 all right well it is great to see everyone this afternoon thank you to everyone who has stuck with us through this amazing day I know it is tough to get through to the final panel but we have such an amazing group of women leaders here with us and I'm really excited to hear some of their stories I'm gonna give everyone a brief introduction and then I will let them kind of kick it off from there we're gonna be talking as Polly said about mentorship about creating those meaningful relationships at work and in your personal life that that are so vital to to women and really to anyone to get us through some of these tougher days so let's get started we have with us today more Collins the executive director of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency Sarah Carpenter Burlington City Councilor and the former head of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency Leslie McCrory Wells the co-owner of three restaurants in Burlington Pizzeria Verita Trattoria delia and Soto Inoteca and Chiuha Samson the owner of a single pebble restaurant in Burlington Pat Moulton the executive director of Vermont State College's Workforce Development Office and the former president of Vermont Technical College and Ellen Coller the executive director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund did I get those all right just nod okay so a question for all of you I'm wondering if you could each in your pairs tell us about a particular moment in your careers where your relationship with the other person helped get you through where it was a moment that you felt you know I couldn't have done this without the other person sitting next to me right now and Sarah and more let's start with you Polly major will know that I was jumping out of my skin when I had this opportunity to speak because I love this story I'm about to tell and the story starts when I was 25 years old newly hired by VHFA fast forward three or four years and I am now pregnant with my first child and I had the privilege and grew up during a time where my mother stayed at home my mother-in-law stayed at home that was the mental model I had in my head for what would happen when I gave birth yet I'd never been a parent before and I didn't know if I was gonna like it and if I was gonna be a good at it and yet I loved my job and I was kind of good at that and I was nervous to give up a great job for this idea of staying home with a kid who you know at that point she hadn't proved herself yet let's be honest she's now about to be 17 and she's proven herself worthy but I remember being very nervous I was still at a fairly low level within the organization I would like to have thought that I had made a good impression but I'd only been there a little while and I went to leadership of the organization and said I thought I was gonna quit my job I definitely don't think I can handle being a mother and working full-time could we find a third way and could I work just 20 hours a week and keep doing what I've been doing and have the time with my child due to the flexibility that Sarah showed and the organization that was allowed and for the 13 years that my three children were home until the youngest one went to kindergarten I worked just three days a week and what makes the story special is not that Sarah was willing to pay me less money and give me less vacation time as that got prurated for being part-time the special part was was it was during those 13 years that my career took off at 20 hours a week Sarah and the rest of the leadership team continued to give me new opportunities send me to new meetings grow my network take on new projects I had so much that I was able to learn and do and grow so that by the time that little one went to kindergarten there were some other retirements happening within our executive management team and that's when Sarah turned to me and said okay let's try four days a week because we're ready to take you to the next level and now she retired at the end of 2018 and in 2019 the board of directors after a national search decided that I was the right candidate to lead VHFA and that would not I would not have been a credible candidate if I'd been mommy tracked if I had been said yeah you can work less and we'll put you over here and we'll develop someone else instead I was nurtured and developed and grew in that position despite the fact that no one saw my commitment to the organization as less than just because I also had a commitment to my family thank you more more makes it easy but it wasn't always that easy when I had been in other organizations where I'd frankly worked with more women and it was easier I went into VHFA as their executive director after seceding someone who had been there for many many years it was quite male dominated as is the finance industry generally speaking and we needed a big culture change in that agency and I could see that right out the gate so I made a few other moves and including improving more for her position which was a new position that we created and she had talent so it seemed incredibly natural but she was not on the leadership team level at that point in time which was I probably the hardest part is you have senior leaders deputy directors program operators at a higher level but I said I need a go-to person somebody I can confide in and those men were wonderfully talented people and serve the agency well but it was hard for me to bounce my opinion off of them particularly when I was around some of the workforce issues which they were not as supportive of including working part-time or giving flexibility that was a tradition not in our agency you know almost 20 plus years ago and so the hard part wasn't working with more and introducing her to new ideas I was working with my colleagues and saying you know this really can work for the agency it's good for the agency we need fresh ideas you know I'm more than 25 years older than more we need as we're some of those leaders we need to be paying attention and so I think that's that's the work and that's my message is you know you