Above: Franklin Cody, constituent services manager for the office of Governor Phil Scott, is one of several 2025 Emerging Leaders whose work focuses on community services.

In health care and social services, the stakes can feel both intimate and structural: how someone is treated in a room, and how many real choices they had before they ever walked into it. 

Kayla Brookins, a birth and postpartum doula and certified herbalist based in Brattleboro, has learned that what families want most often sounds simple—support, information, and options—but that access to those basics can be uneven.

Alongside Logan O’Grady Snow of Bennington, Caz Clark of Brattleboro, and Franklin Cody of Bennington, Brookins represents a cohort of young adults working across Windham and Bennington Counties to strengthen community well-being through presence, equity, and follow-through.

Care Grounded in Relationship

Healthy people, healthy families, and healthy communities are inseparable from trust – trust in providers, trust in public information, trust that systems will respond when people ask for help. The work of these Emerging Leaders spans maternal health, reproductive rights, food access and outreach, and public service. What unites them is a practical belief that care is something you build through consistency, listening, and real accountability.

These four leaders are just a handful of 27 young adults honored as 2025 Southern Vermont Emerging Leaders by Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation’s Southern Vermont Young Professionals and the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce’s Shires Young Professionals. Nominations for 2026 open February 13th at sovermontzone.com/emerging-leaders.

Expanding Birth Options Through Trust

Brookins’ advocacy begins with what she sees on the ground. “In the birthspace in Vermont, the two major challenges I see are a severe deficit of midwives and the fact that free-standing birth centers are illegal, both of which are detrimental to maternal health.” Her observation is blunt because the impact is concrete: fewer providers, fewer settings, fewer choices.

Her nominator frames Brookins as both grounded and forward-looking: “Kayla is a brilliant young woman trying to add doula services into the healthcare space and advocate for alternative birthing options in our region. She is at the front edge of proving that doula services are best practice for both mother and baby and is showing how doula services also save money in the healthcare system.”

At the same time, Brookins sees deep alignment between her values and the place she’s chosen to call home. “I moved here from my home state of Pennsylvania, but I felt as if I finally arrived home when I got to Vermont. My core values of living in loving harmony and partnership with nature, my nature-based spiritual practices, my beliefs of mutual aid and community care, my passion for sustainable agriculture, and my desire to hold those who labor and their families in loving, supportive hands all align greatly with the values that I see embodied throughout Southern Vermont.”

Advocacy Shaped by Lived Experience

In Bennington, Logan O’Grady Snow brings personal history to her work in advocacy for the Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund. Her leadership is rooted in firsthand experience of economic insecurity and the barriers it can create.

Snow describes her entry into organizing in plain terms: “As someone who grew up in poverty and didn’t have financial means to complete college, I felt a bit behind, I was very insecure but desperately wanted to be a part of this movement.” That drive came with a learning curve she didn’t hide. “I asked endless questions and I’m eternally grateful for the patience my mentors had with me.” Over time, she adds, “I also learned how inaccessible some grassroots organizing can be.”

“A Bennington native, Logan played a key role in mobilizing southern Vermont volunteers to help pass the Reproductive Liberty Amendment, which enshrined reproductive freedom in the state constitution,” her nominator writes. “Logan is also a relentless champion for queer and trans health care, ensuring that inclusive, affirming resources are prioritized.”

Snow also works to ensure that young people have the information they need to make thoughtful choices for themselves. “Logan is an invaluable resource for sexual health education,” her nominator says, “offering guidance to both youth-serving professionals like myself and directly to youth, always with knowledge and empathy.”

Food Access as Dignity And Connection

At the Brattleboro Food Co-op, Caz Clark has approached outreach as a form of community care—one rooted in curiosity, not judgment. 

“I found that having a conversation with hungry people about why they were stealing food really changed the dynamic of how theft was happening in our store,” Caz says, reflecting on the moment the work shifted from “security” to something more human. That insight opened the door to practical solutions—food distribution, connections to services, and relationship-building that reduced harm while increasing support.

