The following profile is part of the “New Faces, New Opportunities” series for April Career Month highlighting area professionals who have recently moved to Bennington County. The piece is provided and written by the Bennington County Workforce and Education working group.
Linda Schmidt’s father always told her she was the only person he had ever met who knew in school what she was going to do for a living and ended up doing just that. Born and raised in Valley Forge, Pa., Schmidt went to Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y. She interned and was later hired at a small arts quarterly that ran on a shoestring budget, then was hired by Redbook magazine, where she worked as a production editor for two years. She joined Fodor’s Travel Guides at Random House and worked her way up to become Managing Editor. Fodor’s was later sold, and she moved into the Audio division of what had become Penguin Random House, where she is Senior Director of Managing Editorial and Production, working on a mix of audio and print projects.
Her journey to Vermont started March 11, 2020, when Penguin Random House sent its employees home due to the Covid lockdown, ultimately approving remote work as a policy. Previously living in New Jersey and commuting to New York, Schmidt and her husband, Peter, had looked at homes in Arlington in the years prior. The house in Sandgate was on the market for three hours and had twelve bidders when Peter found it. Linda and Peter came out on top in the bidding war and moved in later that spring.
The last 5 years have seen Schmidt thrive in Sandgate. With reliable internet service, she is able to continue her work with Penguin Random House remotely. She has found additional part-time proofreaders in the area to support her work through her new contacts within the Sandgate community and in New York.
Schmidt’s devotion to her new town is visible in the heart and soul she puts into her work on the Sandgate Select Board and the work she does with the Sandgate Community Table. In 2024, Schmidt joined her first Bennington County Regional Emergency Management meeting on behalf of the town and the need for neighbors to be prepared to help each other became apparent to her. She spoke with a fellow community member, Elizabeth Daut, about the idea of connecting the town residents together in a more cohesive manner. Daut found funding through the Vermont Community Fund grant program and now together they host the Sandgate Community Table one Saturday a month. They have invited presenters to speak about emergency management, personal preparedness, cemetery history, and the story of the Carthusian Monks that reside on Mount Equinox all topped off with the delicious foods residents bring to share.
Schmidt’s work on the Select Board includes working to upgrade dry hydrants throughout town, refreshing the tech setup at town hall, outfitting the town hall as a temporary emergency shelter for residents, and collaborating more with neighboring towns when possible. Sandgate’s community has allowed Linda to dive in and make a difference and she looks forward to continuing this work in the future.
Career Month is coordinated by the Bennington County Workforce and Education working group. Each April, the Bennington County Workforce and Education working group engages the community in celebrating career exploration and the diversity of career opportunities in Bennington County. To learn more, go to http://www.bcrcvt.org/workforce-education-committee.html
