Investing in the future of CCCUSA means investing in our people. We are confident that you’ll be both assured and inspired by the passion, expertise, and track record of our leadership team.
Thomas L. Hark
President
Thomas Hark is a true change agent who knows organizational development, fiscal management, fundraising, advocacy work, developing strategic partners, and building the next level of leaders. At his core, he is a builder of people, programs, and organizations.
When it comes to making a difference in peoples’ lives, Thomas Hark excels in transformation at both the individual and the organizational level. A charismatic, entrepreneurial risk taker, as well as a goal-driven executive, Thomas has broadly contributed to over a dozen mission-driven organizations and received numerous awards for the impact of those contributions.
Hark has over 29 years of experience in the corps system. He built the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps from the ground up, starting with just one dollar. VYCC now has 6,500 alumni, operates programs for 300 young adults annually, is headquartered on a state-of-the-art, 400-acre campus, and has operations in as many as four states.
His particular specialty has been in developing new programs for the VYCC, such as the Parks Corps, Farm Corps, and the Blind Program, and in helping launch other stand-alone corps programs in states such as Michigan and North Carolina.
Additionally, he has been a consistent contributor and consultant to a number of corps initiatives across the United States over the years. Some of these include developing the Northeast Kingdom Corps, Montana Youth Conservation Corps, Honduras Youth Conservation Corps, Great Lakes Corps, WisCorps, and advising the Minnesota Corps on how to successfully evolve from a state program to a private non-profit organization. Hark has built decades-long federal and state agency partnerships, including with the Vermont Agency for Human Services, Vermont Agency for Natural Resources, Vermont Department of Labor, Federal Department of the Interior, Federal Highway Administration, National Parks Service, and U.S. Forest Service, among others.
His personal passion and expertise is around high-growth strategies in the youth conservation corps field, and he has developed a set of strategies for bringing quality corps programs to scale. Finally, his track record makes him uniquely qualified to inspire, recruit, and build a highly-effective management team to carry out this national expansion.
Thomas holds a Master of Science in Experiential Education from the University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education and Social Studies from Bemidji State University in Minnesota.
Board roles include Governor-appointed Vermont Commission on National Service (2014-Present); President of Business Association (2009-2014); Officer of Vermont (2001-2010); Chair of Recycle North (2001-2007); Member of Vermont Environmental Consortium (2006-2008); Founding Board Member of Vermont Association of Non-Profit Organizations (2001-2005); Chair of Catamount Trail Association (1992-1999); and Vice Chair of National Association Service and Conservation Corps (1992-1994).
Mike Rama
Founding Partner
Mike is passionate about the four P’s: People, Problems, Planet, Possibilities. People… as collaboration is a powerful force and so is laughter. Problems… they’re great starting points for conversation, solutions, and discovery. Planet… she’s a beauty and deserves better. Possibilities… ingenuity is the road to progress.
Mike first joined CCCUSA in September 2017 as the Executive Director; providing expertise, networks, and direction as the organization transitioned from a visionary idea to boots on the ground reality. Mike, who holds an MBA in Sustainable Entrepreneurship from the University of Vermont brings a level of mastery in the art of startups, providing CCCUSA with a critical advantage in designing and perfecting the accelerator, social-franchise model. Overall, a determined, efficient, transparent, people-first attitude with a whole-systems approach is the type of organization Mike envisions in CCCUSA.
Additional areas of expertise are transformational leadership, organizational management and development, efficient operational environments, and fundraising. Today, Mike actively provides strategic guidance to CCCUSA while holding his full-time position as the Director of Advancement at Downstreet: the hub of Housing and Community Development for Central Vermont.
Ed Fox
National Strategic Advisor
Ed Fox is the general manager of the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society, the second largest and oldest consumer cooperative in the nation, with nine locations in Vermont and New Hampshire, including retail grocery stores, auto service centers, and a commercial kitchen. The society is owned by 25,000 members and has a budget in excess of 75M. Ed came to the position with 30 years of senior leadership experience in for profit and non-profit organizations, at both the operational and strategic level.
Future Leadership Team
CCCUSA will recruit leaders in the field who have decades-long experience, who have the passion and dedication for this work. These folks will include those currently in the field and those who have left and have gone on to become experts in areas critical to the success of the CCCUSA. These areas include IT, HR, business services, marketing, public service leadership, and crew leader credentialing (the National Leadership Academy).
The Experience We’re Seeking: Senior CCCUSA staff will have years of contract experience with AmeriCorps, the federal Department of the Interior, National Park Service, US Forest Service, state and federal Departments of Labor, or other state and federal agencies. This experience will translate into setting up national agency contracts which will open doors for local programs. It often takes years to understand and effectively navigate these public-sector programs. National CCCUSA staff can then open the door to local CCCUSA sites, allowing the local organization to focus on the necessary high-quality work at the local level. This will allow significantly more youth to be enrolled more quickly into local CCCUSA programs.
Remember when…7,153,000 CCC work days were expended to protect the natural habitats of wildlife; 83 camps in 15 Western states assigned 45 projects of that nature.