look at your talent make sure you give folks any any employee talent but particularly women who are nurturing they are running the families we have to accommodate that and we can make it work it in a way it wasn't that hard for more and I it was harder for some of our co-workers who couldn't quite wrap their head around it well why is she not there 40 hours a week well she's there when I want her to be there and that's what counts right so I just you know encourage us and I will say I had support maybe not so much from some of my male colleagues but from certain members on my board so those of you who work for boards make sure you have strong board members who also understand that you can have a professional part-time job and as where points out it serve the agency very well in terms of our growing and and I always say it also made it possible so that I can retire and feel like the agency's in a great spot well thank you both our our next pair you don't work directly together at the same organization you both run your own restaurants how did you two meet and and what is a moment that really sticks out to you where your relationship mattered most let's see this on okay no thank you we don't work at the same restaurant but we work in an industry that I will also say is very male dominated and and also extremely rewarding in many ways and we met I want to say well before 2019 but we are on the Flynn board together as well as what is now called the Vermont independent restaurant group which came out of COVID and what happens essentially what happened was that an email went out starting I think with Courtney Bush and Butch and Babes went out at the very very beginning of COVID when we had just gotten shut we just found out that we were shut down and it was just a confusing time obviously for everybody but restaurants didn't know what was we were coming up to the date of being shut down and we were trying to figure out should we be shut down earlier because you know lots of things were happening people were coming in they were sick we were getting calls that somebody had been in our restaurant and we didn't know what to do so finally we were all shut down and Courtney Bush stuttered a an email that just was a thread that just went through all the restaurants and one thing to understand about restaurant owners we go into different restaurants and we're celebrities so we all know each other the servers will come over and say you know to help from single pebbles here and we'll send them something you know send us on there go over and say hello or have a glass of wine with her whatever we there's a there's a camaraderie that goes with the restaurants there's 1400 restaurants in Vermont and many are in that of course in Chittenden County and so we we all kind of know who each other is so we this thread started and each one of us would keep adding people that maybe someone else didn't know until it became this huge thread that was just basically sharing what was going on with our restaurants now we had already had sort of a women's rest owners group that we had been getting together and having dinner together and and getting together so this kind of just continued that that piece of course in COVID times on in a digital format and then I guess Vermont independent restaurants be kind of came out of that you hoping one of the first on the Vermont leadership council and helping to build it the Vermont independent restaurant leadership council helping to build it as well so Betty who helped put that together I got on the the council a little bit later but that has also been a point where we are able to talk about and spend time talking about some of the issues that are very pertinent and very specific to women owning business that again are predominantly men men male dominated but also have a lot of of issues sometimes with being a supervisor of men at seeing a woman as maybe not not seeing me as specifically as as the boss and some of the issues that go along with that we've been able to talk through some of those issues so she's been tremendous support for me and for many other women who are in this restaurant group and and I very thankful it's helped get us through for sure I think Leslie just tells most of the story but I think for me really how we form relationship doesn't really it's yes through a lot of different stuff but really for me is my personality I'm very introvert and as you know as we own our own business especially restaurant you juggle a lot of stuff and you often time think that I am doing this alone and especially when the I remember the pandemic first we got shut down I you know we we all go through like tell our employee that you don't need to come tomorrow we only have from 40 people to eight people I remember that I share with Leslie is that I after it held my dishwasher he is from from bouton I said I don't have job for you anymore and he was with us for seven years and I closed my office door and I started crying and this is first time I feel like holy cow I don't know what I'm going to do and then but through all those meetings at the mountain like our digital or phone conversation realize everyone everyone is working for each other support each other even simple silly things I don't have a who knows where can I water take out water take out containers there's something like that's very very little and as our relationship should form I think more so is it really encouraging to think that yeah it's competitive restaurant to you suppose suppose that she's my competitor but I really never thought that way and by how we grow is support each other support the big environment and move us alone and I think that's really our goal as Vermont independent restaurant co-illusion and really is really nice to have a folks that you can talk to some in summer of July I got personally into a PR crisis and I was like okay what should I do I didn't tell anyone but then the next morning she call and that really support me to like oh okay I'm not alone I'm gonna be okay I will go through it and I did so thank