College Names New Service Director

Kyle Dodson became the director of Champlain’s Center for Service & Civic Engagement at the start of the 2008-2009 academic year. Dodson holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard University and a master’s degree in finance and business administration from Columbia University, the latter of which he received while working in the financial industry.

“I was never able to find my place on Wall Street,” Dodson says. “I realized that I wanted work that was more community oriented.”

Dodson was first drawn to Vermont as a ski bum. On the slopes at Mad River Glen he realized that, as he recalls, “education fit what I was interested in.”

Over the next eight years, he worked for St. Michael’s College, first in Admissions and later as director of Multicultural Student Affairs. He returned to urban life as principal of Lee Academy in Boston. When his wife landed a job in Vermont, they returned to the Green Mountain State, where they are raising three children.

In his new position, Dodson creates programs that deal with civic engagement and service opportunities connected to local non-profits. This past November, he braved the cold alongside students during the Tent City event on campus. He says that a main goal for his new position is to “give the students the opportunity to grow and to be able to measure their achievement.”

—DF