The Team

Hailing from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Washington, meet The Space’s Board of Directors. The board, as well as area advisors, provide the necessary framework, expertise, support, and guidance for The Space On Main, Inc. to be successful. The Board of Director members currently have experience in grant management, nonprofit management, leadership, development, fundraising, event coordination, programming, marketing, web design, communication, public policy, finance and accounting, entrepreneurship, technology, business administration, customer support, member services, community organizing, video production, engineering, graphic design, project management, and teaching (elementary through graduate school). Scroll down for more information and links.

Monique Priestley

Executive Director & Founder

Samuel Drazin

President

Samantha Sheehan

Vice President

Adam Pippin

Treasurer

Alex Lange

Secretary

Dr. Kenneth Rufo

Director

Alison Fiorito

Director

Brynn Cole

Director

Jonathan Masland

Director

Marvin Harrison

Director

Colleen Ford

Director

Brian Carroll

Director

Monique Priestley

Executive Director & Founder | Bradford, VT

Monique (she/her) is a designer, gamer, geek, and connector. 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 Northern Vermont University – Lyndon.

Monique is Executive Director for The Space On Main, which she founded as a nonprofit in 2017 and opened it in 2018 in hopes that it could promote a greater sense of community and connection for people living and working in the Cohase Region (Northern Upper Valley) of Vermont and New Hampshire. (Watch the ribbon cutting ceremony.) Monique is a business counselor for the Center for Women & Enterprise (CWE) and has been working in technology-related positions since 2001 doing network administration, database management, web design and development, social media marketing, digital communication strategy, and customer support. She is the Director of Digital for CampusCE Corporation in Seattle, Washington, an EdTech company she has worked for since 2010. In 2021, Monique launched a new company, Convoy Digital, which focuses on WordPress site design, maintenance, and hosting. Under MEPriestley, Monique provides technical consultation.

Monique believes strongly that everyone has a responsibility to give back to their communities. In Bradford, Monique is a Justice of the Peace and serves on a number of town commissions (e.g. Planning, Public Safety, Resilience). She is a director of the boards for Vermont Council on Rural Development, Community Capital of Vermont, Cohase Chamber of Commerce, Bradford Business Association, and chairs the boards of Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation and Vital Communities. Monique serves on the steering committee of the Vermont Creative Network (Vermont Arts Council) and serves on the cabinet of EMERGE Vermont (EMERGE America). In 2017, Monique joined Cohase Rotary Club (Rotary International), currently serves as club president, and is the District Governor Nominee Designate for Rotary District 7850 (VT/NH/QC) for 2024-2025.

Monique 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 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.

When she is not at work or board meetings, she can be found exploring, paddle boarding, cooking/eating, attending live shows, tinkering with tech, and anything quirky she can find in her travels.

Samuel Drazin

President | Bradford, VT

Sam Drazin is a certified elementary educator and former elementary school teacher. He holds a Bachelor of Education from Goddard College. Currently, he is the Founder and Executive Director of Changing Perspectives. Sam was born with Treacher Collins Syndrome – a rare congenital disorder resulting in both facial anomaly and hearing loss. Sam underwent seven surgeries as a child while attending his local public school. Sam’s experiences, both as a student with a disability and as a teacher working in an inclusive classroom, made him recognize the importance of improving awareness and understanding of disabilities. Sam continues to be amazed by the positive impact that disability awareness initiatives are having on students and teachers around the country.

Samantha Sheehan

Vice President | Hancock, VT

Samantha Sheehan is the Communications Manager for Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, a state wide business association that advocates for policies which are good for the people and environments of Vermont. Samantha is committed to supporting sustainable economic growth throughout Vermont. She has a passion for education and service, and enjoys working directly with small business owners.

In addition to working as VBSR’s Communications Manager, Samantha is the owner of Valley.Works Coworking Space in Waitsfield. She also works as a freelance designer and social media marketer for a variety of Vermont businesses and non-profit clients. Samantha also volunteers on the leadership team of the Vermont Creative Network, serves at the Chair of her local Planning Commission and Vice Chair of the Hancock School Board of Directors.

She lives in Hancock Vermont with her husband and two dogs, Benny & Maybe.

Adam Pippin

Director | White River Junction, VT

“I am a 2010 graduate of Lyndon State College aka Northern Vermont University in where I completed my B.S. in Business Administration. After leaving college, I found my first real community banking opportunity in Claremont and since then my career has led me full circle back with Claremont Savings Bank in a commercial lending role for the Upper Valley. I have a strong passion for helping entrepreneurs grow and support our local vital communities. I am an active member with a few financial committees within the industry and state association, as well I am the VP of a board that focuses on Mental Health Rehabilitation Services. When not working or involved with my non-profit associations, you can find me on the golf course, with family or at the gym.”

Alex Lange

Secretary | 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.

Dr. Kenneth Rufo

Director | Kenmore, WA

“I am, for lack of a better description, a professional grokker. I read, I listen, I digest information, then pick out the most salient pieces and figure out how they go together. As Director of Communications at Emphatic Thinking, I typically do this for tech companies, assisting with strategy, communications, marketing, and sales enablement.

I hold a Ph.D. in Communications, with an emphasis on argument, rhetoric, and media ecology, the last of which is the study of how and why technologies succeed or fail, what sort of content works best in which media, and how these different media environments shape social reality.

I am also surprisingly good at Halo.”

Ken holds a B.A. in Communication from Wake Forest University, an M.A. in Speech of Communication from the University of Georgia, and a Ph.D. in Speech Communication from the University of Georgia. Ken taught for the University of Washington’s Communication Leadership program until 2016. The Communication Leadership Program at the University of Washington is a terminal degree program offering Masters of Communications degrees with a focus on either Digital Media or Communities and Networks. He taught courses on Media Disruption, Network Analysis, Gaming and Game Design, and the Ethics of Digital Media.

