Kristin Sullivan, executive director of the Ward Foundation, a nonprofit that staffs and operates the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art at Salisbury University in Maryland, has been named executive director of Retreat Farm in Brattleboro. Sullivan, who will begin her new position in October, succeeds Buzz Schmidt, who founded and has led the organization since 2016.
Retreat Farm is a nonprofit organization that connects people with the land through local food, place-based education and recreation. The farm has an eight-building historic farmstead, 170 acres of forests, 230 acres of farm fields, a 100-acre aquatic meadow and 10 miles of trails—all operated to benefit the public good.
"Kristin stood out due to the depth of her experience leading nonprofit educational organizations, her understanding of place-based programs and her work establishing multicultural partnerships," said Vern Grubinger, Retreat Farm board member and chair of the search committee.
Prior to her position at the Ward Foundation, Sullivan was inaugural director of the Center for Washington Cultural Traditions — Washington state's folklife program housed at Humanities Washington in Seattle. She also served as assistant director at the Museum of Chincoteague Island in Virginia.
Sullivan holds a Master of Applied Anthropology and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Maryland, College Park.