The Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing has announced that Laura Peterson has been named communications director for the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. In this role, Laura will be responsible for leading tourism media and trade relations. The Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing’s key objective is to increase awareness of the Vermont brand with the goal of increasing visitation to the state.

TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®, has named Sonia M. Comstock as Assistant Vice President, Store Manager of the store located at 2 Church St. in Bellows Falls, Vt. She is responsible for new business development, consumer and business lending, managing personnel and overseeing the day-to-day operations at the store serving customers throughout the area.

Comstock has nine years of retail banking experience. Prior to joining TD Bank, she served as Branch Manager at Citizens Bank in White River Junction.

The Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC) has announced that Kevin W. Geiger, AICP CFM was recently presented with the “Emergency Manager of the Year“ award by the Northeast States Emergency Consortium (NESEC). The award was presented at the 2014 Vermont Emergency Management Conference held at Lake Morey Inn in Fairlee Vermont. The award was presented by Secretary Jeb Spaulding of the Agency of Administration and Joe Flynn, Director of the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

PRIMMER attorney Jeffrey P. Johnson is a co-chair of the 2014-2015

Vermont Bar Foundation Access to Justice Campaign.

This campaign is the sole source of funding for the Vermont Poverty Law Fellow,

who for the next two years will work with Vermont’s veterans on their health,

housing and work-related challenges. The Campaign also provides essential

supplemental funding for critical direct service programs providing legal services

to low-income Vermonters. Last year’s 2013-2014 Campaign collected over

Northfield Savings Bank is proud to note 52% of employees have been with the organization for more than 10 years.

Each year, the Bank hosts a dinner to celebrate employees' tenure milestones with Northfield Savings Bank and honor them for their important contributions to customers and community. Having reached the ten-year milestone, 74 employees are now members of the Ten Den club.

At the most recent Ten Den event, held at the Norwich University Milano Ballroom, the following employees reached these years-of-service milestones:

Rebecca Haslam, a Champlain Elementary School teacher and District Social Studies and Equity Curriculum Coach for grades K-5, has been selected as the 2015 Vermont Teacher of the Year (VT-TOY), the Agency of Education announced today.

David Grippin, managing partner of Grippin Donlan Pinkham has announced that Nate Hibler, CPA has recently joined the firm as a senior accountant.

Nate graduated from Champlain College with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting in 2009. He also attended George Washington University and the Culinary Institute of America. He brings with him a diverse background including captive insurance management, forensic accounting, auditing, business and personal taxation, computer science, and culinary arts.

Central Vermont Medical Center medical staff recently elected new leadership for fiscal years 2015-2016. Shown here outgoing medical staff President Joe Pekala, MD (left) who turned over the gavel to the new medical staff President Mark Crane, MD (right). President–elect is Cathy Palmer, MD chief of the department of pathology.

The change of command ceremony for the U.S. Marine Corps (from General Amos to General Dunford) took place at 10 a.m. at the Marine Barracks in Washington on October 17th, 2014. Senator Leahy was in attendance. He has known General Dunford for a long time and is a fellow alumnus of St. Michael’s College. Leahy also now is President Pro Tem and the most senior member of the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, which handles the Senate’s work in writing the Defense Department’s annual budget bills.

ARC Mechanical has announced the hiring of new employees in several departments, as well as the promotion of one employee.