Even in the age of connectedness, when we’re encouraged to rack up as many friends, followers and contacts as possible, it can be easy to get lost in the crowd. Sometimes like-minded peers—even those in the same neighborhood—can remain outside each other’s view.
That was the experience of Fran Stoddard, a veteran Vermont journalist and program host, when she began to connect the threads of what is now known as the Vermont Global Exchange (VGE).
“I became involved mainly because over the years I interviewed lots of people doing important work internationally,” she said. “It just took a few phone calls to bring all these people together.”
The Vermont Global Exchange is now affiliated with ̽̽'s Office of Engagement through a memorandum of understanding signed last year. The organization will hold its bi-annual meetings at ̽̽ and other locations around the state and serves as another rich resource for ̽̽ students and faculty interested in international research and outreach.
The network launched in 2010 and now includes 20 businesses, institutes and non-profits that work in many different sectors. What brings them together is a passion for making the world a better place.
Getting connected
Stoddard became the nexus for the organization when she was approached by Jackie McMakin, a Vermont transplant who had retired with her husband to Wake Robin in Shelburne.
During her own career, McMakin (who died last year) worked on rural health programs in El Salvador, Australia and South Africa. She had also written a pamphlet “Our Defining Moment: A Call to Create the World we Truly Want.”
McMakin’s son Tom was CEO of Profitable Ideas Exchange (PIE) which brings large corporations together for informal meetings to address common challenges in their industries. Tom volunteered to help his mom create a network in Vermont. Was there room for this sort of organization? If so, he was willing to lead the initial conversations.
Jackie McMakin turned to Stoddard, whose Vermont PBS program “Profile” she watched regularly.
Stoddard met with McMakin and discovered a “lovely, energetic person” who also had a great deal of international experience on her resume.
“I said, ‘you know, I've had people on the show who are doing work around the world, and they don't know each other,’” Stoddard recalls.
Stoddard agreed to reach out to see if there was interest in a collaborative to discuss common challenges among the people she knew. All ten organizations she contacted said they would love to meet.
McMakin tracked down several more participants and the first conference call in February 2011 included 16 members. A year later, the group held its first face-to-face meeting at the Institute for Sustainable Communities, a VGE partner based in Montpelier.
Over the years, VGE continued to expand while hosting meetings twice a year, discussing topics chosen by members: like managing growth overseas, techniques in storytelling, how to involve board members in fundraising or how to reach the millennial audience. Guest speakers—sometimes VGE members, sometimes invited experts from outside the group—make presentations and facilitated discussions.
What is it about Vermont that seems to attract so many international development organizations? Stoddard has a theory.
“These people are doing really intense, challenging work and I think Vermont is a place where they can come back to and just breathe,” she said. “Vermont is not perfect and I'm not a Vermont exceptionalist, but I do think it's a place of incredible comfort so these people can go back out into the world recharged and reenergized.”
Vermont’s impact on the world
VGE organizations work in fields including health care, technology, education, sustainability and democracy building.
was founded in 1985 by three idealistic citizens in the Mad River Valley committed to building relationships between young people in the U.S. and the Soviet Union during an era of deep Cold War tensions. “Project Harmony,” as it was known then, started with an exchange of student choir groups from Harwood Union High School and Leningrad. Soon the organization was initiating youth performing arts exchanges between New England and people from all corners of the Soviet Union.
Today PH International is headquartered in Waitsfield and has 60 employees working in seven offices worldwide.
“The Exchange gives us an opportunity to share strategies and experiences and to really create a community of practice within Vermont around international engagement,” said Roger Clapp, associate director of program & fund development.
In 2008 Kristen DeStigter co-founded , an organization based in Charlotte that provides affordable ultrasound services to rural clinics in Africa. Now professor and chair of radiology at the Larner College of Medicine at ̽̽, she committed herself to building the program after her experience as a researcher in a phase II drug study used for parasitic disease in Africa.
“Imaging the World implements systems and prioritizes resources to enable those who need an imaging test to get one—whenever and wherever they seek care,” said DeStigter.
She was looking for ways to expand her organization’s work from Uganda to other African countries when Imaging the World joined VGE. “Fran and Jackie invited me to present at one of their meetings and our expansion challenge became a case study for the group to work on,” she said.
The advice she got led to the hiring of a grant writer, a successful grant application to the African Academy of Science and expansion of Imaging the World to Malawi and Kenya.
The ̽̽ connection
Through the years Stoddard remained involved as convenor for VGE, but she realized the needs of the exchange required more time and energy than she could provide. She reached out to ̽̽’s first Office of Engagement director, Chris Koliba, and discussed bringing the group under ̽̽’s administrative umbrella. With plenty of meeting space, event services, and a location within a few hours’ drive of most members, it seemed like a natural partnership.
Koliba brought in Ph.D. student Naomi Parekh to help with the transition. Before coming to ̽̽, Parekh worked in the United Nations for nine years, focusing on the political prioritization of UN sustainability goals. She helped coordinate the fall 2022 meeting at ̽̽ on December 5th last year, which featured discussions on world environmental sustainability and a tribute to McMakin, who passed away last October.
Parekh, who is pursuing a doctorate in community development and applied economics, thinks the partnership is a win-win for VGE and ̽̽.
“There are so many faculty members across the university involved in overseas development work,” she said. “This partnership will bring students and faculty face-to-face with some of the key players in international education, economic development, health and sustainability—all based right here in Vermont.”
For a university that is dedicated to forging more international opportunities for students, she foresees other potential partnerships including undergraduate internships or research opportunities.
“It’s like having 20 new international consultants working with the ̽̽ community,” she said.
The next Global Exchange meeting will be held Thursday, October 19 at 5:30 p.m. in the Waterman Memorial Lounge at ̽̽ (85 S. Prospect St, Burlington). The event is free and open to the public with .