Currently, Ken is a principal at Emphatic Thinking, a consulting agency that solves Go-to-Market problems. There he runs the Positioning and Strategy practice group, as well as the Research practice group, Emphatic Research, which focuses on understanding Go-to-Market challenges.

Alison Fiorito

Director | Seattle, WA

Alison Fiorito is a video producer in Seattle, Washington. Alison has served as a Producer & Project Manager for several of Microsoft’s largest products including Xbox, Skype in the Classroom, Bing in the Classroom, and currently Windows 10 Education. Her experience includes working in various production capacities at a national level on commercials, entertainment, and marketing campaigns; perhaps most notably the 2004 Emmy Award Winning opening sequence for Six Feet Under and the 2013 Xbox One launch campaign. Before that, Alison produced more than 70 documentary-style marketing pieces for the Microsoft Corporation, including videos used in keynote speeches for Bill Gates and other leaders at Microsoft. Her specialties include pre-production, crafting client stories, interviewing executives, overseeing editing through post-production, and the strategic inclusion of videos and commercials on web, television, at conferences and events.

She is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Master of Communication Digital Media program and holds a BFA in theater from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Alison is originally from Arkansas and still has family there, however she has made Seattle her home for many years. Alison has worked in film and video production for most of her career, and has a passion for education, environmentalism and the arts. She is also the coach of her son’s robotics team, Error 404: Page Not Found. The team builds competition robots during the fall and winter and underwater robots during the spring and summer. Alison’s version of Orpah’s favorite things list are being with her family, hanging out with her dogs, coaching the robotics team and hiking.

Brynn Cole

Director | Newbury, VT

An employee of the Department of Veterans Affairs/Veterans Health Administration of over 10 years, Brynn Cole currently serves as the Director of Programming for the VHA Innovators Network (iNET). In this role, Brynn’s primary focus is coordinating training + events, managing alumni relationships, facilitating iNET’s annual Spark-Seed-Spread Innovation Accelerator program, identifying + meeting the learning needs for both Innovation Specialists + Investees at the 37 VA sites of care (VA hospitals all over the country) that make up the VHA Innovators Network. Brynn is energized to bring together people and ideas to act as a catalyst of positive change, and as an antidote to the “can’t do” attitude that some believe inherent to the federal government.

Brynn earned her Bachelor of Arts from Johnson State College in Johnson, VT, with a focus on Gender Studies and Sociology and has recently returned to her native Vermont after years in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is obsessed with her snug cabin on 11 acres of Vermont mountainside, enjoys rambling around in the woods with her nieces and nephews, 12-year-old Golden Retriever (Angus) and two bobtailed cats, which makes for quite a scene! As both a member and Director of The Space On Main, Brynn is grateful for the opportunity to both support and benefit from such an incredible community resource.

Jonathan Masland

Director | Lyme, NH

“I’m currently on an entrepreneurship journey that includes renting food trailers and trying to solve education finance-related problems in emerging markets such as India. Prior to this journey, I spent over a decade leading the Career Development Office at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth where I helped Tuck MBAs with their careers and job placement. Prior to moving to the Upper Valley, I worked in corporate finance and investment banking with Coopers & Lybrand and Alex. Brown & Sons and initially cut my teeth on entrepreneurial efforts with Strategic Capital Resources and as the first employee of a technology start-up Revbox. I did my undergraduate studies at Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. Somewhere along the line I met my wife on a bus in Mexico and we have two daughters. I live in Lyme, NH and really enjoy running up and down the hills as exercise.”

Marvin Harrison

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.

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Colleen Ford

Director | Campton, NH

Colleen Ford is the Emergency Services/Criminal Justice & Public Safety Instructor at River Bend Career & Technical Center, located in Bradford, VT. Being from Central New Hampshire, the drive to The Upper Plains of Bradford takes about an hour (baring all moose and snowplows)! Colleen is happy to call the White Mountains her home and work in an area that has been key in her life!

Colleen has an Associate’s Degree in Business Management from Lakes Region Community College, in Laconia, NH. She has also completed the Career & Technical Education Teacher Certificate Program offered from Vermont Tech. She will be completing her Bachelors of Applied Science from Vermont Tech in the Spring of 2020. Colleen holds many certifications including: NH Certified Level II Firefighter, National Registered Advanced EMT (holding licenses in the states NH and VT), State of Vermont Instructor Coordinator, NH Certified Fire Instructor & Emergency Instructor I, NH CDL with Tank & Air Brake Endorsements, NH Haz Mat Operations, NH Wildland Firefighting Certified, and multiple Incident Command certifications.

When Colleen is not riding in fire trucks she can be found outside. “I am a lover of all things science and outdoors! Music, my dog, and my family keep me happy and fill my days with fun. When not working, I am a photographer. Nature (flowers and insects are my favorite subjects) is my white balance. Exploring the New England states is something that I do as often as possible…road trip, count me in!”

Brian Carroll

Director | Corinth, VT

Brian Carroll is a project/program manager with 14 years of clinical research industry experience. He and his wife moved to Corinth, VT in 2016 and immediately became entrenched in the tight knit community in the Upper Valley.

In addition to the Space’s board, he also serves on Bradford’s Park and Rec task force, the Corinth Community Coalition, is a volunteer admin for the Bradford listserv, and serves as a board member and lift volunteer at the Northeast Slopes. He has also held a series of other community and arts related positions in his time in the area.

Brian is also a filmmaker, a photographer, an illustrator, an audio engineer, founder of Red Line Roots – a New England based Roots/Folk publication and a musician/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist himself. A purveyor of many things and a wearer of many hats.