About Us

At VT-HEC, we believe that equity is foundational.

Equity is what allows authentically diverse communities to come together and experience the sense of belonging that facilitates meaningful growth.

We are driven to provide accessible and powerful learning opportunities that further the expertise, knowledge, and skills of teachers, leaving them better equipped to address the barriers that Vermont students face. These barriers include those that arise as a result of differences in perspective, experience, background, and identity in all of its forms. They also include the differential impact of climate change, the unique challenges of life in our rural communities, and other conditions both universal and specific to the Green Mountain State. It is always our aim to remain nimble and responsive to the emerging needs of Vermont’s educators and to actively seek feedback to help clarify those needs and continually improve in our work.

Our institutional culture is one of humility and lifelong learning. To advance equity in an unequal world, we endeavor to find, hear, and amplify voices that have often been missing from conversations, even and especially when these challenge our current thinking. In our programmatic and professional development offerings, and in our internal operations more broadly, we are committed to the individual and institutional learning and growth that will enable us to more fully embrace and promote equity. The development and ongoing evolution of our programs is informed by the guidance of advisors whose lived experience, diverse practice orientations, and professional backgrounds are vital in helping us center the impact of our collective work.

While we are proud of our efforts to promote equity, we know there is much more to be done to honor the strength, insight, and inherent richness that our diversity can afford us. To this end, VT-HEC has established a working group focused on equity. In its work so far, this group has identified several major areas of focus, which include ensuring that technology is used to effectively support access, providing resources and clear expectations to instructors and presenters around issues related to equity, identifying operational practices that are successful in promoting inclusion as well as those which require further evaluation, and building processes for holding ourselves accountable in this work. We are grateful for the dedication and collaboration of our team in our continued journey toward equity.