Speakers

THOMAS IRA CHITTENDEN grew up in South Burlington, Vermont. Thomas has a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Vermont and his Vermont family lineage traces back nine generations to Bethuel Chittenden, the brother of Vermont's first governor Thomas Chittenden. He was elected as a Vermont State Senator on November 3, 2020 as one of the six senators representing Chittenden County.

He has been elected to the South Burlington City Council three times (2015, 2017, and 2020), currently serving in his third term. He has been twice elected by the faculty of the University of Vermont to serve as their Faculty Senate President and he served as the Chair and Vice Chair of the Green Mountain Transit Authority (2015–2020).

He was the 2019 UVM Grossman School of Business Faculty Member of the Year and in 2017 was awarded the University of Vermont President’s Distinguished Lecturer Award. For a short period of time he was a Volunteer Firefighter in the Town of Williston, Vermont and is a South Burlington Rotarian. He now lives in the Chittenden family home in South Burlington. He is the father of three children attending public school and is married to Kimberly Chittenden, who teaches in the Colchester School District.

Ellen Kane joined Saint Michael’s in April 2024 as Vice President for Institutional Advancement. Ellen brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in advancement, fundraising and strategic planning, in addition to a deep commitment to the Edmundite Catholic heritage of Saint Michael’s. Prior to her position at Saint Michael’s, Ellen served as the Executive Director of the Vermont Catholic Community Foundation at the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington. Ellen also has experience fundraising and serving on boards for nonprofit organizations throughout Vermont, including the Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS), United Way of Northwest Vermont, and the Fanny Allen Foundation. She has more than 25 years of experience fundraising for education, social services, and health care organizations.

Ellen began her career as a “Teach Chicago” scholarship recipient through which she received a Master of Arts in Teaching while teaching high school in the inner-city of Chicago. She has a BA from Loyola University of Chicago and was a Cross Country and Track scholarship athlete.

Ellen has lived in Vermont since 2005, along with her husband. They have two grown sons and a dog, Paris. Ellen enjoys hiking in all the Vermont seasons with her family.

PramoDITA Sharma is UVMs Distinguished Professor and Schlesinger-Grossman Chair of Family Business at the Grossman School of Business. She is a Research Fellow at the Thomas Schmidheiny Center for Family Enterprise at the Indian School of Business. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Calgary in Canada and has received honorary doctorates from the Jönköping University in Sweden, and the University of Witten/Herdecke in Germany. 

Among the highest cited scholars in family business studies, her research on succession, governance, innovation, next generation commitment, entrepreneurial leadership and sustainability in/by family enterprises has appeared in multiple academic journals. She has co-authored eleven books including the SAGE Handbook of Family Business, Entrepreneurs in Every Generation & Patient Capital: The Role of Family Firms in Sustainable Business and Pioneering Business Families of Sustainable Development.

Education Possibilitarian, Artist, Writer, Doula, Mentor, Aviatrix, Breast Cancer Survivor, Pilot-in-Command at Habitat for Aviation.

Beth was born and raised in Vermont. She's worked in a variety of public schools in New England, including The Met, which is Big Picture Learning, flagship, public high school in Providence, Rhode Island. After a decade in the classroom, Beth returned to the University of Vermont to earn a PhD in educational leadership and policy studies. She is an education possibilitarian, artist, a writer, a Doula, a mentor and aviatrix and most recently, after winning a tough battle with breast cancer, Beth founded Habitat for Aviation to inspire the next generation of airplane mechanics, avionics, specialists and pilots. 

Habitat for Aviation is a hands-on apprenticeship program based at Franklin County State Airport in Vermont, offering youth and adults the opportunity to learn and work alongside industry professionals in aviation. Our WOMEN BUILD PLANES program is an all-female, intergenerational team constructing a Rans S-21 airplane, demonstrating that WOMEN BUILD, FLY, and FIX planes. By providing mentorship, skill-building, and career connections, and a sense of belonging, we aim to inspire more women to pursue careers in the aviation industry. For more information Check out our 2023-2024 Annual Report , our Habitat for Aviation White Paper,  and our Habitat for Aviation LinkTree with links to some of our media highlights.

 

Kristen is Professor and Chair of Radiology at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and the Radiology Health Care Service Chief for the University of Vermont Health Network. She is the co-founder and president of Imaging the World.

Kristen’s achievements include unique applications of ultrasound in rural medicine, the provision of integrated medical imaging services in under-served communities, medical education in diagnostic radiology, and global advances in women’s health care. She a member of the World Health Organization’s Referral Guidelines Development Group as part of the International Radiology Quality Network. Internationally recognized as an expert in the implementation science of radiology for rural health care, she sits on a Lancet Commission for Diagnosis, focusing in low- and middle-income countries. Currently, Kristen is Chair of the RSNA Committee on International Radiology Education (CIRE) and a member of the RSNA Education Committee. She also serves on the American College of Radiology (ACR) Foundation’s International Outreach Committee.

On a personal note, my introduction to global health was many years ago. Working with a research team on the parasite infection, schistosomiasis, in rural Kenya in the 1980’s, I was inspired by a Kenyan radiologist to solve an access problem for pregnant women needing ultrasound. With another radiologist, I founded the 501c3, Imaging the world, in 2007. Our original seed funding was from the Gates Foundation, but we now have funding through Industry, Academic partnerships, private donors, grants and research.