“Caz’s leadership has significantly improved how the Brattleboro Food Co-op supports our unhoused and food-insecure neighbors,” writes his nominator. “He played a key role in expanding food accessibility efforts, ensuring surplus food was redirected to those in need instead of going to waste and creating a more sustainable model for food distribution.

“Beyond logistics, Caz has fostered a culture of empathy and inclusivity within the Co-op,” his nominator continues. “Through advocacy and education, he has increased awareness about the challenges faced by the unhoused community, inspiring both staff and customers to approach these issues with compassion. Thanks to Caz, the Co-op has deepened its role as a community resource, making a lasting impact on both the organization and the people it serves.”

Building Civic Belonging Across Generations

For Franklin Cody of Bennington, community care includes making sure people—especially younger and newer residents—can see a future for themselves in Southern Vermont. Growing up in Bennington, Cody learned how special our close-knit communities are–and that they are built on listening and showing up for one another. In his professional role as constituent services manager in the Office of Governor Phil Scott, Cody helps residents navigate state systems and find solutions when processes feel opaque or overwhelming.

Alongside that work, Cody invests deeply in civic connection through his leadership as Vice Chair of the Shires Young Professionals. “I find my work volunteering for the Shires Young Professionals group incredibly rewarding,” he says,” and I believe it contributes to creating a sense of belonging for young and new Vermonters.”

That belonging is built through concrete efforts: networking events, civic forums, volunteer projects, and partnerships that help people meet one another and engage with their communities. Cody is passionate about creating community among young and new Vermonters because it helps combat the impacts of Southern Vermont’s older demographics, which affect every aspect of life here–education, workforce, healthcare, housing, economic opportunity, and the vitality of our tight communities. Cody adds, “The community Shires Young Professionals builds is an incredibly important part of the retention of young and new Vermonters to the area.”

His nominator emphasizes how consistently Cody shows up across roles, describing him as “respectful, enthusiastic, and deeply invested in the future of Bennington.” Whether helping a resident resolve a constituent issue or organizing opportunities for young professionals to connect, Cody focuses on creating pathways for people to participate fully in civic life and build a future in Southern Vermont.

Care as a Shared Commitment

Across Windham and Bennington Counties, these four leaders demonstrate how community care supports economic resilience. Access to health services, food security, responsive public systems, and civic connection all play a direct role in workforce participation, talent retention, and long-term regional stability.

By strengthening trust, improving access, and showing up consistently, Brookins, Snow, Clark, and Cody contribute to a Southern Vermont where people are better able to work, raise families, and stay engaged over time. Their leadership reflects a practical understanding shared by economic development partners across the region: strong communities and strong economies grow together, and both depend on systems that work for people where they are.

About the Southern Vermont Emerging Leaders Awards

Each year since 2018, the Southern Vermont Young Professionals (a program of Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation) and the Shires Young Professionals have sought to highlight and honor young adults in their roles as leaders and change-makers in the Southern Vermont economy and community through the Emerging Leaders awards. Over 130 local leaders have been given an Emerging Leaders award since the beginning of the program, and 40 of those have subsequently been recognized statewide through Vermont Business Magazine’s Rising Stars awards as well.

Nominations for the 2026 cohort open Feb 13th. Read more about other awardees and submit your nomination at www.sovermontzone.com/emerging-leaders.

About Southern Vermont Young Professionals

The Southern Vermont Young Professionals is a workforce initiative of Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategies (SeVEDS) and the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC). Our mission is to attract, retain and support Young Professionals in Southern Vermont by providing engaging opportunities and networking through social and educational events, and volunteer opportunities. The YP initiative is increasingly important to Southern Vermont’s businesses and communities as a strategic approach to growing the size of the region’s workforce and increasing the number of younger households in the region. For more information please visit: https://brattleborodevelopment.com/sovtyps/