Brattleboro Area Affordable Housing is a non-profit organization that has been serving Windham County since 1995. In 2006 BAAH was recognized by the Vermont Agency of Human Services “for extraordinary contributions to the well-being of Vermonters.”
We have no paid full-time staff. Our programs are implemented by volunteers: members of the board as well as other organizations with complementary goals.
BOARD MEMBERS
Anthony Girard – President
Anthony has lived in the Brattleboro area since 1998 with a brief foray to North Carolina. With a passion for sustainability, he co-founded Higley Hill Farm in Wilmington while serving as Carpenter, Daily Operations Manager and Director of Facilities at the Brattleboro Retreat from 2008-2015. His focus was on providing local organic food year-round, selling greens and other vegetables at the Brattleboro Winter and Summer Farmers Markets, and creating safe, healing, and holistic built environments for patients at the Retreat. Anthony moved on to Vice President at GPI Construction where he focuses on Social Services, Education, and Healthcare construction, managing the Great River Terrace project for the WWHT, the new Groundworks Collaborative Drop In Center, and managing work at the Brattleboro Retreat and Southwestern Vermont Health Care facilities in addition to many others. He enjoys sailing, cross-country skiing, and all things outdoors.
Jake Bursky – Vice President
Jake is from the Brattleboro area and remains deeply committed to serving the local community. Jake’s first job was with Youth Services as a Peer Outreach Worker, and that foundation laid the path toward his current work. He has worked in many social service agencies throughout the state and has engaged with community partners from Newport to Bennington, and everywhere in between. Jake’s full-time role is the SASH for All Coordinator with Brattleboro Housing Partnership, and he spends every spare minute riding his bike, cooking food, playing drums, and in the garden.
Timm Harris – Treasurer
Timm was born in Los Angeles; Timm lived there, in Greece, Texas, and Maryland. He earned his BA at Cal State Northridge and two master’s degrees at UCLA. After three years in the Peace Corps (Nicaragua), Timm started working in development assistance overseas, with non-profits and USAID. He specialized in strategic planning, project design, monitoring and evaluation, and resource allocation – mainly in the areas of economic growth, education, and democratic governance. He raised his family (four children) in Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua, Morocco, Mali and Ghana. Upon ‘retirement’ in 2005, Timm and his wife Ursula Nadolny, with sons Yuri and Alec, moved to Guilford. Timm continued to consult overseas on short assignments until he finally did retire in 2015. Timm is on the Boards of BAAH, Youth Services, and SEVCA.
Shawna Jones, Secretary
Shawna was born and raised in the Brattleboro area and has worked in health care and social services for over 20 years, beginning her professional work as a Licensed Nurse Assistant in 1999. Shawna has recently taken on a new role at Groundwork’s Collaborative as the Drop-In Center’s Case Manager, working with folks experiencing homelessness. Previously, as the Support and Services at Home (SASH) Implementation Manager at Brattleboro Housing Partnerships, she was dedicated to connecting residents to the community resources they need by focusing on their individual health and wellness goals, and to remain successfully housed. Shawna worked as a case manager at the Greenfield Family Inn in Massachusetts, a homeless shelter, where she supported residents in finding housing while offering support with resume writing, job searches, budgeting, and connecting them to health, food, and financial resources. For a short time, Shawna served on the Brattleboro Senior Center board of directors for the Meals on Wheels program. In her spare time, Shawna enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and her little dog, Quando.
Nancy Detra
Nancy comes from Guilford, Connecticut and has lived in Guilford, Vermont for 40 years. She retired from elementary school teaching in 2010. For the past 8 years she has worked as an artist-teacher with Art in the Neighborhood, a program that brings art classes to children in low-income housing communities in Brattleboro. Serving as chair of the Guilford Energy Committee, she brought a new community project to the Brattleboro area last year in which volunteers joined clients to build inexpensive insulating window inserts for their drafty homes. The project will continue in 2022. She is committed to providing children with warm homes and an opportunity to learn to problem-solve through creating art and making things. She is also a dedicated environmental activist.
Ruben Garza
Ruben believes that a healthy community is one that delivers on its promise to support, enrich, and provide opportunity to the lives of all its members, regardless of race, gender identity or sexual orientation. He believes that active participation is required by all community members to uphold and protect its shared values. Ruben strives to lead by example; he employs his use of free time volunteering and engaging the community as a board member and supporting local arts and artists. Ruben moved to Brattleboro, Vermont from Laredo, Texas in 2015. Ruben’s favorite Vermont past times are swimming in the Summer, generally being terrified of winter driving, and leaf peeping in the Autumn. You may catch Ruben walking around the downtown area shopping at his favorite record store, playing basketball in the Parks and Rec league, and attending theater performances throughout the year.
Jerry Freeman
Jerry has lived in the Brattleboro area since 1961, minus a few years in Burlington VT for work experience and while attending college at UVM. After brief stints in real estate and insurance related to his father’s Brattleboro business, Jerry became a self-employed carpenter and remained so for 20 years full time, then part time in the 18 years since while also working at Windham and Windsor Housing Trust as a home repair project manager. Jerry’s interest in home repair and maintenance drives his passion to help lower income homeowners keep and maintain their homes in these times of ever-increasing upkeep costs. It is an ongoing challenge. Jerry and his wife Tonya live in nearby Bernardston Mass with their black lab Georgie, and enjoy time with family, especially grandkids, and doing outdoor projects at home.
Elizabeth (Betsy) Hall
Betsy has been passionate about addressing housing issues for as long as she can remember. She moved to Brattleboro in 2002 and worked in housing development with the Windham and Windsor Housing Trust, as well as owning and managing rental properties on her own. In 2015, with the help of BAAH, she made an apartment in the back of her house. Betsy currently works with Winston Prouty helping to manage the ex-Austine campus, and for Integrated Solar, designing heat pumps and solar systems for people’s homes. She has recently joined the BAAH Board and is excited about how ‘hands on’ it is.
Addison Worsman
Addison has lived in Brattleboro for over fifteen years and his family has been a part of the community for four generations. Just before the pandemic, Addison began to transition out of his career in hospitality and into a career in human services. Driven by a desire to help the most marginalized members of our community, Addison earned an associate degree in human behavior from CCV and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UVM. While earning his degrees, Addison began providing respite care through Families First, and then took the Community Case Manager position with Groundworks Collaborative shortly after graduating from UVM. Addison is currently in his second year of employment at Groundworks Collaborative, and he is overjoyed for the opportunity to help people find and maintain dignified housing in the community.
EMERITUS MEMBERS
Annette Cappy
Pat Burke
Gary Goodemote
Melissa Snow
Byron Stookey
