Gaye Symington, Executive Director

Gaye Symington joined the High Meadows Fund as Executive Director in the spring of 2009. For 12 years, beginning in 1997, Gaye served in the Vermont House representing the towns of Jericho, Underhill and Bolton. She began her service focused on tax policy, particularly as it relates to land conservation, economic development and school funding. Her last three terms were in leadership, one as Minority Leader and two as Speaker of the Vermont House, during which she focused on health care affordability and access, a reliable and sustainable energy future, and rural economic development. Throughout her leadership she emphasized the importance of attracting thoughtful Vermonters to run for public office, particularly those who don’t think of themselves as “political.”

While serving in Vermont’s citizen legislature, Gaye worked for the Intervale Center, which incubates and supports diversified farms and land-based enterprises, and in the accounting department at Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Inc. Previously, she had been finance manager for the National Gardening Association in Burlington. In her first job out of college she started and ran a whole grain bakery in Princeton, New Jersey. Gaye has a B.A. from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.

Gaye lives with her family in Jericho, Vermont. Her husband, Chuck Lacy, raises grass-fed beef in partnership with Jericho Settlers’ Farm. Gaye is Treasurer of the Mount Mansfield Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and enjoys long walks, cross country skiing, and fiber arts. Bread, mustard pickle, roasted vegetables, pecan pie, and chile rellenos are her favorite foods to make and eat - all locally sourced, except the pecan pie.