Jill Mazza Olson, former executive director at the not-for-profit home health and hospital agency VNAs of Vermont, has been appointed director of Medicaid in the Department of Vermont Health Access at the Agency of Human Services.

Olson brings to her new position decades of experience as a trade association executive. She has policy expertise across health care, long-term care and home and community-based services, along with professional and board-level experience in the insurance industry.

Ken Gobbo, professor emeritus of psychology at Landmark College, has been named the 2025 winner of the Dr. Bradley E. Cox Outstanding Research on Autism in Higher Education Award by the College Autism Network. The network is a national nonprofit organization that links varied stakeholders engaged in evidence-guided efforts to improve access, experiences and outcomes for autistic college students.

Esther Charlestin, chair of the Vermont Commission on Women, has been elected to the National Association of Commissions for Women Board of Directors as a director-at-large and member of the Policy and Governance Committee. NACW is the nation’s premier membership organization representing state, county and local commissions for women.

Whitney Calkins, a family medicine physician at University of Vermont Medical Center and assistant professor of family medicine at UVM's Larner College of Medicine, has been named 2025 Physician of the Year by the Vermont Medical Society.