Stefanie Ayers Cravedi, Chair
Stefanie Ayers Cravedi came to Vermont in 1971 to attend Trinity College in Burlington, spent her senior year at the Université de Grenoble in Grenoble France, and returned to Vermont – never to leave again. She earned a teaching license at the University of Vermont in 1979, an M.A. in French from Middlebury College in 1983, and an M.A. in English there in 1988. She studied Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages under a grant-funded program at St. Michael’s College from 1997-1999. She spent 43 years teaching: 3 years at St. Monica School in Barre Vt., where she taught all the 7th and 8 th grade students French, English, and spelling; 32 years at Spaulding High School in Barre Vt., where she taught French for 7 years, and English for 30 years; and 30 years teaching part-time at Johnson State College/Northern Vermont University-Johnson, where she taught a variety of courses, including English to Speakers of Other Languages, Introduction to Linguistics and English Language History, and all levels of expository writing. In addition to her commitment to providing Vermont students with a first-rate education, she also co-edited The Hazen Road Dispatch twice: in the 1990s for four years and again in 2024 for Volume 48. She is an active member of the Greensboro Ladies’ Walking Society and 4 book groups. She has been a loyal reader of The Hardwick Gazette since she first moved to Greensboro in 1992. She believes local newspapers not only inform community members about the issues various towns are addressing, but they also provide a space for citizens to express their views and concerns. Their support of the arts and the achievements of both children and adults remind readers why we choose to live in a rural area.
Anita Engel, Member-at-large
Retired, Prior to relocating to New England, Anita served as an elected official in a town just outside her hometown of Princeton, N.J. Relocating, Anita had 15 years experience as the Alumni Director at a small private school in Southern Vermont where she was responsible for both fundraising and publication of a quarterly 30 +/- page alumni magazine. Following that position she further gained experience as the Director of Development for two non-profits in the Upper Valley. One a community service organization and the other an organization which provided services for battered women, and men. After her first retirement, her professional career was completed at Stevens High School in Claremont, NH in support of the administration at the school and serving as a Class Advisor. She was a Rotarian in both New Hampshire and Vermont attaining recognition as a Paul Harris Fellow. Now fully retired, other than volunteer work for the Hardwick Gazette, and the Greensboro United Church of Christ, she spends 4 months a year at her home at Coles Pond in Walden, VT, a property she has owned since 1960.
Paul Fixx, Vice-Chair and Editor
Paul is a retired software sales manager and IT consultant who made the mistake of volunteering to be the Gazette’s editor in January 2024. It turns out he’s enjoying the work and seems to have an affinity for it.
Paul’s many interests and varied life experience as well as many contacts in the local area help him in gathering and understanding the area’s news.
Paul began life on the gulf coast of Florida, in Sarasota, soon being moved to Queens, N.Y., then to Riverside, Conn. for third grade, where he stayed through high school.
Paul comes to this work with undergraduate degrees in Physics and Philosophy from Oberlin College ’80. He spent 10 years working in the transportation industry, variously handling, then overseeing customer service, operations and information technology duties in Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, before becoming a remote worker from Greensboro, Vermont in 1989.
In Vermont Paul built a home and spent 18 years selling computer software and hardware to the hospitality industry to manage hotels, spas, golf courses, retail shops and all their related needs.
Paul has thrown pizzas in Bar Harbor, Me., installed burglar alarms, worked as a mover for high value items, served as an information technology consultant, owned a hobby shop and indoor racetrack, repaired all manner of things from vacuums to chairs, raced full-size and radio-controlled sailboats, flown radio-controlled airplanes
Email: [email protected]
Betty Jones, Secretary
Betty Homer Jones is a recent transplant to Vermont joining family during the pandemic. Her professional career included head start educational programs in Cincinnati, a preschool program at Friends School in Detroit, a Cazenovia College Laboratory preschool and an Education Department Instructor. After retiring, she worked as a Science Educator at the Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse with responsibility for coordinating with other agencies to expand available programming. This included adapting museum exhibits and programs for Sensory Friendly visits, working with the Syracuse City School District to provide visits and focused programs for all city students in third, sixth and eighth grades (funded by M and T bank), coordinating a three year Goddard Space Center program “A Beautiful Earth” for use on the Onondaga Nation and with the city schools and for professional training in central New York(funded by Goddard), and serving as the Museum contact for NISE net to include exhibits and nanotechnology programs with professional training for staff (funded by NISE net.) As a volunteer in the Greensboro library she assisted in developing program and materials for use with children about the Solar Eclipse. She is impressed with the quality of the Gazette, considers a local paper essential for healthy community communication and invites others to join us in support.
John Walters, Assistant Secretary
John is a retired reporter and broadcaster who spent most of his career in public radio. He also served as editor of The Bridge, a twice-monthly newspaper based in Montpelier, and as political columnist for Seven Days. He is sole proprietor of The Vermont Political Observer, a blog about Vermont politics. He lives in East Montpelier with his partner of 40-plus years and two contented house rabbits.
