Ruth Hardy of East Middlebury, Addison County, Democrat, was raised in central New York State in the Ithaca area, where her mother was a teacher and her father was a state civil servant. Ruth received a BA in Government from Oberlin College in Ohio and a master’s degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Following graduate school, Ruth was a Fiscal Analyst for the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, covering education issues. She moved to East Middlebury, Vermont, in 2002. In addition to the ongoing work of raising three children, Ruth has been Executive Director of the Open Door Clinic, Assistant Budget Director at Middlebury College, and Government Grants Director at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. Most recently, Ruth was Executive Director of Emerge Vermont, which recruits and trains women to run for public office. Ruth served three terms on local school boards and was Chair of the Middlebury Mary Hogan School Board, Co-Chair of the ACSU Unification Charter Committee, and Chair of the ACSD Finance Committee. In addition, Ruth has served on several early childhood education boards, spearheads tree planting initiatives at schools, and is active in local politics. She is a graduate of the Snelling Center’s Vermont Leadership Institute. Ruth lives with her husband, Jason Mittell, a professor of Film & Media at Middlebury College, and their children, Greta, Anya, and Walter.