you both and now to our final pair tell us about how you you two first met well we first met in the way way way back like 30 years I think it was but my story is when the prior Chancellor of the state colleges called me up one day and said we're closing the Vermont Tech Randolph campus we're moving everything to Castleton and get ready which was not a hint of said call prior to said call after I peeled myself off the ceiling and had some choice words for said Chancellor fast forward a few days the plan that he had to close Northern Vermont University closed the Randolph campus thankfully was taken off the table by the Board of Trustees the governor the Speaker of the House the President Pro Tem a protest in Montpelier you name it but about four or five days after that I think I got this call from Ellen Kaler now I'd known Alan for 30 years from her start with the social justice pieces Justice Center but I really knew her as the mother of Vermont farm to play I mean this lady right here is why we get to eat really good food in really great restaurants because she really kicked it off and I knew she had experience in building community I knew she knew how to bring a network together I knew she knew agriculture and she said what are we going to do about your ag program Pat if you close the can campus you have no farm you have no ag program you lose your 540 acres of asset what do you think if I pulled together a group of subject matter experts to really talk about how we could reinvent your ag program and really get it back on the map and knowing Alan it didn't take me a second to say yes yes yes that's what I need and she turned on her network and with a couple of other amazing ladies Regina Beidler and Louise Calderwood and we met every week at 7 30 a.m. via zoom for two years and counting I mean I think we're every other year now but brought together this amazing team and we've come up with this amazing plan to reinvent our ag program and I mean even like the 7 30 meetings where like how y'all doing you know because we would take time the three of us you know coming out of my mouth and rant and rave and these ladies listened and we heard everybody's story things that were going on and that was the other piece of it is like women care how each other are doing and you give each other a chance to vent and practice and and be part of a team so fast forward to today we've already raised over well through grants over a million seven to really launch the new ag program we're going to kick it off fall 23 we're working on another 750 thousand dollars but and we have to thank exactly and we have to thank senator Leahy and other and senator Sanders and others for assisting us but I thank this lady right here and her amazing ability to build community build consensus build buy-in you know had our chancellor talked to more than just a couple other people we might have had a better plan when than what he came up with but I can't say enough about this lady right here and she has bailed my butt out many a time well I wouldn't have made that call if I didn't have the same level of mutual respect for Pat she has been an incredible leader for decades in the state in the in the realm of economic development workforce development she's made a lot of stuff happen and especially for women and being coming out of economic development and being then becoming the president of a higher ed institution was no easy matter but then to be faced with losing the one hands-on food and ag program in the state like I just I personally couldn't handle it because we had been putting all of these other plants we a lot of we people have been putting a lot of plans in place to eat grow our local food system even more and we're thinking about how do we grow our New England food system and achieve a 30% regional food consumption by 2030 so to like here that the chancellor was gonna shut down this program it was like no that is not gonna happen we're gonna get together with Pat we're gonna make something else happen and we're gonna put this program on the map even though it had been in decline for for many many years it needed it needed a reboot and so I give Pat a lot of credit actually for saying yes because that's the other part of leadership right it's not just being a leader in the case of Pat she's an amazing leader she's been at the top of many organizations in the state for a long time but it takes leadership to understand how you need other people and how you create the space for other people to exercise their leadership right I had something in a moment of crisis for Pat to offer Pat but Pat also offered the opportunity for for me because we the food system development work we were doing was not gonna be able to move forward if Pat's program went down the toilet right so we needed each other in in different ways for different reasons but ultimately for the same outcome and so Pat saying yes at a point of vulnerability really quite frankly was huge and that's another part of I think one of the strengths of women in leadership is our ability to just like yeah we can still be vulnerable but we can still be really strong and we can be there for each other in especially in times of crisis and had we not had a long-term relationship it probably wouldn't have gone like yeah it's not as smoothly and you might have even said I don't know like because there's a trust there right that's that's the thing about really good relationships is that you build trust and it's through that trust especially in times of crisis where we can step forward for each other and we need to step forward for each other and so for those of you who are like in the Gen X generation that I'm in or the baby boom generation if you haven't yet found what Sarah did with Mora to help mentor and bring the next generation along please please think about how to do that because we need the next generation to be in these positions of leadership and to make space for that and we we mobilized an awful lot of folks here at Vermont Tech to get the new program but it's for that next