Oral History

From Melinda Moulton:

Architect, Environmental Conscious Designer, Visionary for a Better Future, Teacher, Artist and Writer.

Diane Elliott Gayer is a licensed architect in the States of Vermont and Colorado. She has been practicing architecture since graduating from the University of Colorado, School of Design and Planning, Denver, Colorado, with a Masters of Architecture (1976 to 1979). She received her B.A. in German Languages from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 1975.

Ms. Gayer’s professional experience includes work as an architect, community planner, and environmental designer. She was director of the Vermont Design Institute (VDI), a non-profit design and community development collaborative based in Burlington, Vermont. She managed the collaborative since April 1998. June 1999 to September 2000, Diane worked for the State of Vermont as a planner, organizing the Smart Growth conference for the State and writing a History of Planning in Vermont.

From Melinda Moulton:

Dr. Jennifer L. Zaccara is Vermont Academy’s eighteenth Head of School. She came to Vermont Academy in 2017 from The Nightingale-Bamford School in New York City, where she served as Associate Head of School since 2013. Prior to that, she was Associate Dean of Faculty at The Taft School in Watertown, CT where she spent twelve years.

Since coming to Vermont Academy, Jennifer has worked with the board and the school community to launch a new strategic plan. She has led the campaign that drives the plan to significant gains, with record breaking fundraising in 2020 and a near doubling of that amount in 2021. Part of this success comes from significant initiatives to engage alumni by clarifying the school’s identity, purpose, direction, and value proposition. She has also overseen several partnerships, including with Liceo Europeo in Madrid, Spain, where students enrolled in the international education program now receive a Vermont Academy diploma, and a partnership with Mount Snow Academy to allow top-level sports-on-snow students to earn a Vermont Academy diploma.

During her tenure at Nightingale, Jennifer led new initiatives with vision, innovation, and results, including the development of the Nightingale Summer Academy; ongoing work on an eight-day rotational schedule; strategically utilizing new spaces to meld programming with design; and a campaign for global education. She managed strategic internal change, including STEM/STEAM curriculum, design thinking and coding initiatives, and innovative uses of spaces.

Jennifer taught English for many years at Taft, winning several teaching honors. She was appointed Mid Class Dean, leading 65-75 students each year, followed by being named English Department Head and then Associate Dean of Faculty.

A native of Connecticut, Jennifer graduated from Trinity College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Master of Arts degree in English with distinction. She received her doctorate in English from the University of Connecticut, where she graduated with honors.

Jennifer enjoys welcoming students, faculty, and local residents to her home in the heart of campus, where she lives with her dogs, Copperfield and Brontë. She has two sons. Bryce Rafferty is finishing up his last year of law school at Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver. Keefe Rafferty is a Lieutenant in the Navy serving at Special Operations Command Pacific in Hawaii.

For more information: vermontacademy.org

From VRJA:

The Vermont Racial Justice Alliance is happy to have the opportunity to bring the 2022 Vermont First African Landing Day program “We’ve Come This Far By Faith." There has been nothing more vital to the persistence and tenacity of American Descendants of Slavery than their faith. Through trials and tribulations and unimaginable adversity, embracing faith has often been the only way forward. Black folks have depended on the church as a place of refuge and a headquarters from which a movement that would change a nation would operate. When we look back over our lives and think things over, most American Descendants of Slavery would agree that nothing short of a miracle has brought us as a people to this point in time. This year, Vermont First African Landing Day highlights and celebrates our faith with the words that echo through the generations, “We’ve Come this Far By Faith!"

This year Vermont First African Landing Day features “Reflections, Acknowledgements and Aspirations,” a panel discussion on where we have come form and where we agree we should be going, 403 years after the landing of the White Lion at Point Comfort!

For more information visit: firstafricanlandingvt.org/2022-program

From Thea Alvin:

The summer of 2022 will be my 38th year as a stonemason. I began at the age of sixteen working for my father as his mason tender (yes, I expect you to be doing the math right now, and that's OK). I mixed mortar and carried bricks as fast as I could.

When other little girls were playing with dolls... I was eating my fifteen pounds of dirt.

I live in a funky farm house in rural Vermont where we are allowed to freely express our feelings. We experiment with color and texture and dance in the rain and play in the mud. Life is full and rich. I look at life with a smile and find the humor in the silliest of things. When I look at the stars at night I know, like many, that I am insignificant.

The work I do happens with me, through me and not so much because of me. My plans for the year include loving and working with lovers of earth and stone all around the globe, if I root in a place, I will stay there and cultivate it.

I've recently completed the building of a new house and barn: My sculpture park is expanding and I invite you to visit, especially if you want to tell stories and wave your hands in the air and laugh. If you dance you are also welcome, or sing and dance, that's OK too.