• Oak Meadow, which provides homeschooling curriculum for students in grades K-12, recently added two new members to its staff at its offices in Brattleboro: Steve Lorenz as School Liaison and Ben Mitchell as Director of Admission. Lorenz is the former head of The Grammar School in Putney, and a member of the Oak Meadow Advisory Board. He has been involved with independent and public educational institutions, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, and community service projects in Vermont for over 30 years. Mitchell is the former Director of Admission at Landmark College. He has taught writing and English Literature at the high school and college level, and he has published over 50 poems and stories. He also has presented nationally and internationally on topics of alternative education.
• World Learning recently named Kevin Comerford as its new chief financial officer, as well as Carol Jenkins as its executive vice president for global development. John Lucas was elevated to executive vice president for academic affairs, in addition to provost of SIT (the School for International Training).
• James A. Valente of Brattleboro was elected to the presidency of the Brattleboro law firm Costello, Valente & Gentry. He is a graduate of Brattleboro Union High School and Drew University. He clerked in the firm from 2006 to 2010 and passed the Vermont Bar Examination and was admitted to the Vermont Bar Association in 2011. He is also admitted in the Federal District and Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Thom Dahlin of Newfane has joined Berkley & Veller Greenwood Country Realtors as a real estate agent. Dahlin, a native Vermonter who grew up in Newfane, is a well-known and successful restauranteur in Brattleboro, first with Tafts at 142 on Elliot Street in the 1980s, then with Peter Havens on Elliot Street, which he ran with his partner, Gregg Van Iderstine, for 23 years before Dahlin sold the restaurant and retired in 2012. He is a 1972 graduate of Leland & Gray Union High School and a 1977 graduate of Castleton State College.
• Two Vernon growers recently placed in the 2013 National Corn Growers' Association's (NCGA) Corn Yield Contest in Vermont. Alfred A. Dunklee won first place in the A Non-Irrigated division with DuPont's Pioneer brand hybrid P0993AM1, which yielded 223 bushels per acre. Dan King won first place in the A No-Till/Strip-Till Non-Irrigated division with Pioneer brand hybrid P0216HR, which yielded 227 bushels per acre. The growers earned two of the 266 state titles won by growers planting Pioneer hybrids. The NCGA awarded 433 state titles in this year's contest.