Current News

Vermont Business Magazine The coronavirus pandemic has dominated health headlines but there is a second health crisis happening. Online insurance broker QuoteWizard analysts have found that there has been a 21% increase in drug related overdose deaths in Vermont over the last year - that’s the 5th highest increase nationwide. New Hampshire had the second-highest rate of increase at 26%. Viriginia's rate fell 31%. October is National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, which helps bring awareness and shed light on a growing health crisis that’s killed over 100,000 Americans.

by Dr Jennifer Scott, Executive Director, Southern Vermont Area Health Education Center (AHEC) October is Health Careers Awareness Month in Vermont, an opportunity to highlight the importance of health careers in our state. Vermont still has one of the highest shortages in the nation of medical professionals per capita, a fact that not only impacts access to care for Vermonters but increases health disparities in our rural and underserved communities.

Vermont Business Magazine The LoveYourBrain Foundation, a Vermont-based nonprofit, has announced its fourth annual fundraiser in partnership with Revel Bikes. Since 2019, Revel has hosted a bike giveaway to raise funds and awareness for LoveYourBrain, and to date, the celebrated bike company has raised nearly $170,000 for the organization. To celebrate its fourth giveaway, Revel is donating two bikes from their collection - a Rail29 Mountain Bike and a Rover Gravel Bike. People are invited to donate to LoveYourBrain, a national organization providing free in-community and online mindfulness-based programs for people affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI), including concussion.

Vermont Business Magazine The next guest on Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s Medical Matters Weekly is Linda Vahdat, MD, MBA, a leading breast cancer researcher who has developed breast cancer drugs that have saved hundreds of lives. The show airs on Facebook Live at noon on Wednesday, October 5. Dr Vahdat is the section chief of Medical Oncology and the interim section chief of Hematology at Dartmouth Health and a professor of medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She earned her medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed an internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai Hospital, both in New York City. She completed a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Vermont Association of Hospitals & Health Systems This past week, over 120 health care leaders came together in-person for the first time since COVID-19 to discuss and tackle many of our more difficult health care challenges. It was incredibly nice to be together after such a long time apart. We are enormously proud of our work together over the past several years—making policy, collaborating and problem-solving over Zoom calls. There is really nothing, however, like being together again.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Retail and Grocers Association is presenting Representative Peter Welch with a Hero of Main Street award October 5 at Bailey Road in Montpelier. The Hero of Main Street award was created by the National Retail Federation in 2013 to recognize legislators that have taken key votes and sponsored bills that advance retailer’s priorities. Congressman Welch is a longtime advocate of and champion for Vermont retailers. On September 19th Welch introduced the House companion bill to the bipartisan Credit Card Competition Act of 2022, which will bring competition and choice to the Visa-Mastercard dominated credit card network market.

Vermont Business Magazine Standing in front of the Royall Tyler Theatre this afternoon, surrounded by a gathering of students and faculty, Executive Director Kelley Di Dio, PhD, formally introduced the University of Vermont’s new School of the Arts. This unique, collaborative arts community brings programs in Music, Theatre, Dance, Art, Art History, Creative Writing, and Film and Television Studies together for the first time. Led by world-class, award-winning faculty dedicated to nurturing the artistic voices of the future, the School of the Arts offers small classes, inclusive liberal-arts curricula, and an extensive array of community partnership opportunities to create a rich, student-centered environment of technical advancement, exploration within and across media, professional development, and experiential learning.

Vermont Business Magazine The Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) is hosting a delegation of Montreal area businesses and entrepreneurs looking to expand into the US market. This event will bring together entities from both sides of the border to share best practices, encourage innovation, and increase bi-lateral trade including: investors, economic development organizations, associations, regional institutions, sector representatives, state officials, financial investment and legal firms, and existing Vermont-based Canadian companies.

Vermont Business Magazine US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) will join Vermont Farm to School and Early Childhood Network to celebrate the success of Farm to School in Vermont in Duxbury Tuesday afternoon. That event will be followed by an event in Waterbury hosted by the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, the Vermont Center for Crime Victims Service, and the National Center for Restorative Justice at Vermont Law School, who will be honoring Senator Leahy for his efforts to assist victims of crime throughout his career in the Senate.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont has launched the first phase of a new incentive program to help residents with lower incomes replace older, high-polluting light-duty vehicles with clean transportation alternatives. Under the Replace Your Ride program, incentives of $3,000 are available on a first-come, first-served basis to income-eligible Vermont residents who retire an operational high-polluting vehicle that is at least 10 years old and switch to a new or used plug-in electric vehicle (PEV). Only California offers a similar scrap-and-replace program (Clean Cars 4 All) to transition drivers to electric vehicles.

VermontBiz is proud to announce the winners of its Rising Stars recognition award. The list is composed of 40 winners under the age of 40. Award recipients were selected by a panel of judges for their commitment to business growth, professional excellence and involvement in their communities. “We are thrilled by the response to this initiative to recognize these up-and-coming leaders, especially during this pandemic. This is our thirteenth year” said VermontBiz Publisher John Boutin. “We received over 100 outstanding nominations this year. The total number of honorees over the past 13 years totals 591,” Boutin said. “The five judges had a difficult time picking the top 40. These young professionals have chosen to make Vermont home. These honorees over the years have stepped up as leaders, not only at their place of employment but also in their communities,” Boutin said.

Vermont Business Magazine October is National Farm to School Month! Schools and early childhood providers can celebrate by applying for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets’ Farm to School and Early Childhood Grant. This grant provides financial and technical assistance to schools and early childhood education providers to help develop or grow their farm to school and early childhood programs. The Farm to School and Early Childhood Grant opens for applications on October 3rd.