generation right it's that next generation of farmers and food entrepreneurs that we're ultimately setting the table for so thinking about what are what are the institutions in the organizations that are again that enable that and how do we who have some ability to mobilize money mobilize other people how can we be in service to really engage and make that happen so just amazing group of women up here and let's hear some questions that you might have well I want to be mindful of time of your time and so I'm gonna let you know now that we have a couple minutes at the end of this conversation for questions from the audience so so start thinking about those and while you do I have one more question for this group to her when you brought up that story of you know having a moment of crisis at work and feeling really alone and then getting a call the next day from Leslie it made me tear up a bit I've had those moments too where I was feeling so alone and somebody reached out or picked up the phone or sent me something in the mail and I think those moments of connection especially since the pandemic are so hard to find when you can't just invite someone out for coffee anymore all the time you might be stuck on slack or you know you might be just physically or mentally isolated I'm wondering if any of you have other examples like that phone call of a moment where you either feel like like you reached out effectively and made a good connection or where somebody did that for you because I think we could all use a couple ideas of how to strengthen those bonds in this time so I won't call on anyone in particular but if each of you has something that pops into your mind go ahead I'm always wanted to grab the mic so what my brain goes to is that I have reached out to younger women and tried to engage them sometimes I'm gonna admit that that feels mighty presumptuous I'm 45 years old and I don't know where I fit in generationally in leadership right now like am I I don't think I'm a young leader anymore I know that there are still many shoulders I'm standing on top of so I'm I'm caught in between and so you know you don't like call someone up and say hey do you want a mentor because I think I got a lot to offer you you know that I just want to own that there's an uncomfortability with this develop naturally okay this was not you know me turning to Sarah be like will you be my mentor because I also want to acknowledge I actually have like eight other mentors I would say if you know there's just I love the team approach because Sarah was such a subject matter expert for me that in the housing finance arena she was the the best one to go to but there were other professional settings where I had other people in my life that really helped to build me up so instead what I've learned to do is I always try to find ways to appreciate other women and so going back to like calling the woman up who you know who's having a hard time and just making that connection or Ellen just had a wonderful profile in Vermont business magazine two months ago where we got to read about all of her professional accomplishments you know making sure to shout that out in public settings and call attention to it elevating other women boosting them up I have not had big experiences of other women tearing me down or vice versa that hasn't been my experience but I I have read about it I know it happens and so I think that I don't offer myself as a mentor something I more just try to continually lift up other women amplify their voices and meetings but also reach out privately through text or something to encourage them or really appreciate them I just want to know what more said and I you know one of the things I'm probably moral school but I certainly in organizations I said I like to manage by walking around and so just talking to people in your office you know you can find out a lot just little tidbits and and I worry a little bit particularly with zoom that doesn't offer itself as much as it used to so I think we don't have to reinvent it make the proactive phone call make a proactive text you know and it can be about not necessarily work but you know I heard your daughter got a driver's license today how's it going you know those kind of things because I think we we're gonna have to make ourselves have those because that's how you build a relationship well yes and well I haven't I got like 85 probably examples but I think the one that is the was the most challenging for me some of you may have read about this fraud up in the kingdom eb5 yeah ever heard of it that was have you haven't heard a thing about that have you Michaela well when I arrived as secretary of the agency of commerce and day two my general counsel and director vb5 came and said Houston I think we have a problem and started showing me some of the red flags that that point we had no clue how big this was and I was in over my head I didn't know where this was going and I had the fortune of calling Liz Miller who was governor Shumlin's chief of staff and an incredibly bright woman and Susan Donaghan who was commissioner finance department of financial regulation another incredibly bright women woman and saying something's going on I don't know what it is I don't have all the information but we can't ignore this and through Liz's tutelage and working with Susan to say look you there's got to be something you can do the three of us really mapped out the plan and calmed me down and I would say that's been the most challenging professional experience because my integrity was attacked over and it continues today as I'm still being sued by another lawyer so but to be able to have people who were in this mess with me together women who and when Liz Miller Susan Donaghan and I got subpoenaed to testify at Bill Stenger's sentencing hearing which I couldn't have dreaded more in my life and Susan was the first witness knocked it out of the park the judge says we're not retrying this this is sentencing send the West your witnesses home Susan you know did a few fantastic job like I literally like hugged