Snelling Center for Government

I am a Master’s degree candidate in the Natural Resources Planning department of the Rubenstein School at UVM. My thesis aims at dissecting how public comments are used in agency decision making, looking specifically at how the Forest Service planning team used citizen input to make management area designation decisions on the Green Mountain National Forest during their recent Land Use and Resource Management Plan revision. I graduated from Grinnell College with a degree in Anthropology in 1997 and prior to starting the NRP program; I worked for a New England-based conservation organization.

Concurrent to writing my thesis, I am working with The Snelling Center to support the Agency of Natural Resources “Re-think” process on organizational, functional and structural issues.

I am a Public Policy Assistant at the Snelling Center as well as s first year student in the Master of Public Administration Program and the University of Vermont. My current work at the Snelling Center has focused on the Vermont legislature’s public engagement process on health care reform. My main research interest is how the creative economy can be used to revitalize Vermont’s downtown areas and also how the creative economy could be used to rebuild areas devastated by terrorism, particularly Northern Ireland. I obtained my Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Political Science at Westminster College in Pennsylvania where I graduated Summa Cum Laude.

UVM Master in Public Administration, May 2006. Matthew's internship at the Snelling Center contributed to furthering the understanding of Non-native Invasive Species and forest health in Vermont. He worked to investigating the issue and built an understanding of current and anticipated actions at the local, state and federal agencies as well as non-profit organizations to foster awareness of forest related non-native, invasive species (NNIS) and their potential affects on Vermont’s economy. His project worked further to:

Matthew has an undergraduate degree in environmental education and professional experience in scientific analysis, With the expanding emergence of third party governance, due to the increasingly essential interface between the public and private sectors, this internship with the SCG expanded his understanding of the role of business and industry in creative environmental problem solving.

I am a third-year MPA student with a focus on government, politics and the media as it relates to the public sector. Prior to arriving at UVM, I worked for a daily newspaper in Southwest Georgia covering local and state government and have also worked for the Times-Argus newspaper in Montpelier. Through my current internship I hope to shed light on how the media’s coverage of health care reform in Vermont affects public perception and public policy. It also attempts to find innovative ways of increasing public participation in such issues to supplant more traditional methods such as public hearings that aren’t always well attended for various reasons.

Stephen Searl is currently a second year graduate student in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, with a concentration in Natural Resource Planning. He obtained his Bachelor of Science from Cornell University in 2000, and his academic work focuses primarily on rural community development, natural resource conservation, and resolving potential tensions and conflicts between the two through informal, community-based action as well as public policy. As an intern with the Snelling Center for Government, and in collaboration with the Conservation Study Institute, Stephen will be developing an understanding of governance by networks, particularly as it relates to public-private partnerships.

Energy Policy Intern Emily Stebbins is a part-time graduate student in Community Development and Applied Economics. Emily is working with the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization to research alternative transportation planning strategies. A communications professional who currently manages the website for UVM’s Department of Human Resources, Emily is also the Senior Editor of a strategic assessment of the University’s IT needs. She is the former Marketing Director of Riser Management Systems, and founded Stebbins Ink Communications in 2003, providing public relations, advertising, marketing, and web copy for business and non-profit clients. She coordinated public relations for the Regional Public Transportation Initiative, a joint task force of the CCMPO and the Chittenden County Transportation Authority to change the way public transportation in Vermont is funded and governed. A native Vermonter who grew up on a dairy farm in West Enosburg, Emily’s interests include land use policies and impacts, change and conflict in rural communities, and the negotiation of myth and reality in Vermont’s brand and identity. Emily holds an A.B. cum laude in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University.

Ben Machin is a partner in Redstart Forestry in Corinth Vermont, a consulting firm specializing in forest management, geographic information systems, non-native invasive species management, and land conservation. Ben received an English degree from Bowdoin College in 1996 and a Master’s in Forestry from University of Vermont in 2003 where his research focused on using spatially explicit data to model the expected impacts of the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid. Prior to joining Redstart Forestry, Ben was employed as a firefighter – smokejumper with the USDA Forest Service in Redmond Oregon. Ben was a 1996 Watson Fellowship recipient, a 2003 Snelling Center for Government Graduate Fellow, and is a Leopold Schepp Scholar. As well as serving as a forester, Ben is a maple syrup producer with interests in tree climbing, horse logging, exotic pest and disease management, and the integration of new technology into current strategies and techniques.

Ben’s work as the first Public Policy Fellow at the Center included supporting the work of a think tank group on the Creative Economy, and authoring a draft briefing on non-native invasive species (NNIS) and forest health in Vermont. His brief on NNIS is still guiding work on this topic at the center and has been the subject to two subsequent internships, and will be the topic of new work in 2006.

As a Public Policy Fellow with the Snelling Center for Government, Dr. Christine Negra investigated the role of environmental science in the Vermont policy process as well as innovation in the planning and practice of landscape-scale conservation. She is now working on the 2nd edition of The State of the Nation's Ecosystems as a Research Associate at the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment. Prior to her work with the Snelling Center, she conducted research on the environmental behavior of trace metals in soil systems at the University of Vermont and the Brookhaven National Laboratory. From 1994 to 1998, she designed and implemented research and outreach programs in sustainable agriculture and community development at UVM Extension.

Dr. Negra received a Ph.D. in Plant and Soil Science (2004) and a M.S. in Natural Resources Planning (1994) from the University of Vermont and a B.A. in Government Studies (1990) from Wesleyan University.

I am currently pursuing a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology at St. Michael’s College. My previous studies focused on food and nutrition. As an intern at The Snelling Center I conducted research on a variety of health care topics. I participated in the efforts of Coalition 21, and supported workgroups that were looking at various issues in medical malpractice, wellness programs, integrated health care systems, and comparative health systems from different states and countries.

I graduated with an M.S. in Natural Resources Planning from the Rubenstein School at UVM. I did my research there on spatial econometrics and non-market ecosystem service valuation. I am continuing various research tasks at UVM as I apply to Law School for the fall. My internship at The Snelling Center involved following the legislative process on health care reform in 2005 and supporting the efforts of Coalition 21.

I grew up in Transylvania, but these days I am a graduate student in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. My studies focus on rhetoric, knowledge, and power in natural resource and recreation planning. Through the Snelling Center I assisted the Nature Conservancy with developing a policy position on wind energy development.

Carmen is a second year graduate student in the Community Development and Applied Economics program at the UVM. Carmen’s internship builds upon the 2003-2004 lecture series, Conservation at the Landscape Scale: Emerging Models and Strategies. She is interviewed Vermont’s leading conservationists to assess current conservation efforts in Vermont, collaboration efforts, barriers to success and landscape scale planning.

I graduated UVM’s Community Development…program. My thesis research was on agriculture policy in Vermont. I interned through the Snelling Center at the Lake Champlain Committee working on current legislative issues affecting the quality of the Lake. Helen is currently the Director, Creative Communities Program at the Vermont Council on Rural Development.

Brittany graduated from UVM’s School of Education and worked at the Center doing research for the Education Governance project. She enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Pennsylvania and will graduate in 2006.

I completed my Masters degree in Natural Resource Planning at UVM’s Rubenstein School. At the Snelling Center I worked to advance policy recommendations on addressing forest based non-native invasive species looking as federal state and local interventions. I also worked to do research for the Center on contract with the Department of Public Service on “clean transportation.” I am currently the Technical Coordinator at the Lake Champlain Basin Program.

Beth completed her Masters of Science degree in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at UVM, and then promptly started her doctoral work in the same field. While at the Center she worked on projects with the Office of Vermont Health Access’ Patient Education Team.