The Space On Main currently has one employee, Monique Priestley, 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 (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. Monique 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.
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, Bradford Business Association, and Cohase Rotary Club (Rotary International). Monique serves on the steering committee of the Vermont Creative Network (Vermont Arts Council), the cabinet of EMERGE Vermont (EMERGE America), and the Future of Vermont Action Team. She served as board chair of Vital Communities and Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation until she stepped down to run for State Representative of Vermont Orange-2.
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 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 | 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. Brian was a selected as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star by Vermont Business Magazine in 2021.
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.
Vice President | Sutton, VT
Evan is currently a partner and Director of Product & Business Development at Whiteout Solutions, a geospatial technology company based in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. He brings more than 18-years of digital product design and development experience at high growth media companies and tech startups. After founding two startups of his own, Evan has gained a deep understanding of the challenges of operating an early-stage startup and the importance of finding product market fit. He also founded Do North Coworking alongside Northern Vermont University which now hosts the Forest Product Business Accelerator. Additionally, he is a founding member and chair of NEK Broadband, a communications union district bringing universal fiber internet service to 55 of the most rural towns in Vermont.
Evan is an alumni of Snelling’s Vermont Leadership Institute, a 2019 Vermont Business Magazine 40 Under 40 Rising Star and holds a bachelor’s degree in Interactive Media Design from the New England Institute of Art.
Treasurer | Newbury, VT
Tim is the Chief Financial Officer for The Clara Martin Center, a state designated mental health agency serving Vermont’s Orange County. He has spent the majority of his career in the healthcare/not-for-profit finance industry, both as a public accountant and at several large healthcare organizations in New England.
Tim earned his BS in Business and Accounting from St. Michael’s College, and his MS in Accounting from Northeastern University. After nearly a decade in the Boston area, Tim returned to the Upper Valley in 2015 with his wife and two daughters, settling in Newbury, VT. Since that time, Tim has been active in the community, currently serving on the Oxbow Unified Union School District School Board and as Treasurer for the Newbury Recreation Board. Tim was a member of the 2021–2022 cohort of Leadership Upper Valley (Vital Communities).
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.
Director | 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 | Newbury, VT
Brynn Cole works remotely for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Innovation Ecosystem as a designer, facilitator, and storyteller: she’s on a mission to make healthcare more human, relevant, and relatable through practicing and facilitating the art of human-centered design. Brynn began her VA career in 2006 at the White River Junction VA in her home state of Vermont, before transferred to San Francisco in 2010, and returned to her beloved Vermont in 2016. She’s been and active and grateful member of The Space on Main since day one, and is excited to bring member perspective to the Board of Directors.
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 | Ferrisburgh, VT
Cairn Cross is a co-founder and Managing Director of FreshTracks Capital. Cairn presently serves on the boards of FreshTracks portfolio companies NativeEnergy, Faraday (Chair), and Mamava, and is an observer to the ThinkMD and Caledonia Spirits boards. Cairn was formerly the Chair of the Board for the EatingWell Media Group which was sold to Meredith Corporation and served as a Director of NEHP prior to its sale to Critical Process Systems and was an observer to the SunCommon board prior to its sale to Isun.
Cairn is a lecturer at the UVM Grossman School of Business where he teaches Financing Sustainable Innovation for the award-winning SI-MBA program. Cairn was an advisor to the board of Colchester, Vermont based C2 prior to its sale to Xerox. He is a member of the Vermont Advisory Board of the Center for Women and Enterprise and a board member for Lever, Inc., a Berkshire County Massachusetts economic development and business acceleration program. He was previously a member of the Board of Vermont Community Loan Fund, the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, the Vermont Board of Public Accountancy and was Vice Chairman of the Board of Opportunities Credit Union.
In 2011, the United States Small Business Administration named Cairn its Vermont, New England and National Financial Services Champion. He earned a B.S. from Montana State University and an MBA from New Hampshire College (now Southern New Hampshire University). He received a graduate certificate from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking.
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 | 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.”
Director | Burlington, VT
Dr. Patten is a veteran nonprofit administrator, clinical social worker, scholar, entrepreneur, speaker, and educator. He specializes in nonprofit change management, social entrepreneurship, complex systems theory and managing complex change in high-stakes social justice contexts.
He received his Bachelors degree in social work from Colorado State University, and a Masters degree in Social Work from the same institution. He earned a doctorate in leadership and policy from the University of Vermont in 2016, where he studied nonprofit social enterprise.
He is an assistant professor of Entrepreneurship at the Stiller School for Business at Champlain College, serial entrepreneur, and consultant to a national network of nonprofit organizations, corporations and government agencies that seek to understand the role of social enterprise in their future.
He has logged two decades of experience leading complex organizations. He has held senior leadership positions at some of Vermont’s most notable nonprofit organizations and been a part of global and national campaigns aimed at improving the state of the world.
Director | Bradford, VT
Jonah is an Upper Valley native and real estate developer. Focused on small-scale, infill projects, he founded Village Ventures in 2020 as a means to drive the creation of Missing Middle Housing. Current projects include the development of a new 9-unit building on Main Street of Fairlee and the gut renovation of a historic building in Bradford’s village center (see his newsletter, Brick + Mortar, for more). He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and is a former management consultant at Accenture in NYC.
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.