her and said thank you so much but it just and and having each other to be able to say this really bites having to be here and you know and you can't talk about what you're gonna say but that was huge and I don't think that would have happened for me had they not been women and so for that I'm eternally grateful I have a I have a quick story I was work I was in Connecticut I was actually a convoluted story but I'll just say my daughter was in Connecticut with me and I was in Connecticut and her my ex-husband was at Yale so what we were trying to keep her in a more predominantly more multicultural school experience took her out of school in Vermont and brought her down to Connecticut so I was going back and forth to Vermont to finish my master's degree as well as I had a restaurant at the time and I was working at Nagatuck Valley Community College in adult education helping to build online education for the teachers and I got a call I was working my masters and it just was taking a long time and I got a call that my dad was very ill so it was really important to me that he was on the stage to give me my master's degree that was just the most important thing for me to to accomplish so I talked to my friend and supervisor at the time and said I just have to go home she said no stay here continue to work on your master's degree and I'll give you all the time that you need to do the writing so just get your work done so I'd get my work done I'd be able to sit at my desk and work on my writing and with her help and with the help of some wonderful professors at the University of Vermont I finished it I finished my thesis I finished my work and I got my master's degree and he was on the stage to give it to me and I think the story really here is what she said to me when you're in a position to pay forward pay it forward to another woman do we have any questions from our audience and we will pass around a mic I'm also full of questions so no pressure I can keep going okay great well I will ask one more question shout out my name if you think of something my my final question for you all you know more I think you brought up a great point about not the uncomfortability of of imposing yourself on somebody and assuming that you have knowledge to be shared at the same time I know so many of us feel an insecurity at work and feel a need for someone to to reach out and to make that connection and so I'm wondering if you could each think on on feeling that yourself of that that moment when you were feeling insecure at work perhaps as a younger person or earlier on in your career and that moment when somebody did reach out was it hard to accept that help was it was it deeply needed and wanted I think of times when I was a like a young journalist and an older journalist reached out and offered me advice and I got really snooty about it and I rejected it and I said they don't know what they're talking about like I write the way I want to write and it took a while to be able to to open up in that way and I'm wondering if if that resonates for any of you Ellen yeah I had been at the peace and justice center from 1990 and it was now fast forward to 2001 and Jan Eastman who was then at the Snelling Center for government and Lisa Lorimer who then was the president of Vermont bread company was the largest woman-owned business in the state had gotten they had become good friends and they decided that there was a need for a group of people who had gone through the Vermont Leadership Institute to think about a career transition at some point and that everybody was sort of thinking within the next three to five years I might want to make a move so they had started footing feelers out to assemble a little group we called ourselves the chess club because we were playing chess with each other's lives basically not we never actually had a board in front of us anyways at the first meeting of our new chess club there was about seven of us I some reason got invited to that I still don't know but they had their eyes on me and they and I was put on the proverbial hot seat as the first person we hadn't even invented our process yet of how we were going to help each other with thinking through a career transition and I'll never forget this Lisa and Jan said we think it's time for you to leave the peace and justice center and I was like well okay but I like I'm here because like three to five years you know they're like no now and I was like what what what what am I gonna do I don't I don't know what I want to do next that's why I'm here they're like oh you're gonna go to the Kennedy School of Government at down at Harvard down in in Boston and I was like oh okay um and I and I literally I was like that's how I was like in my chair like quaking like what is going on people have these ideas about what I'm supposed to do next and nobody's telling me these things that like what and I just remember being so incredibly uncomfortable in my skin and squirming around and just like uh but I went to bed that night and I got up the next morning because we had an overnight we did an overnight and just something just settled in me you know like they're right that's right and so I said okay that's what I'm gonna do and so it was but I had to trust these other people that they had my best interest at heart that they had an idea of what kind of like Sarah with Mora like had an idea of what it was that I could I could help with in the future like the kinds of things that I could grow into and be a leader for and you know without that moment I who knows I might still be at the peace and justice center in Burlington um but anyways it was incredibly I was just feel so fortunate and so grateful that some other women saw something in me that they were willing to step out and make me really uncomfortable um but then you know it is sometimes those things happen you just have to sit with it and really listen to that voice inside of you and then you'll know you'll just know perfect so my story is not a woman reaching out to me but a man um Jeb Spaulding the aforementioned