The Howard Center Board of Trustees has elected Kelly Deforge, senior mortgage loan originator at Union Bank, as its new president, and Yves Bradley, a partner at V/T Commercial, as vice president. They will serve alongside fellow officers George Philbert, who continues as treasurer, and Cyndee Surtevant, who remains as secretary.

Immigration attorney Jill Martin Diaz, former professor and director of the Center for Justice Reform at Vermont Law and Graduate School, has joined the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project as its first executive director. VAAP is a statewide organization that recruits, trains and mentors lawyers and lay advocates to provide humanitarian status seekers in Vermont with no-cost legal services and support.

Vermont Mutual Insurance Group, a property and casualty insurer based in Montpelier, has hired Samuel Hopkins (pictured) as vice president and chief information officer and promoted Director of Research and Development Joshua Wykle to the newly created position of vice president of strategy and innovation.

Hopkins joins Vermont Mutual from Liberty Mutual Insurance, where he served as vice president and senior director of technology. He is a graduate of Husson University in Bangor, Maine.