Pat Moulton Powden announced this week that she is leaving her state job to take a position with the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation. The BDCC is the Regional Development Corporation for southeastern Vermont. Powden will first head up workforce development before becoming executive director when Jeff Lewis retires at the end of 2013.
Pat Moulton Powden with another now former Shumlin Administration offical, Bill Lofy, in 2010.
Powden is leaving her current post as Deputy Secretary of the Agency of Commerce & Community Development in February 2013. In this position she has been the Shumlin Administrations lead job creator. She has held several economic development posts in and out of state government, including in Springfield and the Northeast Kingdom, as well as being Labor Department Commissioner under Governor Douglas.
The Brattleboro area has suffered perhaps more than any other since the recession of the early 1990s. With the uncertain future of Vermont Yankee, an aging population, fewer high-wage jobs and a general economic malaise, Powden has a significant task ahead of her.
"Part of the solution, and the work I will be doing initially," Powden told Vermont Business Magazine, "is in the area of workforce development. Identifying what are barriers to growth for the employers in the region and marshalling the resources to assure we are filling those needs. This includes short term and long term strategies."
Powden knows the area well. Her father, Elbert Al Moulton, was an economic development specialist for the state under Governors Snelling and Kunin and held leading business development positions in Brattleboro on two occasions. Powden still has family in Windham County and herself lives in Londonderry.