DAN Groberg
Company: Montpelier Alive
Title: Executive Director
Age: 29
Favorite Part of Job: I love living in Montpelier, so it’s incredibly rewarding that I have a job that allows me to actively work each day to make it an even better place to live and to promote Montpelier to 
visitors from around the world.
Tell us something fun about yourself that few people know: I’m a news junkie and I still look at the news from every town in which I’ve ever lived. I follow 160 newspapers and blogs in my news reader.
Favorite Downtime Activity: I love to spend time with my family, and I’m lucky enough to have my entire immediate family in Vermont. I also love to cook, bake, and eat!
If you had unlimited access to funds, which causes would you support: I really like to support local organizations because I believe that the impact is greater and more immediate. Montpelier has some amazing community institutions, like the Kellogg-Hubbard Library, that I would love to permanently endow so they can keep doing their wonderful work for a long time.
What is the best career advice you have received: There’s no such thing as the perfect time to make a career change; you have to follow your passions. I started my current job just two weeks before my daughter’s birth, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
What motivated you to live and work in Vermont: I moved to Vermont to be closer to my family, and I’m so glad that I did! I love the neighborly spirit and that government is so accessible.
Career Highlights: In Pittsburgh, while I was in graduate school, I worked for a dynamic progressive City Councilor who is now the mayor and a rising star on the national political scene. In Vermont, I’ve worked for Doug Racine’s grassroots campaign for governor in 2010, for a political strategy firm, for the City of Montpelier, and now for Montpelier Alive, an organization that celebrates downtown Montpelier. The common thread has been that all my work has been toward improving the communities in which I’ve lived.
Community Involvement: I got the bug for volunteerism in high school. I was one of the founding members of Friends of Boulder Knoll, a non-profit organization in Cheshire, CT that runs a community farm. I’ve been on the board ever since and now serve as chair. In college, I volunteered as a classroom assistant in the local elementary school, and then helped advocate for increased educational funding. I’ve been involved in local politics throughout college and graduate school, and here in Vermont. I’ve helped raise money for several organizations, including the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, where I serve on the Finance Committee and am the past Stewardship Chair.
