A Community-Engaged Hospital in Vermont

Photo courtesy of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Too often I write about our misunderstanding of the complex systems that plague us and our failure to reimagine them as functional solutions to… Read More

Memo to Board members: It’s Unwise to Try to Intimidate, Insult, or Challenge the Authority of your Regulator

  I have grave ethical concerns about the behavior, governance, and board leadership at the UVM Health Network (UVMHN) and its network of Vermont hospitals (Porter, Central VT, and UVM Medical Center… Read More

A New Asylum for our Communities

The Weeks School Girls’ Dorm When I was young growing up in Morrisville, there were certain institutions that were invoked largely in an effort to ensure that we behaved. One… Read More

Do UVM Medical Center or its Parent UVM Health Network Continue to Deserve their tax-exempt Status?

  During my long life, I’ve chaired 13 statewide nonprofit organizations, including the former Fletcher Allen Hospital, and served as a trustee on nine others. The first was the Vermont… Read More

Vermont Needs a Human Library

  Image Couresty of the Human Library.org The Human Library movement has been with us since 2000. Human libraries have opened on six continents, with libraries in Louisiana and Indiana… Read More

Education or Childcare?

    In the final moments of this legislative session, the legislature passed H.217, in which a combination of revenue resources will inject $130M a year into Vermont’s struggling childcare… Read More

An Ethical Vermont Addiction Policy

Photo by Nancy Stevens A measure of the Vermont legislature’s commitment to Vermonters’ well-being is the extent to which it commits the money earned from licensing and taxing addictive substances… Read More

Vermont State University… a way forward

  Photo courtesy of Northern Vermont University I’m hearing from friends around the country about the soon-to-be Vermont State University’s (VSU) recent decision and subsequent back-pedaling about removing physical books… Read More

“The Affordability Agenda”

On its surface, the term “affordability agenda,” often used by our Governor and legislators, makes sense… but it’s important to dig in and examine the politics behind it. A recent… Read More

Bill Schubart comments at Press Release for primary care & mental health bill – Jan 26, 2023 – VT Statehouse

In healthcare policy, Vermont must reset its priorities  ̶  either fund hospitals or the healthcare of Vermonters. Yes, they are intertwined but not an either/or  choice as some hospitals would… Read More

Gravel Slalom and Roads Scholarship

    A driver navigates ruts on Texas Hill Road in Hinesburg March 21, 2022. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger It’s only January and the annual back-roads slalom season has begun… Read More

My New Year’s Wish for Vermont

I don’t want any one thing in the New Year but rather a new way of understanding leadership and governing from our executive, legislative, and judiciary branches. I don’t have… Read More