VSA Vermont Staff
VSA Vermont employs three full-time staff and up to 40 part-time artist-instructors.
Judith Chalmer, Executive Director
"For me, diversity work through the arts is a dream come true. VSA Vermont is a joy machine. Everything we do brings discovery, understanding, accomplishment and pleasure to people of all ages, all over the state.”
Judith Chalmer, M.F.A., has been the full-time Executive Director of VSA Vermont since July, 2005. Prior to that she supervised independent studies in the arts at Vermont College, led storytelling workshops at an arts-based day center for elders with disabilities, raised funds for an anti-poverty program and directed Montpelier’s First Night festival. She is the creator of a dance/narrative with oral histories, “Clearing Customs/ Cruzando Fronteras/ Preselenje,” on the lives of immigrants in central Vermont (1999), the author and performer of “Don’t Go In There!” a one-woman comedy on racial and ethnic consciousness in central Vermont (2002) and is co-founder of a women’s interracial dialog group that has met for 3 years in central Vermont. She is the author of a book of poems, Out of History’s Junk Jar (Time Being Books, 1995) and her essays have appeared in anthologies such as Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America.
Emily Anderson, Director of Creative Performance and Cultural Access
Emily Anderson’s 12-year association with VSA Vermont began as a Can Do Arts Puppetry instructor and has blossomed in a full-time position. As the Director of Creative Performance and Cultural Access she is the founder/director of The Awareness Theater Company, an inclusive dramatic troupe made up of adults with developmental disabilities who perform original works on a variety of artistic, political and self-advocacy themes, and the author and project manager of the High School Self-Advocacy Theater Program. In addition to those projects, Emily is the coordinator of the Can Do Arts program which connects local visual and performing artists with adults with developmental disabilities. Prior to working for VSA Vermont, Anderson was an invaluable company member at The Bread and Puppet Theater, known internationally for its giant puppets, masks, street shows and pageants, centered on political themes. An important part of Anderson’s 10-year tenure with Bread and Puppet included leading performance and puppet building workshops in cities and towns throughout the United States, Latin America, and Europe.
Peggy Rainville, Program Director
Peggy Rainville has a B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art. She has been with VSA Vermont since 2000, teaching in Start With The Arts, and coordinating the statewide program since 2006. She has extensive work teaching children of all ages. In her role as Start With The Arts Coordinator, she supervises a staff of 8 statewide and keeps in touch with 48 child care providers a year plus “alumni.” Through her work at VSA Vermont she has created innovative partnerships such as the summer collaboration between Start With The Arts and the Franklin-Grand Isle Bookmobile, as well as “Riding Creates,” and “Aha! Adaptive Horses and Arts” art programming in conjunction with therapeutic horseback riding programs. Recently she has become a full time staff member as Program Director.
Lisa Aschbacher, Regional Coordinator
Lisa Aschbacher brings more than 3 decades of experience in arts education and community based arts administration including three years teaching in VSAVT's Start With The Arts program to her new role as Regional Coordinator for the southern part of Vermont.
Larry Lewack, Development
Larry Lewack has 18 years of experience as a nonprofit CEO and program manager, including 12 years experience in program development, grant writing, and marketing communication. In addition to his new role at VSA Vermont, he works part-time as Neuro-Resource Facilitator & Development Coordinator for the Brain Injury Association of Vermont. He earned a Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management from the Vermont College of Union Institute & University and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences & Humanities from the New College of Florida. Larry plays in the community band Sambatucada, and is an avid bicyclist, swimmer and sailor. He was recently elected to the Board of Directors of Opportunities Credit Union, Vermont's only community development credit union. He and his family of three live in Burlington. He says he is nurtured by the arts “every single day.”
