Martha Cornwell
35 | Physician Assistant/Farmer and Community Organizer, Bennington Free Clinic, VT Medical Reserve Corps/Clearbrook Farm/Wing and A Prayer Farm
Residence: Shaftsbury
Career highlight(s) you are most proud of:
Stepping into a role as a community leader. So many things changed during the pandemic, but it allowed me the time to find new ways to give back to the community. I was able to step back from full-time 
medicine and run for my selectboard, becoming the youngest person and first BIPOC woman on the board.
Your community involvement:
Collaborating with many organizations in medicine, including the Bennington Free Clinic, Bennington Rescue Squad and Medical Reserve Corps; in farming, with Kanthaka Equine Therapeutic Partners and The Fiber Guild; and in politics, with the planning commission and the town selectboard, and with community organizations such as the NorShaft Lions Club and the Shaftsbury Community Club.
Inspiration for living and working in Vermont:
I was adopted and am fortunate to have always called Shaftsbury, VT, home. I have been serving the community that opened its arms to welcome me ever since.
Favorite part of your job:
The variety of duties. On any given day, I am seeing patients, tagging yarn, selling vegetables, attending a municipal meeting or organizing a community event.
Most inspiring mentor:
I am grateful to many powerful female mentors throughout my career. I stand powerful and strong today because of these pioneering women, and I hope to inspire the women coming after me to be bold, brave and innovative.
Best career advice you have received:
Reassess situations that are not serving me. Sometimes perseverance is not always the best solution.
Something fun about yourself that few people know:
I took a class in tarot reading, which has sparked so much self-growth.
Three words that best describe you:
Engaged, curious and organized.
Favorite Vermont escape:
Going to all the county fairs in the fall.
Favorite Vermont season:
Mud season! You’re stuck inside on the dirt roads with nothing but lots of seed catalogues and your imagination bending toward spring and gardening again.
Favorite downtime activity:
Growing heirloom tomatoes — currently at 62 varieties — and creating things with fiber (knitting, weaving, embroidery, etc.) My hands are always busy.
Person you would most like to share a Vermont beverage with:
Vermont poet Daisy Turner and state Senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale. And it would definitely be a hard cider from Citizen Cider.
Cause(s) you would support if you had unlimited funds:
Innovative climate solutions. Everything we do hinges on a healthy Mother Gaia.
A song on your playlist you are embarrassed to admit to your best friend:
“The Final Countdown” by Europe.
Where you see yourself professionally in the next five to 10 years:
I’d like to expand my talents to take on more leadership opportunities and become a mentor for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ women in municipal government, medicine and community organizing.
Goal(s) you’d like to accomplish in the next five to 10 years:
Running for state office; starting my own business in elder care healing; and creating Mustard Seed Collective, an intentional creative, farming community.
How your community service has changed since the pandemic:
It has become more nuanced and in partnership with coalitions to work with and for more marginalized populations in our county.
How your job has changed since the pandemic:
My job has changed multiple times, especially after seeing so many social inequities surface in our community. I started working in medicine full time and pivoted to doing more community organizing, volunteering and working with the state government.
