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The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) announces the hire of Jessica Poulin as Farm to Plate Network Assistant and Kurt Ericksen as Operations and Human Resources Manager. VSJF is a nonprofit organization focused on economic prosperity, ecological health, and social connectivity of people, businesses, organizations and communities in Vermont for the benefit and well-being of all who live here. They achieve this by providing business assistance, value chain facilitation, network development, and strategic planning in agriculture and food systems, forest products, waste management, renewable energy, and environmental technology sectors.

As the Farm to Plate Network Assistant, Poulin will support the Farm to Plate Network team in administering and coordinating Topic Exchanges, Communities of Practice and Priority Strategy teams. This includes outreach, communications, report creation, research, and data tracking and visualization, so the Network can collectively advance progress on achieving the goals of the Vermont Agriculture and Food System Strategic Plan 2021 – 2023. Poulin worked in the sustainable, equitable transportation realm, interning for the Vermont Clean Cities Coalition. There they contributed to a variety of sustainable transportation projects, and community engagement strategies. At Local Motion, they ran a statewide e-bike lending library program and organized educational workshops focused on vulnerable road user safety and biking skills, aiming to broaden access and remove barriers to active transportation. Poulin’s diverse work experience also includes extensive work as an educator, supporting students with special needs in Vermont schools, as well as teaching English as a foreign language in South Korea.

Kurt Ericksen joins VSJF as the Operations and Human Resources Manager. In this position Ericksen is responsible for supporting the Executive Director in managing the day-to-day operations of the organization, including core responsibilities of human resources, organizational development, operations, administration, special projects management, and collaborating with program directors to ensure robust internal communications and sharing of knowledge and information among all staff. He comes to VSJF with almost 20 years of experience in the environmental and sustainability business realms. His experiences range from working as a federal regulator in pollution prevention and response in the Port of New York; collaborating with industry, state, and federal resources to protect coastline during the BP Spill of 2010, to overseeing the day-to-day operations at Vermont Compost Company while doubling production and sales over a 5-year period.

About The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund

The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (VSJF) is a nonprofit organization committed to nurturing the sustainable development of Vermont’s economy. VSJF provides business assistance, network development, strategic planning, and value chain facilitation in agriculture and food system, forest product, waste management, renewable energy, and environmental technology sectors. The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund was created by the Vermont Legislature in 1995 to partner with state government, private sector businesses, and nonprofits to build a thriving economic, social, and ecological future for Vermont.