Amanda Wheeler hopes to show you don’t have to leave home to make an impact.

By Elise Coyle, for the Community News Service

Growing up in small-town Vermont, Amanda Wheeler was told that to make an impact, she had to leave.

“Rural kids from Bradford that hear, ‘If you want to become anything, you’ve got to move far away,’ it’s just, it’s not the reality,” Wheeler said. 

Wheeler did leave, briefly, but she ultimately found success living in Bradford and serving as press secretary for Gov. Phil Scott.

Wheeler hopes that she can serve as an example to other kids in rural communities — that it is possible to make an impact while remaining connected to home. 

“If I can do it, anybody can do it, because this is the last place I thought I would be,” Wheeler said.

The sentiment is echoed in her hometown. Eliza Benware, now 16 years old, remembers Amanda babysitting her when she was younger. 

“I saw her as a mentor. She kind of inspired me,” Benware said. “I see myself in Amanda.”

Wheeler grew up in Bradford. She attended Bradford Elementary, then went on to graduate from Oxbow High School. 

“My family’s from the area, you know, cousins, that sort of thing,” Wheeler said. “And so, like some Vermont kids from a small rural town, my goal was to get as far away from that life as I could.”

This desire sent Wheeler to University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a school with approximately 30,000 students. Wheeler graduated with a degree in public relations and communications in 2019. 

Wheeler’s original plan was to stay in Charlotte, where she had a job lined up with an event-planning company. She came home to Bradford for the summer, largely to see her newborn niece and work at 4 Corners Farm in Newbury.

But the pull of her family and community was too great.

“For some reason, I decided to just want to stay in Vermont a little bit longer, snuggle my baby niece a little longer. And it’s a great thing I did,” Wheeler said.

Her job at the farm was seasonal. As fall rolled around, Wheeler needed to find long-term employment. 

“I was doing what any desperate college graduate does, scouring the internet for jobs, and came across a job at the Vermont Department of Labor doing communications and outreach,” Wheeler said.

The internet search paid off. Wheeler got the job, kickstarting her career in Vermont government. 

The first year on the job was the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Overnight, thousands of people lost their employment and needed information from the department.

Wheeler worked closely with the governor’s office, and in 2022, she was hired as a special assistant to the governor. She became press secretary in May 2024.

“She proved herself to be hard working and incredibly capable,” Scott said in an email. “I thought it was clear that she had the communication and organizational skills to perform the job well and be responsive and communicative to the press and public.”

Wheeler and Scott did not meet through stock car racing, as many assume. But racing is hugely important to her and her family, as it is to Scott, a former champion in Vermont.

Wheeler remembers watching her family race and eventually racing herself. 

​​“I grew up at the racetrack. My dad is a mechanic by trade, and he and his business partner had a race car, so we were always at Thunder Road watching him race,” Wheeler said. 

Now, it’s a common interest she shares with the governor. 

“It’s kind of cool. It gives us that more casual, personal connection, beyond just the work,” Wheeler said.

Despite her role in Montpelier, Wheeler has chosen to live in Bradford.

“I really do enjoy it; my family and my friends are all in Bradford. That’s where my roots are, and so I’ll put up with a little bit of a commute to be able to have the best of both worlds,” Wheeler said.

Living in Bradford, Wheeler said, grounds her in the issues that are unique to smaller communities.

“When you’re talking to the same people, you kind of start thinking that what’s going on in Montpelier are the biggest issues,” Wheeler said. 

Scott said Wheeler’s rural perspective is welcome in Montpelier.

“Too often the conversation seems to be dominated by Vermont’s larger cities, and I’ve always felt we need to also keep rural Vermont in the focus of the work we do,” Scott said.

Wheeler isn’t sure what she wants to do next, too busy concentrating on her current commitment.

“I’m focused on doing the best job I can in this role and am grateful for the opportunity,” Wheeler said.

Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Journal Opinion