaders wishing to make meaningful impact through education and innovation. She and her husband live in Hanover, where they ski and adventure with their four-year-old son, who always asks for at least one more bedtime story.
Richard G. Mills, JD, became the EVP at Dartmouth in September 2013. He is responsible for the management and coordination of the administrative operations of the institution including financial, facility, human resources and other administrative operations.
Dr. Blanche Podhajski was President and Founder of the Stern Center for Language and Learning, a nonprofit that provides literacy services for children and adults, professional development opportunities for educators and medical professionals, and research on best literacy practices. She is Clinical Associate Professor of Neurological Sciences at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Dr. Podhajski received her Ph.D. in Communication Disorders, specializing in Learning Disabilities, from Northwestern University.
Drew Rockwell has spent most of his professional life helping to build and grow things. Products and companies (most currently as Board President and “coach” for Navi, a marketplace for wireless products and services); non-profits (most currently as Board President of Dismas of Vermont, a transitional housing organization for formerly incarcerated individuals); and family (most currently as grandparent with his wife, Bartlett, to six (soon to be eight) grandchildren!). Plus flower and vegetable gardens!
Mary Margaret has 25 years of nonprofit leadership experience, with organizations ranging from providing education to youth in Tanzania to cultivating the civic, environmental, and economic vitality of the NH and VT Upper Valley to promoting and protecting hiking trails nationally. She and her husband live on an historic farm in Woodstock, VT, at the site of the first ski rope tow in the country.
Mary Ann is passionate about providing children with authentic reading, writing, listening, and speaking opportunities in and outside of the classroom, and believes that literature can change lives. A resident of Stratham, New Hampshire, Mary Ann has been teaching children’s literature and literacy at Lesley University’s Graduate School of Education since 2006. Prior to that, she spent over a decade teaching language arts and the humanities in public schools in New York and New England. Mary Ann is the coauthor of two text books, writes about using children’s literature in the K-8 classroom at The Classroom Bookshelf, and chaired the National Council of Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Committee through 2018. Mary Ann presents regionally and nationally, partners with museums and libraries, has appeared on public radio, and consults with public television.
Jonathan Clark is the Library Consultant for Children and Teen Services at Vermont Department of Libraries. For the last five years Jonathan has been working at the New York Public Library as Manager of School-age Children’s Programming and as a Children’s Librarian in the Bronx. Before becoming a librarian, he worked for over 10 years as a teacher and educator in Utah and New York.
Toni Eubanks is the director of the Barton and Glover public libraries in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. She has volunteered in many capacities, including the reading programs in her children’s classrooms, Junior Great Books programs for first and fourth grades, after-school programs for the local PTO, and Everybody Wins! Vermont.
Jess Kell is the Parenting Program Coordinator for Lund’s Kids-A-Part program, based at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility.
Jane has worked at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, VT since 1994. She has been the store’s children’s book buyer since 2006. She has also served as an ESL teacher in Colorado and a tutor with Central Vermont Adult Basic Education. She served on the board of Planting Hope, which is based in Montpelier and La Chispa, Nicaragua, for five years.
Rubi Simon is the Library Director at the Howe Library in Hanover, NH. Her prior management experience in Vermont includes the Director of the Fletcher Free Library in the city of Burlington, and the Burnham Memorial Library in Colchester. Prior to coming to Vermont in 2009, Rubi successfully held a management position at the Boston Public Library as the Assistant Neighborhood Services Manager overseeing the 27 branches for the city. In this capacity she concentrated on staff development, city-wide initiatives and programming focused on literacy development relating to youth services and diverse populations. Throughout her career, Rubi has volunteered for many community-based groups; most recently she has served as a member of the Vermont and New Hampshire advisory committee for the U.S. civil rights commission. In addition she has been an advocate for minorities, and engaged with organizations which promote leadership and civic engagement among Latinos. Mrs. Simon currently lives in Etna, New Hampshire with her Husband and 3 daughters.
Michele is an assistant professor in the Education Department at Dartmouth College, where she splits her time between teaching the next generation of educators and conducting research about the ways in which poverty impacts learning and academic achievement. Prior to her time at Dartmouth, Michele earned her Ph.D. at The Lynch School of Education at Boston College, conducted neuroscience research at Brandeis University and the University of Pennsylvania, and taught fifth grade in a under-resourced school in Massachusetts. She currently lives in Norwich, VT with her husband, two children, and piles and piles of books.
CLiF has served over 350,000 children since 1998.