The Space On Main is 100% volunteer run with Monique Priestley serving as our Executive Director. The Space On Main’s Board of Directors hail from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Washington. The directors, as well as area advisors, provide the necessary framework, expertise, support, and guidance for The Space On Main, Inc. to be successful.
Executive Director & Founder | Bradford, VT
Monique Priestley (she/her) the Executive Director for The Space On Main, a nonprofit community workspace she founded in 2017 to promote a greater sense of community and connection for people living and working in the Northern Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire. She spent 14 years working in various roles, including Director of Digital, for CampusCE Corporation, an EdTech company in Seattle, Washington. She has served on more than two dozen commissions and boards having most recently served as board chair of Vital Communities and Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation. Monique is serving her second term as a Vermont State Representative (Orange-2). She was appointed to the House Committee on Commerce & Economic Development, the Joint Information Technology Oversight Committee as well as the NCSL Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity & Privacy. Her policy priorities focus on Consumer Protection (e.g. Data Privacy, AI, Right to Repair) and Future of Work. She graduated from University of Washington’s Master of Communication in Digital Media program and holds both a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Media and an Associate of Science in Graphic Design from Vermont State University – Lyndon.
Monique recently completed Leadership Kinetics’s Six Dimensions of Leadership Excellence accelerator (2024), was a member of the 2018–2019 cohorts of Leadership Upper Valley (Vital Communities) and Vermont Changemakers’ Table (VBSR & High Meadows Fund) as well as the 2019–2020 cohort of Vermont Leadership Institute (Snelling Center for Government, Marlboro College). She received Cohase Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year Award (2018), was featured by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office as March (2019) Vermonter of the Month, was recognized as one of Vital Communities’s Heroes & Leaders (2019), received Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Planning Commission’s Volunteer of the Year Award (2020), and was recognized by Vermont Business Magazine for their Rising Stars (Top 40 Under 40) Class of 2020.
President | Newbury, VT
Brynn Cole works within the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’s Innovation Ecosystem, where she leverages her talents to advance healthcare for veterans. She holds a master’s degree in leadership and is a certified practitioner and facilitator of human-centered design, which she uses to help make healthcare experiences more personal, meaningful, and effective.
After years of living and working in San Francisco, Brynn returned to her hometown of Newbury, VT, where she currently lives with her spouse, their child, and pups. She’s been a proud and active member of The Space on Main from the very beginning, has served on the Board of Directors for almost as long, and is energized to put her leadership skills to work in her new role as Board President.
Vice President | Rutland, VT
Scott Graves is founder of SMGraves Associates where for 18 years he has put to effective use the principles and skills he garnered in the entertainment industry to use in leading economic and community development projects. For the last decade he has focused on the development of programming for several tech and tech-enabled business accelerator-powered incubators in Massachusetts and Vermont. Formerly Scott owned and operated Smash Music, a music merchandising and education company. More recently he managed a construction firm, managed the development of several housing projects and was fiduciary for Exponent Property Investment Cooperative, a data-driven real estate investment program where he provided management and lead the effort to develop the data-focused approach of the program.
Scott’s work includes developing a network of mixed use properties combined with venture capital and other resources for tech and tech-enabled households under the brand Living Local. He has developed the concept of ‘Scaled Incrementalism’, a new strategy for invigorating de-industrialized neighbourhoods. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Treasurer | Bradford, VT
Having graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a Masters in Library Science, Sean Fleming has worked for the Lebanon Public Libraries for twenty-two years, the last thirteen as library director. Intellectual freedom and removing barriers to access have been a special focus of the organization in recent years. Sean volunteered as Treasurer of the New Hampshire Library Association, during which time an increased level of funding was released to the library community from the association accounts. Locally, Sean served two separate terms on the Bradford Public Safety Committee, and currently serves on the Bradford Library Board. Sean’s family has been very active in the arts community in the Upper Valley, so to give back Sean devoted time to Revels North as President of the organization during a time of transition.
Secretary | Burlington, VT
Kirstin Boehm serves as the Director of Career and Education Outreach at the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation. Across her career, Kirstin has been dedicated to serving students who are experiencing structural and systemic inequity and exclusion. She is passionate about leading innovative teams that invest in ‘opportunity youth’ and her experience and expertise is focused on the intersection of the labor market and higher education. Boehm has over two decades of international and U.S. experience in higher education policy, college access and success planning as well as expertise in financial aid policy and managing federal grants, from proposal through implementation. She was a member of the 2019–2020 cohort of Vermont Leadership Institute (Snelling Center for Government, Marlboro College) and lives in the South End of Burlington with her husband and two sons.
Director | West Fairlee, VT + West Hartford, CT
Jennifer Boyd is a multiple EMMY Award winning producer and director of more than 50 documentaries, as well as dozens of music television shows. Good Morning America has called her work “groundbreaking.” She is currently directing a multi-part series on the history of Las Vegas called Las Vegas: The Early Years.
Jennifer splits her time between Connecticut and Vermont, but says, “My soul is really in Vermont. I’m so grateful for The Space on Main. Not only because I can easily work in Vermont, but I can also create deeper connections in the community.”
Director | Montpelier, VT
Paul Costello served as the Executive Director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development from 2000 to 2021. VCRD runs an annual Rural Summit and conducts “Community Visits” that help rural communities build priorities, set action plans, and build connections to resources. It also provides facilitation on rural development policy at the local, regional and state level, including more than a dozen major rural policy council efforts, and has built significant programs to advance the digital economy.
Paul attended UVM before earning a PhD in intellectual history at McGill. He has served on boards ranging from corrections education to cooperatives, libraries and Governor’s commissions, including co-chairing the Climate Action Team and chairing the Local Support and Community Action Team of the Vermont Covid-19 Recovery Task Force. He is past president of the national community development association, Partners for Rural America.
Director | Newbury, VT
Marvin retired in 2018 after a 31 year stint in community banking (primarily consumer, mortgage and commercial lending) with the Wells River Savings Bank, the last 21 of those years in the Bradford office across from The Space On Main. He is a charter member of the Cohase Chamber of Commerce (18 years) and has been actively involved with the Bradford Business (fka Merchants) Association along with numerous boards and committees associated with education and workforce development.
Like so many, his long work career (10 years working in manufacturing prior to banking) was a very different path from his BS in Education from SUNY Cortland, but it appears to have all worked out! He is excited about The Space On Main and its ability to bring together such a powerful and interesting cast of characters on Main Street at a critical time in Bradford and the Cohase region’s future.
Director | Seattle, WA
Alex is a maker, gamer, and cook in Seattle, Washington. She recently completed a degree in Environmental Science at University of Washington Bothell, after several years in restaurants and software. She currently works for Elliott Bay Engineering, where she enjoys drafting, procurement, soldering, and final assembly of custom engineered electrical control products.
Director | Bradford, VT
Molly Morin is an artist working in sculpture and digital media, a former associate professor of art and current program manager for the Cable Makerspace at Dartmouth College. Her creative practice considers the social and material impacts of computing and the ways that people interact with data. She uses fabric manipulation, felting, machine knitting, machine-cut plastic, machine drawing, generative drawing, performative drawing, projection, animation, data visualization, and physical computing in her work, and teaches experimental digital fabrication practices to others. Morin has given invited lectures at the Center for Research Computing at the University of Notre Dame, The University of New Hampshire, and the National Academy of Science. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including solo exhibitions at The Collaboratory at UC Santa Barbara, Wittenberg University, Lamar University, the University of Dallas, and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art.
