Paul Costello, the longtime executive director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, is stepping down at the end of September.
“I’ve worked with so many different communities, engaged in so many different policy dialogues with so many great people. But after 21 years, it seems like it’s time for a shift and to open the opportunity for a next generation leader,” the 65-year-old said.
At the helm of the nonprofit for more than two decades, Costello watched Vermont recover from Tropical Storm Irene, grapple with its demographic woes, and launch its creative and climate economy.
“We’ve stopped thinking so much about, like, ‘How do we attract the next GE plant?’ and more ‘How do we capture the imagination of that creative young person who’s going to invent the next light bulb?’ It’s more people-focused, I think, now than it used to be,” Costello said.
The Vermont Council on Rural Development often acts as a go-between local towns and state and national agencies, but it is perhaps best known for its “community conversations,” where local stakeholders get together to vision for the future and hatch an action plan.
Ted Brady, the executive director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns and the former deputy secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Commerce and Community Development, said Costello’s “unique asset” is his ability to “help a community understand itself better” and capitalize on local assets.
Costello’s stewardship of the Vermont Council on Rural Development saw the launch of the Working Lands Enterprise Fund, Brady said. He helped establish a bipartisan consensus around the promise of a climate economy and expanded the internet’s reach across the state. And when communities suddenly found themselves in crisis — when a college, for example, or nuclear power plant suddenly shut down — the Vermont Council on Rural Development was always on the scene quickly, helping the local community chart a way forward.
“Everybody goes to Paul for advice. If you’re trying to solve the dairy crisis, you call Paul, and you say: What do you think we should do? Here’s my idea. If you’re trying to solve the general store in town — you call Paul,” Brady said.
Julie Moore, the chair of the Vermont Council on Rural Development board, called Costello “a visionary, and at the same time, incredibly humble.”
“His gifts of engaging the community artists are so essential right now, and the conversations he leaves and the space he creates for people and communities to define and then pursue a vision is a gift, and he is going to be sorely, sorely missed,” said Moore, who also serves as Vermont’s secretary of natural resources.
The Vermont Council on Rural Development board has contracted with Eos Transition Partners, a recruiting agency, to conduct a national search for Costello’s replacement.
