TNC in Vermont names Eve Frankel as state director; Frankel, who joined TNC in 2014, has more than 20 years of leadership experience in renewable energy and nonprofit sectors

The Nature Conservancy in Vermont is excited to announce the hiring of Eve Frankel as Vermont’s next State Director. Frankel has been hired to succeed Heather Furman, who was promoted to lead The Nature Conservancy’s Appalachians Program following ten years as Vermont’s state director. 

Frankel has over twenty years of leadership experience in the renewable energy and nonprofit sectors. She joined The Nature Conservancy in 2014 as the Director of Strategic Communications, where she helped to grow the chapter’s membership and statewide influence. Most recently, Frankel has served as the Vermont Chapter’s Deputy Director, leading programs in government relations and policy, community engagement, and communications.

“During her tenure at The Nature Conservancy, Eve has been a leader committed to connecting people, partners, and communities to each other and to nature,” said Jed Murdoch, Board Chair for TNC Vermont. “She has leveraged strategic communications to drive engagement and advocacy, with equitable conservation as its north star. She has accomplished this while fostering a deeper understanding of the challenges posed to both people and nature by climate change and biodiversity loss. Eve has worked with Nature Conservancy teams across the Northeast to advance landscape-scale conservation, expand forest carbon markets, and amplify conservation science to protect some of the most important places across the Appalachian region. We are thrilled to have Eve lead us at this critical time.”

“For the past 27 years, Eve has called the Mad River Valley home,” said Jim Desmond, Interim State Director for TNC Vermont. “From this narrow river valley nestled among the Green Mountains, she has witnessed both the wins for nature, such as nesting migratory birds and floodplain restoration, and the losses for nature, such as forest fragmentation and increased flood events driven by climate change. Eve also brings her unique lived experience to the role as a childhood immigrant from Poland, which further enriches her leadership and commitment to the mission.”

‘My parents defected from Eastern Europe in the early 1980s with my brother and me. As part of an immigrant family with limited resources, we understandably had little exposure to the natural world during my childhood. I never take for granted the forests and rivers that now enrich my life, which furthers my commitment to connecting everyone to the natural world in ways both big and small. Through that connection, I hope to inspire people to protect nature for the health of our own communities and for the health of the species with whom we share this planet.’”

Eve Frankel has a Bachelor’s Degree in English from American University. She started her career in Vermont working for Seven Days, helping to significantly expand the reach of the independent weekly newspaper.  Frankel then worked in the renewable energy sector as a marketing strategy leader at Northern Power Systems (now WEG) and Northern Reliability (now KORE Power). Frankel will be stepping into her new role on October 1, where she will oversee a staff of 25 whose mission is to create a climate-resilient Vermont where people and nature thrive.