MIKAELA Lewis
25 | Southwestern VT Chamber of Commerce | Event Manager
Residence: Bennington
Career highlight(s): A career highlight I’m most proud of was my chamber’s Garlic Festival of 2019. Our staff and committee had suffered a very difficult loss just a month before the event with losing our original chairwoman to her long battle with cancer. However, our 
team of volunteer captains rallied together stronger than ever to host an incredible festival for our community that would have made her extremely proud, with one of our highest attendance records in the 24 year history. It was a very emotional and powerful day, with more volunteers 
than ever coming to help to honor her mission and passion for the work she did for many years, and I will never forget it!
Community Involvement: Many of my work projects are hosted to benefit our community and surrounding region already, which I'm lucky to be able to say. To have the opportunity to support our small-yet-mighty area that I love so much, while simultaneously developing my professional career is one of the best things to happen to me. My work at the chamber gives me the chance to collaborate with other local organizations who aim to improve and develop our area such as the Better Bennington Corporation, Shires of VT Destination Marketing Organization, Vermont Historical Society, and the Vermont Begins Here project to name a few.
Other local organizations I’m proud to take part in personally (as either a board member or volunteer) are Shires Young Professionals, Catamount BMX, Cancer Center Community Crusaders, Bennington Holistic Healing Practitioners and the SVC Alumni Foundation.
What motivated you to live and work in Vermont? I come from a long line of proud Vermonters born and raised here, until about 6th grade when I had to move to a few different states due to my father’s job. I spent every single year missing my true home tremendously, so when I finally got the chance to move back permanently to finish college, I gladly jumped at the opportunity and haven’t looked back since!
Favorite part of your job: My favorite part of my job is having the opportunity to grow in my position, and actually learn what I enjoy doing to build a career from it. Beginning as a part-time office assistant while still in college, my role has transformed through the past few years and I’m now serving as the Event Manager. Being able to experience various duties and responsibilities since I’ve been working at the chamber has actually helped shaped my career path, and I’m so thankful for that.
Most inspiring mentor and why: My most inspiring mentor is my mother. She has overcome so many obstacles throughout her life, and constantly puts others before herself. She has had multiple successful careers, and has undoubtedly shown me the value of education and passion for whatever paths I may take in my own life.
What is the best career advice you have received? “Never underestimate the power of having a strong support system.”
Tell us something fun about yourself that few people know: Few people know that I like to sing everything annoyingly, like Andy from The Office.
What three words best describe you: Caring, meticulous, sarcastic.
Favorite Vermont escape: My favorite Vermont escape is anywhere in the Pownal Valley, known as the "gateway to Vermont".
Favorite downtime activity: My favorite downtime activity is hanging out with my dogs and Netflix binging, of course.
Favorite Super Hero and why: My favorite super hero is Wonder Woman, because she was the OG (and there needs to be more female superheroes!)
Favorite Social Media and why: My favorite social media is Instagram because I’m more of a visual person, and it always feels like the most relevant platform to my generation.
Person you would most like to share a Vermont beverage with: The person I'd most like to share a Vermont beverage with is Bernie Sanders. Need I say more?
If you had unlimited access to funds, which cause(s) would you support: The cause I would support is as many climate change awareness and activist organizations as possible. It’s alarming how many people don’t realize how quickly our planet is being destroyed, and how important it is that we have more accessible sustainability resources before future generations lose out on the chance to reverse some of the damage.
What is the one song on your playlist that are you embarrassed to tell your best friend? The song on my playlist I would be embarrassed to tell my best friend is the newest Justin Beiber song...
Where do you see yourself professionally in the next 5-10 years? In the next 5-10 years I'd like to continue my work in event management and development and possibly expand into other areas, like weddings and larger scale festivals and fundraisers that benefit and promote our beautiful area. I’m still learning what aspects I enjoy the most in this field and am looking forward to acquiring more experience within it and seeing what the future holds.
What career goal(s) would you like to accomplish in the next 5-10 years? One specific area I would like to become more involved with in my career is increasing the younger and diverse demographics of the Vermont population. We’ve been lucky enough to have a surge of new residents move to this state in the past year, and we need to allocate more resources to KEEP them here. Providing opportunities for future Vermonters to build lasting roots here is how we keep our little state thriving!
How has your community service changed since the pandemic? As with so many things since the pandemic, many community fundraisers and important town events were forced to cancel or somehow transform digitally if they were able to. Our main goal as a chamber is to empower our local businesses and members, so we hyper-focused our efforts on providing resources directly to them as well as creating programs to encourage our community to continue supporting their local merchants, restaurants, and nonprofit organizations while still remaining safe during a pandemic.
How has your job changed since this pandemic? Many of my projects are large, in-person celebrations and networking based events, so there was definitely a significant realization moment about how drastic this pandemic would affect the way we had hosted these type of things for so long. Since then, a lot of my job has been focused on navigating ways to “pivot” our typical layouts and event designs while still providing the services, support, and community fun we need to being a regional chamber of commerce.