The Vermont Community Foundation and the organizing committee for the Con Hogan Award for Creative, Entrepreneurial, Community Leadership are pleased to announce that Jared Duval, executive director of the Montpelier-based Energy Action Network (EAN), will be honored with this year’s award.
EAN brings together more than 200 Vermont-based nonprofits, utilities, businesses, universities, and public sector partners to work toward a common goal: to achieve Vermont’s climate and energy commitments in ways that create a more just, thriving, and sustainable future. The network supports research and data-tracking on energy and emissions, with a focus on evidence-based policy analysis.
Now in its tenth and final year, the Con Hogan Award is a tribute to its namesake’s life’s work and commitment to public service. The prize is intended to encourage and reward leaders who share Con’s vision of a better Vermont—one that places the highest value on the public good—who seize the responsibility for making that vision real, and who mentor emerging leaders. The awardee shows deep community involvement, generosity, enthusiasm, a collaborative approach, and a focus on data and measurable outcomes in their work.
Duval, a ninth-generation Vermonter, grew up in the Upper Connecticut River Valley. His parents were not college graduates and had little income after his middle-aged father was disabled by multiple heart attacks. Duval is acutely aware and appreciative of how the government’s social safety net helped his family when they were economically insecure and aided him in going to college.
When Duval was young, his mother worked for Chelsea Green Publishing in White River Junction, bringing home books on the environment that piqued his interest in energy and climate issues. In high school, he was moved to action: working on recycling, hosting candidates for public office, and organizing for the Sierra Club’s Sierra Student Coalition, the country’s largest student-run environmental organization.
Duval majored in economics and political science at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 2005. He then spent three years in Washington DC as the national director of the Sierra Student Coalition, helping to design and lead campaigns such as the Campus Climate Challenge, which saw over 500 U.S. campuses commit to climate neutrality and take steps to become models of sustainability.
After earning a Master of Public Affairs degree from Princeton, Duval returned to Vermont in 2014 and served as economic development director at the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, responsible for providing support to working lands and green economy businesses across the state. In 2017, he was hired as EAN’s executive director.
He was appointed to the Vermont Climate Council in 2023, co-authored the state’s Climate Action Plan, and serves on the Public Assets Institute board of directors. Duval is the author of Next Generation Democracy: What the Open-Source Revolution Means for Power, Politics, and Change. He lives in Montpelier with his wife, Joan, and son, Liam.
“The Committee was especially impressed with Jared’s work addressing climate change using an evidence-based, collaborative policy development approach and regularly communicating with a diversity of stakeholders. He also skillfully used data analysis, measurement, and tracking tools to guide policy decision-making,” said Award Committee Chair Scott Johnson. “This was how Con Hogan approached his policy work.”
Duval will receive the $15,000 Con Hogan Award, to be used however he chooses, at a ceremony at the Vermont State House and streamed online on Wednesday, October 9, at 4:30 PM. Visit vermontcf.org/ConHogan for more information about the award and to register for the event, which is free and open to the public.
Members of the Con Hogan Award committee are Will Belongia, Paul Cillo, Steve Dale, Scott Johnson, Etan Nasreddin-Longo, Karen Scott, Arnold Isidore Thomas, and Diana Wahle.
The Vermont Community Foundation was established in 1986 as an enduring source of philanthropic support for Vermont communities. A family of more than 1,000 funds, foundations, and supporting organizations, the Foundation makes it easy for the people who care about Vermont to find and fund the causes they love. The Community Foundation and its partners put more than $60 million annually to work in Vermont communities and beyond. The heart of its work is closing the opportunity gap—the divide that leaves too many Vermonters struggling to get ahead, no matter how hard they work. The Community Foundation envisions Vermont at its best—where everyone can build a bright, secure future. Visit vermontcf.org or call 802-388-3355 for more information.