Our Board of Directors

Jack Rossiter-Munley, President, is the Director of the Bennington County Multicultural Community Center, a co-founding organizer of the Bennington Community Café, and serves on the board of Catamount Access Television. Jack has been involved with refugee resettlement and immigrant inclusion work in Southern Vermont since the fall of 2021, when he helped organize and perform at a virtual benefit concert to support some of the first Afghan families who resettled in the Bennington area. Jack graduated with a BA in Cultural History and International Relations from Marlboro College and completed a Master’s Degree at the Columbia School of Journalism. When he's not working on community projects, Jack can be found playing music, baking bread, lifting rocks, and playing with his cat, Roger.

Alex Beck (he/him), Treasurer, holds an MA in Service, Leadership, and Management from SIT Graduate Institute. He has extensive experience in workforce and community development, immigrant inclusion, and social entrepreneurism in rural economies in the U.S and abroad. He helped establish the Southern Vermont Workforce Center of Excellence and facilitates the creation, organization, and distribution of regional workforce and education opportunities for Vermonters throughout the Windham region.

Negina Azimi, Secretary, is a case manager at the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), supporting refugee and immigrant communities. After arriving in the United States in 2022, she quickly stepped into her role while navigating resettlement herself, bringing both lived experience and deep empathy to her work. She has been involved in resettlement and community support, helping individuals and families navigate new systems and build stability in their lives. Originally from Afghanistan, she holds a background in law and has a strong interest in advocacy and community-centered work. She is also an artist and member of ArtLords, using public art to foster dialogue and empowerment. In her free time, she enjoys creating art in many forms, including painting and cooking.

Jeff Lewis retired in 2013 after 8 years as executive director of BDCC, the regional development corporation in Windham County, Vermont. During his tenure, BDCC became the largest, best-funded, and most creative in the state. Following retirement, he began consulting with regional businesses on strategic issues, then, for two years following that, he, with his partner Jennifer Stromsten, designed and created the Vermont Futures Project for the Vermont Chamber Foundation with a goal of invigorating the Vermont economy through research and policy innovation.

 Most recently, he has been interim executive for the New England Center for Circus Arts as they weathered internal disruption, setting them on a firm strategy with orderly financial support.

 Prior to retiring to Vermont 15 years ago, he was, in reverse order, Chief Customer Officer of Monster.com, senior consultant with Patricia Seybold Group in Boston, technology manager and strategist at Phoenix Life Insurance, and a practicing parish minister.

 From all those emerged a passionate interest in economic development as a community undertaking requiring a wide variety of skills from research to diplomacy, including real estate management, finance, politics, and survival.

Samba Diallo, Executive Director of the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont.

Steve Tavella (Director) brings over three decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, humanitarian response, and community development across the United States and internationally. After completing four years of service in the Peace Corps in the Pacific, he earned a Master’s degree in Intercultural Management from the School for International Training in Vermont. His work has included providing support for foreign students who were marginalized in their home country, directing emergency response programs for refugee and displaced communities along the Thai/Myanmar border and in Rakhine State, supporting economic development initiatives with rural farmers in Afghanistan, and working alongside emerging civic leaders in the Republic of Georgia. He has also spent 30 years living and working in Vermont and New Hampshire, where he raised his daughter in Brattleboro and contributed to a range of community-based initiatives.