The Board of the Vermont Afghan Alliance this week announced the appointment of a new executive director. The current leader of the organization, Molly Gray, is giving up the position to run for Vermont’s lieutenant governor. Starksboro resident Ellen Yount will replace her. Yount’s extensive resume includes working as press secretary for former Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Ridge and director of the press office for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Yount tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradly several things intrigued her about the Vermont Afghan Alliance.
I have experience working on Afghan programs, not directly, but when I was vice president at my international development consulting firm, we had many programs that we were implementing on behalf of the US government in Afghanistan. So I'm quite familiar with the risks that Afghans took working alongside U.S. service members, diplomats, humanitarian and development organizations and then the US commitment that was made to those individuals. So that stuck out for me. You know, my career has really been about citizen service and purpose driven work. From my earliest days, I worked as a young congressional aide to a member of Congress. I went on to serve as his director of communications. And then I went overseas and I worked for a mission driven organization doing political party training in the Balkans. After the end of the civil war there, came back to the United States, worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development as its spokesperson after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and then joined my consulting firm which implemented programs on behalf of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development all over the world. When this opportunity came my way, it just really resonated as an organization that was doing meaningful work. And as I got to know more about the work of the organization, it just seemed like a perfect fit for my skills and also an opportunity for me to bring some of the lessons that I've learned working within big organizations.
Ellen, what do you see as the future for the Afghan Alliance in Vermont? What's your vision?
Well, a couple of things. First is just supporting the communities which are already here, and obviously they're under a lot of stress and there's a lot of concern within that community. Many of them are still separated from their families who were left behind in Afghanistan. So we want to provide support to that community and help them continue to build, you know, dignified, productive lives here in Vermont, many of whom already are doing that. They really want to build stable lives here and we want to help support them to do so. We want to, number two, help any new arrivals coming to Vermont. And then number three, we want to help the Afghans that are still waiting. There are many Afghans that are still waiting that were left behind and we want to try to make sure that they're reunited with their families. The fourth thing that we want to continue to focus on is creating financial independence for Afghans. And then finally, we want to focus on our volunteer base. They've already done so much already and I'm excited, obviously, about what we've seen here in Vermont already, the kindness that's been extended, the generosity that's been extended to these families. So we want to continue to make that a reality for Afghan families.
Ellen Yount, you touched on the political climate in the U.S. right now, earlier. What challenges do you see for the Vermont Afghan Alliance both now and post Trump administration?
It's a really tough time and it's not just the policy actions. It's also the rhetoric and the characterization of certain immigrant communities. And sadly many immigrants are being blamed for things that they have nothing, nothing to do with. So that is why I think that Vermonters have a unique opportunity and our state has a unique opportunity to continue serving as a role model. We're going to continue to face national pressures. And again, that's why I think that Vermont has an opportunity to continue providing aid and to continue providing that safety, hopefully and security, for these families which has been undermined by many of the actions at the national level. We know in particular that Afghans have faced some particularly challenging policy decisions coming out of the Trump administration and so we're going to need to thread that needle and continue to stay on top of what's happening at the national level while at the same time, you know, having contingency plans for possible actions that take place here by ICE and continuing again to make sure, at least in terms of the Alliance, that we're that steady, trusted partner to these families who are under such immense pressure.
Ellen Yount will begin her tenure as Executive Director of the Vermont Afghan Alliance on March 4.
