“The embodied work of creating a culture and future”: Reflections from 2024 Emerging Leader Amber Arnold

Newfane resident Amber Arnold, collaborative director of SUSU CommUNITY Farm,  has been named a 2024 Southern Vermont Emerging Leader, along with 23 other young people from across the Bennington and Windham regions. Individuals were nominated based on their work as community leaders and volunteers, and for their professional accomplishments and commitment to serving the region, and were presented with awards in May at the Southern Vermont Economy Summit in Dover.

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 100 local leaders have been given an Emerging Leaders award since the beginning of the program, and 35 of those have subsequently been recognized statewide through Vermont Business Magazine’s Rising Stars awards as well.

Read more about the other awardees at www.sovermontzone.com/emerging-leaders. Nominations for the 2025 cohort will open in January.

What Amber’s nominator had to say: Amber co-founded SUSU CommUNITY Farm in 2019 with co-executive director Naomi Doe Moody, and the two of them have done remarkable work in the past few years, growing and nourishing a beautiful community of BIPOC Vermonters. SUSU seeks food equity, provides free CSA boxes to local BIPOC families, preserves traditional foodways from Indigenous and African diaspora communities, and provides healing space, ceremonies, and traditional medicines on their farm in Newfane. Their work is incredibly valuable and should be celebrated and supported widely!

Amber’s Reflections 

Vermont presents a unique opportunity to catalyze nourishing and transformative change

It’s evident that Vermont faces numerous complex challenges and opportunities, all deeply intersectional in nature. Despite its size, Vermont presents a unique opportunity to catalyze nourishing and transformative change, fostering communal and collective resilience that could serve as a model for thriving communities. However, this endeavor requires communities, particularly those with privilege and power, to develop a robust analysis of how systems like white supremacy and late-stage capitalism manifest in our nervous systems, families, institutions, and societal norms, shaping collective action and systemic change. Building such an analysis would enable us to turn towards each other, utilizing data-driven research and proven strategies for liberation from indigenous and Afro-diasporic communities.

I find this region special because it is small and communal enough to do the embodied work of creating a new, safer, healthy, thriving culture and futures for the next 7 generations. There is so much access to connection with the land, water, air, food, and plant kin which feels deeply important for Black and indigenous people to be able to reconnect with after being separated from the land due to racism, Anti-Blackness, capitalism, and white supremacy. Vermont’s small size offers a significant advantage in creating systems that prioritize liberation, wellness, safety, and belonging.

Leadership requires learning from those that came before us, those who surround us, and the wisdom of the natural world

A significant personal experience that has profoundly shaped my leadership style and philosophy involves delving into the teachings of Black women and femmes from the 1960s and 70s including Fannie Lou Hamer, June Jordan, Octavia Butler, Audre Lorde, and many others. Their teachings have been instrumental in shaping my perspective on leadership, particularly in their profound insights into Black mothering and communal care.  Additionally, my leadership philosophy has been embodied through listening to and learning from sacred plant kin and their relationships within land based ecosystems. Learning to care for each other with the tenderness and mindfulness observed in nature further molds my leadership style, creating a holistic and sustainable foundation rooted in the transformative teachings of Black women, femmes, and the wisdom of the natural world.

iba, asé to my husband, my mama, my collaborative director Naomi, the whole SUSU team: Olivia, Grace, Nate, Kegan and elders and leadership guides: mama Lula, Em Megas-Rusell, Lis Newell, Khalif Williams, Janet Roos and Carol Cano of braided wisdom, and Steffen Gillom.

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/