The Con Hogan Award for Creative, Entrepreneurial, Community Leadership recognizes Con and his life’s work by encouraging and rewarding leaders who:

• Share his vision of a Vermont that places the highest value on the public good.
• Seize the responsibility for making the vision real by:
  • Focusing on results,
  • using data and measurement to mobilize action,
  • working with people across diverse perspectives,
  • taking risks in pursuit of a vision, and
  • persisting through setbacks.
• Mentor emerging leaders, formally and informally.

The honoree must be an individual who is a Vermont resident and has not previously received the award. Although there is no specific age requirement, the award is intended for someone with a record of success who is continuing to act toward making a positive difference.

• Individuals may not nominate themselves, a family member, a member or family member of the Con Hogan Organizing Committee, a staff or board member of the Vermont Community Foundation, an elected official, or an exempt State employee. In addition, if an employer of a nominee does not allow receipt of cash, the nominee may designate a nonprofit of their choice that best furthers the work for which they have been honored by the Hogan Award.
• Nominators must be individuals not organizations, though an individual may nominate a colleague within their organization/place of employment.
• Nominees are eligible for nomination in subsequent years if they have never been selected as an awardee.

The Foundation’s dear friend Cornelius Hogan of Plainfield, Vermont passed away in August of 2018. During his lifetime, he served as a Senior Fellow with the Center for the Study of Social Policy, a Senior Consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a faculty member of the National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practice, a Fletcher Allen Health Care Director, Chair of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson initiative for Strengthening Families through health care access, a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Center for Children in Poverty, and as a consultant to the Children’s Defense Fund in the fashioning of a program to cover all children for health insurance. He was Secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Human Services from 1991 through 1999.

He holds a master’s degree in government administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Hogan earned his undergraduate degree at Rutgers University. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Vermont, where he presented the commencement address for the graduating UVM Class of 2000. And he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Green Mountain College in May 2012.

He was president of the American Public Human Services Association, a director of the Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Hogan had a 15-year career in corrections, including serving as Vermont’s Corrections Commissioner. He was also president and CEO of a successful mid-sized corporation for a decade in the 1980s.

Hogan was active in a variety of efforts to improve the circumstances of children, families, and communities including: the closing of Vermont’s only children’s reform school; closing of Vermont’s only training school for persons designated developmentally disabled; reducing the census at the Vermont State Hospital; implementing a statewide welfare reform program in 1994; and establishing outcomes throughout Vermont that have demonstrated measurable, significant, and sometimes dramatic improvement in the condition of Vermont’s people, in areas such as child support collections, parentage establishment, child abuse, teen pregnancy, and early childhood health and nutrition programs.

He was also a resource to local, state, federal and other nations, working in Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, the UK, Australia, Israel, Chile, Northern Ireland and Norway in the work of finding common purpose and obtaining results in the well being of children, families, and communities. And as a member of the five-person Green Mountain Care Board, he was charged with helping Vermont move toward a universal, unified health care system, in which all Vermonters can access affordable and appropriate health care at the appropriate time and in the appropriate setting.

He was the author or co-author of many books, including: Vermont Communities Count: Using Results to Strengthen Services for Families and Children, At the Crossroads: The Future of Health Care in Vermont, Gridlock: The Unhealthy Politics of Health Care in Vermont, Outcomes: Reframing Responsibility for Well-Being, and three books of short stories: Met Along the Way: Short Stories About People in Vermont, Also Met Along the Way, and Finally Met Along the Way.

Recipients will be selected by a committee consisting of individuals who represent a broad range of activities, including: health and human services, the arts, government service, early care and education, agriculture, and civic duty.

• Will Belongia, VT Community Loan Fund
• Paul Cillo, Former President of Public Assets Institute
• Steve Dale, Former Human Services Manager
• Rev. Dr. Arnold Isidore Thomas, Pastor Emeritus
  of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Jericho
• Scott Johnson, Chair Con Hogan Committee
• Dr. Etan Nasreddin-Longo, Vermont State Police
• Karen Scott, Vermont Community Foundation
• Diana Wahle, Windham SE Supervisory Union

2023 HB Lozito

2022 Joe Wiah

2021 Dr. Lydia Clemmons

2020 Vermont Department of Health

2019 Jan Demers

2018 James Baker

2017 Holly Morehouse

2016 Michael Monte

2015 Ellen Kahler

Nominations for the 2024 award will be accepted beginning Wednesday, April 24 and must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 27, 2024.

All nominations must be submitted online through the Vermont Community Foundation’s Online Grants Manager. Please create your account using the name and contact information of the nominator. You will need to enter your first and last name in the Organization field and 00-0000000 in the tax ID field. Your nominee’s information will be entered in the online nomination form, which is accessed via the “Apply” link after creating and logging into your account.

To preview a pdf of the online form questions, click here.
Nominations will not be accepted by email or mail.

With questions about the Con Hogan Award, please contact Jane Mulcahy.

• Email: jmulcahy@vermontcf.org
• Phone: 802-388-3355 ext. 381