The Vermont Community Foundation Welcomes Kate McCarthy as a Program Officer

The Vermont Community Foundation is pleased to announce that Kate McCarthy has joined our Grants and Community Investments team as a program officer.

Kate joins after spending almost ten years as the Sustainable Communities Program Director at the Vermont Natural Resources Council. In that position, she focused on building sustainable, compact communities, with the goal of providing residents with transportation, housing, and employment options, while also supporting open spaces and working lands. Prior to VNRC, McCarthy worked as a regional planner for the Windham Regional Commission in Brattleboro, and with GrowSmart Maine. Before beginning her career in planning, she worked in the field of international education in Washington state. 

"I’ve been grateful that my work over the years has allowed me to support Vermont’s communities by working at the intersections of topics that really impact our lives—housing, transportation, livable communities, and affordability,” says McCarthy. “I’m thrilled that I’ll be able to continue this work on the Grants and Community Investments team, supporting communities and nonprofits in service of both these goals and the Community Foundation’s commitment to closing the opportunity gap.”

“The Grants and Community Investments team is lucky to be welcoming Kate to the Community Foundation,” says Sarah Waring, vice president for grants and community investments at the Community Foundation. “Kate brings a depth of knowledge from working locally across many issues in Vermont, and we’re excited about her passion for rural communities. Kate will help advance our grantmaking coming out of the pandemic, focusing on both opportunity gap priorities, and integrating important, new initiatives that we’ve learned during the pandemic.”

McCarthy holds a Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University, and a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Rice University. She lives in Montpelier with her husband and sons, and enjoys hiking, knitting, and cycling.