Seven Days, Vermont’s free, independent newsweekly, won three first-place awards at the annual Association of Alternative Newsmedia conference last month in Washington, DC. The AAN Awards recognize the most artful, compelling and courageous journalism produced each year by the alternative newsmedia. AAN member publications vary in size and circulation, and are based in cities across the U.S. and Canada; the annual awards contest gives these publications the opportunity to compete against their peers.

Environmental leader and advocate David Mears JD/MELP’91 will direct the nation’s top-ranked Environmental Law Center (ELC), Vermont Law School President and Dean Tom McHenry announced today. Mears, who has a long history of practicing and teaching environmental law, will begin work as the ELC director this week after a period of transition following his service as VLS vice dean for faculty. Mears succeeds ELC Director Melissa Scanlan, who will continue as director of the school’s New Economy Law Center, which she cofounded in 2015.

Susan Rand, owner and founder of Sojourn Bicycling and Active Vacations, announced the acquisition of this leading North American active travel company by fellow Vermonters, Raja and Bibi Mukherjee. Founded in 2004, Sojourn Bicycling and Active Vacations is an award-winning company specializing in exceptional active vacations in extraordinary destinations throughout the United States and Canada. The Vermont-based company currently offers nearly two dozen boutique active vacations and has garnered accolades from Condé Nast Traveler, Forbes, Frommer’s, and Fodor’s.

Berkshire Bank has announced the appointment of Jeffrey D Stone as Senior Vice President, Retail Branch Banking for the Bank’s entire New York and New England network. In this new position, Stone will bring industry leadership, community involvement at the highest level, and extensive retail banking experience as the Bank continues to attract high-level talent throughout the organization. Robert M Curley, Berkshire Bank’s New York Chairman, said, “We are fortunate to have someone of Jeff’s caliber join the Berkshire team and continue our growth in New York and New England.

Champlain College Provost and Senior Vice President for Academics Laurie Quinn has announced that Scott H Baker has been named Dean of the Stiller School of Business (SSB), after su

Norwich University has named former Marine officer, Naval Academy graduate, and educator Dana Moss as its new director of human resources. He began his tenure on July 31, 2017. Moss has over 17 years of experience in human resource administration. He was most recently the human resources manager for a large, international steel corporation, and prior to that, held a variety of HR responsibilities at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Inntopia recently crossed the 100 employee mark across our Stowe, Burlington, Denver, Edwards and Portland, ME offices. Their Burlington office welcomed three new members in July: Njama Braasch; Sarah Karandy and Haney Hamdy. Inntopia proudly welcomes Njama Braasch as a SQL DBA/Developer. Prior to Inntopia, Njama was Senior Database Administrator / Information Systems at Loanbright, Inc. for 14 years, and Software Developer at Everbank for two years. He attended the University of Vermont with a major in Mechanical Engineering.