People in the news

Linda Penn has been selected as employee of the month at Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center.

Penn, a member of the Hospital’s Housekeeping Services Department since 2001, was recognized for her performance excellence in promoting the highest standards of cleanliness.

Seven Days, Vermont’s free newsweekly, has added five talented professionals to its editorial, design and human resource departments. The new employees include:

Molly Walsh, Staff Writer

Alessandro “Alex” Bertoni, Saint Michael’s College’s new director of marketing and communications, feels he’s landed at an institution that is an academic rising star with a compelling social mission.

With sunny skies and light winds making the day feel like a million dollars in Hanover, more than 5,000 participants and some 1,300 volunteers teamed up to triple the feeling by raising more than $3.1 million for cancer care and research in the Prouty, Northern New England’s largest charity fundraiser.

The executive director of Disability Rights Vermont, Vermont’s protection and advocacy system, was honored at a national civil rights conference recently.

Gov. Peter Shumlin and Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Deb Markowitz has announced that Waterbury Representative Rebecca Ellis will join ANR’s Department of Environmental Conservation as Senior Counsel for Government Affairs on August 10. Ellis resigned her seat as state representative for the Washington-Chittenden District yesterday. Gov.

President Donald J. Laackman and the Champlain College Board of Trustees are pleased to announce the 2015 recipients of the Edward Phelps Lyman Professorship Award, the Francine Page Excellence in Teaching Award and the Elizabeth A. Durick Staff Service Award.

Mack Molding, a leading custom plastics molderand supplier of contract manufacturing services, announced today Larry Hovish, an accomplished marketing communications professional with 15 years of experience, has been appointed director of communications, reporting to President Jeff Somple.

The Vermont Historical Society has announced that Jim Douglas, the former four-term governor of Vermont, has agreed to serve as the VHS’s part-time interim Executive Director while a national search is undertaken to replace Mark Hudson, who recently announced his fall departure. Douglas will begin his duties shortly and will overlap for a time with the departing Hudson.

Nicole Strout, FNP, has joined the orthopedics practice at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC). Strout is a graduate of Walden University, Minneapolis and is certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Andrew Brewer of Onion River Sports in Montpelier, Marc Sherman of Stowe Mercantile in Stowe, Trudy Trombley of Truly Trudy's Boutique also in Stowe and Todd Keyworth of Harborside Harvest Market in North Hero have been recognized as “America’s Retail Champions” by the National Retail Federation – the world’s largest retail trade association.

Finding the right executive chef for a premier culinary inn set deep in the woods of Southern Vermont doesn’t happen overnight. The Inn at Weathersfield’s, in Perkinsville, owners, Marilee and Richard Spanjian, have learned it takes someone with experience, a shared philosophy, maturity and true respect for guests’ needs in order to uphold and carry on this established culinary excellence.