former chancellor of the Vermont State College is who called me up one day now Jeb and I had worked in state government he was secretary of administration but I frankly didn't know that he even knew I existed and he called me up and said hey think about being interim president at Vermont Tech and and then you should apply for the job as president Vermont Tech I'm like what running a college what are you nuts and uh I don't know nothing about running a college in fact my one of my best friends who passed away or mother at a baby shower what do you know about running a college what the hell can you do with that but but and you know so I'm like sure I'll yeah well you know I was transitioning out of the Schumlin administration I didn't know what I was going to do next and and here I'm come down as interim you know first woman in a typically all male technical college um and then had to go through this incredible higher ed hiring process of year-long interviews give a symposium give this do that but Jeb the whole time Pat just be yourself just be yourself just just who you are because I'm like oh I got to act all academic and you know get all high and mighty and ivory tower and no no just be yourself and that was the best advice I got and you know the rest as they say is history I loved loved love my five and a half years as president of Vermont Tech I love what I'm doing now but I don't think I would have gotten out of the economic development field without that push so I'm eternally grateful for Jeb for that didn't like the phone call about closing the campus but I will always be thankful to him for making that happen for me just listen to both of their story kind of remind me how I get into a single pebble so my really biggest mentor or teacher is for single pebble is there's a silent partner actually currently he's in Australia back then so when I apply a single pebble I was just 2003 I just came to finish my culinary school and I was looking for internship and I remembered founder Steve Bogar interviewed me by the alley and I'm like ah just so you know yes I'm Chinese I know to how to eat Chinese food I absolutely don't know how to cook seriously I don't know I didn't know that but he really taught me first of all he's the first one he taught me how to cook my own cuisine in English so every day I walk in there's a new cook for me to read and he will try something new stuff and I'll be like yeah yeah yeah that's great that's great oh I think a little adjustment but then he will throw me a different project to grow and the second mentor is that silent partner currently in Australia is so I only worked there for two one year one year and half for some reason become kind of I was the line cook and then there's something happened in front of house so I now kind of step in and English is as you know English is not my first language so I love to cook because I don't need to talk to people right I oftentimes thing is I want to cut the chicken into a triangle chicken wins come say I don't want to be a triangle but people will something say to you so got into front house forced me to learn a lot but then eventually I became partner became I need to understand the financial part accounting question mark question mark this uh this partner in Australia uh at his name he starts sending me like the basic accounting textbook and talk to me walk me through with a quick book so I right now I do my own payroll I do my own accounting I I do pretty much everything so I feel like I become who I am today really would not have done without those two person in my life yeah I was gonna just come and you know in addition to my colleagues there's a number of other women in the housing industry who become fast friends and we support each other and we do it with humor I'm so sorry to have missed that workshop and sometimes we do it rather rudely and we challenged each other we are affectionately known to each other as the women's housing mafia and I'm sure you would if I told you who's in the I can't tell you who's in the woman housing mafia but if I did you'd all know them I'll get it out of you sir and in case you don't know public instrumentalities like phfa have the power through public eminent domain to take property not that it ever happened so we had the woman's housing mafia and we were going to season sell property particularly of people that didn't agree with us now we never exercise that but that level of humor and challenge and you know like we're going to season sell that property and you know we're going to get our mafia lady friends out to get you um no one crossed Sarah carpenter but that level of humor and it really helped us build a lot of collegiality and challenge each other and gave us confidence all right I do think that is all of the time that we have today um thank you again to our panelists you one more of our many rounds of applause is one more thank you to all of our panelists and thank you to all you all for listening and I think I think we're the last panel so you might be free to go or someone from um senator lehi's office is going to pop up Paul is coming okay you could just stay seated that I'm not alone up here on the stage thank you all for joining us today this is now the close of the 25th women's economic opportunity conference in the last that senator lehi will sponsor as senator so it's a really meaningful conference for us for him and we appreciate you all for joining us here we've had such an incredible day thank you to our afternoon presenters the safety team to this fantastic panel for joining us I think if we have one theme for the afternoon it's the power of confidence and they've certainly uh taught us skills to practice that in our everyday lives so without further ado I'd like to uh close the conference by acknowledging my co-chairs who helped to make it possible Heather Gania and Lisa Briganti back there and acknowledging you all as participants and fabulous women leaders in the state of Vermont thank you all for coming and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day