(RVT) at Norwich University has been operating since 2015 in response to the need for coordinating and supporting resilience work in the state. Widespread flooding in the summer of 2023 shaped the theme of this year’s RVT conference “Resilient Vermont 2024: After the Floods.”
̽̽’s Leahy Institute for Rural Partnerships co-sponsored the conference held at Norwich University March 19.
Patricia Coates, Director of the Leahy Institute and the ̽̽ Office of Engagement, participated in the keynote panel titled “Partnerships and Policies for Resilience” alongside moderator Kahwa Douoguih, co-director of the Center for Global Resilience & Security at Norwich University, and Wendi Goldsmith, CEO of Sustainability Visions. The panels discussed the types of community partnerships that foster resilience in the face of natural disasters, and reflected on municipal, state, and national policies that can help and harm community-driven resilience investments.
Emma Spett, also representing the Leahy Institute, facilitated a discussion about how students are contributing to resilience building. In the session “Bringing Flood Recovery into the Classroom,” Spett was joined by ̽̽ student Kara Campbell, a senior environmental studies major who was part of the first cohort of the “̽̽ Fellowship in Restoration Ecologies and Cultures: Training Leaders for the Green Work Force” program. As a fellow, Campbell supported the research of ̽̽ History Professor Cherie Morse, who has been exploring how global warming might influence migration to Vermont from other parts of the country. She also worked with Amy Seidl, co-director of ̽̽’s Environmental Studies Program, on a community restoration project in Huntington, Vt.
Besides being a chance to share her perspectives with students and faculty from other schools including Middlebury College and Norwich, the conference broadened her view of what resilience looks like. “It was extremely relevant to my work at ̽̽ which is guiding me on what I hope to be doing in ecological restoration,” she said. “I was hearing many different points of view from other students and community leaders at the conference which really challenged some of my assumptions about how things work.”
Kelly Hamshaw, a senior lecturer in Community Development and Applied Economics at ̽̽, also participated. Hamshaw has conducted longstanding research and service-learning partnerships with manufactured housing communities in Vermont, which are especially vulnerable to flooding.
A second panel, titled “Building Flood Resilience through Community-Engaged Research” brought together scientists from ̽̽ and Norwich who are conducting research in support of flood resilience in Vermont and beyond. Spencer Karins, an unmanned aircraft specialist at the Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL) at ̽̽, spoke about how SAL mapped flood damages with drones immediately after the summer 2023 floods. Sarah Grajdura, a post-doc at ̽̽’s Transportation Research Center, spoke on their innovative work understanding the relationship between flooding and transportation, and the related equity challenges particularly in rural communities. ̽̽ Professor Emeritus Chris Koliba led the After-Action Review, which provided space for stakeholders and community members to voice concerns about the flood response and offer proposed solutions.
“My takeaway was how much work is being done by community organizations to address how we respond to events like last year’s summer flooding,” said Coates. “I think it was also a great showcase for the work that students, faculty and staff at ̽̽ are doing in Vermont communities today—and how much more there is that we can contribute.”
The Resilient Vermont Network (RVT) was first formed experimentally in 2015 under the direction of the Institute for Sustainable Communities. From 2017, under the leadership of the Center for Global Resilience and Security (CGRS) at Norwich University, RVT embarked on a new phase of coordinating and supporting resilience work in Vermont. Since 2017, CGRS has also supported the RVT by hosting professional development workshops for Community Resilience Organizations (CROs), participating in Vermont's State Hazard Mitigation planning process, including hosting a working group meeting, and leading the development of an Academic Resilience Collaborative (ARC) that would bring Vermont researchers into communities to minimize or solve Vermont's resilience challenges.