(Montpelier) – Governor Scott has appointed Wendy Knight of Panton to serve a four-year term on the Vermont Commission on Women (VCW), the state’s non-partisan commission working to advance rights and opportunities for women and girls.
Commissioner Knight is a communications and marketing executive with over 20 years of government, corporate and entrepreneurial experience in advertising and marketing, food and beverage, healthcare, media, non-profit, and the publishing industries.
She’s held several leadership positions in Governor Scott's Administration, as Vermont Tourism and Marketing Commissioner, as a strategic lead for the state's economic development initiative Think Vermont, and as Vice Chair of the Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative, a private-public initiative to grow the economy and preserve our natural resources. With this background in economic development, a focus that draws her to the work of the VCW is ensuring that women have economic opportunities and fiscal independence.
A former freelance journalist for the New York Times, she has written four non-fiction books and appeared on NPR, CNN, and ABC News. Her current work includes writing about domestic violence, a topic featured in her powerful and personal op-ed in USA Today about children living in abusive homes during the COVID-19 quarantine.
Commissioner Knight is the Chief Marketing Officer of Knight Automotive and a consultant to On the Fly, a women-led collective supporting Vermont's hospitality and tourism businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19. She currently serves on the boards of the Vermont Futures Project, which provides data and research to achieve long-term economic growth in our state, and the Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance.
She is a former Select Board Member for the town of Panton and a graduate of Cornell University.
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The Vermont Commission on Women (VCW) is an independent non-partisan state commission working to advance rights and opportunities for women and girls. Sixteen volunteer commissioners and representatives from organizations concerned with women's issues guide VCW's public education, coalition building, and advocacy efforts.