The Rockefeller Center is home to Hanover native son and current Vermont State Senator Matt Dunne, who is helping to facilitate the College's Public Impact Initiative.
Dunne is a graduate of Hanover High School and an honored member of the Brown University class of 1992. By age 22, Dunne was elected a state representative in the Vermont General Assembly, where he pursued legislation to stimulate educational reforms and economic development. Simultaneously, Logic Associates, a top 500 software company in Wilder, VT, employed Dunne as Marketing Director.
In jest, Dunne commented that he "grew up in the basement of Silsby Hall." His mother served as the first chair of the Education Department, as well as the first woman at Dartmouth to go through the tenure track to become a professor.
Dunne's goals for his time at Dartmouth are similarly ambitious. "We are trying to develop civil involvement and integrate co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities for students interested in working for the common good," he said.
Dunne identifies the common good as "non-profits, philanthropy, public service and public advocacy." An impressive consortium has been organized to support the Public Impact Initiative, as well as administrators from the Thayer School of Engineering and the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration.
Between 1999 and 2002, Dunne served as a presidential appointment, working as Director of AmeriCorps VISTA and administering more than 6,000 volunteers in the fight against poverty.
His central goal for the upcoming Montpelier sessions will be "creating economic development opportunities within Vermont values ...and aggressively go after jobs and education opportunities" After helping to push it into reality for months, Dunne achieved a major legislative goal Tuesday as the Vermont Senate established a new standing committee on Economic Development, on which he will serve.
Linked to his push for economic reform, another one of his legislative goals will be to promote higher education across Vermont. So much of the last economic boom was "driven by young entrepreneurs," said Dunne.
According to his website, Dunne earned the Governor's Highway Safety award, "received national honors from the American Legion for work on Veterans issues and was named Library Advocate for the Year in 1999."
Dunne is enjoying his time at Dartmouth. "I enjoy that there are so many people at Dartmouth who are hungry for what they do and looking for opportunities to do well by doing good," he said.
He also observed that Dartmouth is flooded with "young people who are fired up and looking to make a difference."
Today, he lives with his wife, Sarah, on the same farm where he grew up.
"You don't have to be in investment banking to become powerful. There are lots of choices," he said.
