Hanover
She succeeds Janet Rebman, the former longtime director who stepped down in February. Rebman now owns and operates Waterbury, Vt.-based Custom Tours & More, a wholesale receptive tour company that creates itineraries and other tourism products and packages for the group travel industry.
Hutchins grew up in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom and currently lives in Amherst, N.H. She will be moving to Orange, N.H., where she recently bought a house. She’s always loved this area, said Hutchins, who often traveled from her hometown of Derby, Vt., to West Lebanon and Hanover to go shopping. And the move will bring her closer to family; her parents are moving to the White River Junction area.
“Everything just really fell into place,” she said in a telephone interview last week.
In a chamber news release, board director Tom Rucinski welcomed Hutchins to the Upper Valley on behalf of the board and the chamber membership. “After an extensive nationwide search, we found a perfect fit in our own backyard,” said Rucinski, who is director of human resources and training at Hypertherm.
The board has asked her to move ahead with what Rebman established, said Hutchins, who later noted that the Meet-Up Upper Valley networking program is “absolutely brilliant.”
But since every chamber director brings her own background and skills, changes are inevitable, she said. “I’m hoping they will think they are positive.”
Her first order of business is to meet “as many chamber members and other Upper Valley businesses as I can and also see where the chamber is at,” she said. “I know I am filling very large shoes.”
Hutchins has more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit management. Most recently, she was president of the Souhegan Valley Chamber of Commerce in Amherst, N.H., for three years.
She also served as executive director of two Main Street downtown revitalization programs in Milford and Wilton, N.H.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College and a master’s degree in resource management from Antioch University.
She serves on the board of the New Hampshire Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, which she chaired from 2015-2016.