Laura Knott-Twine

I left formal education, in 1961, after failing my freshman year in High School twice. Thirty-four years later, in 1995, I applied to Vermont College with hesitation and a GED. I was accepted and received my Baccalaureate degree in 1998 and my Master’s in 1999. For over 30 years I have owned and operated several businesses.  It seems that whatever has interested me, I turned into employment or my own business. My maxim is, “Do what you are passionate about and do that with principle and high values.”

 Business is a Liberal Arts study. Along with its traditional subjects such as contemporary workplace practices, leadership, entrepreneurship, economics, management, pubic relations, marketing, and non-profit businesses, this “business” faculty is also deeply interested in broad interdisciplinary subjects. Can the study of history, sociology, economics, diversity, traditions, poetry, family and oral histories, memoir and biography, and literature teach us how the American workplace has become what it is today?  I believe they can.  How have business owners and workers evolved?  Can enterprise and entrepreneurship exist if there is no understanding of the customer or client?  How will you use the knowledge you are gaining at Vermont College in the future?  How will you apply your interests to your life’s work?  I personally never felt trapped under the “glass ceiling” that is often attributed to putting the breaks on women in the business world.  It was “breaking the parchment ceiling” that I had to accomplish in order to move forward in my career. By earning my Batchelor and Master of Arts degrees at Vermont College I have realized my goal of community leadership and contribution.

 I have been the director of several non-stock, not-for-profit corporations. Presently, I am the Executive Director & CEO of the Hartford Preservation Alliance, Inc. an architectural conservancy agency serving Hartford, Connecticut’s state capital. We act as advocates for rehabilitation and preservation of structures from the State Capital building, to monuments, to private homes.  We educate the public about preservation issues and act as technical advisors to both government agencies and private citizens. We help to place properties on state and federal historic registries.

 As the former Director of the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Women’s Business Ownership at The Entrepreneurial Center, University of Hartford, I counseled and guided women and men towards achieving their own business ownership.  I have personally trained and counseled over 2,400 adults in individual developmental planning for business start-ups.  I worked with people from major business groups such as manufacturing, retail, wholesale, import/export, professional services including psychologist and psychiatrist, healthcare, artist, construction and child and elder care givers.

 I owned and operated a home-based Child Care Center for four years. As a fiber artist, sold my hand weaving in stores and in catalogues.  I taught hand weaving, hand spinning, and natural dying processes to over four hundred adult students from my own weaving studio “Orchard House Weavers.”  Combining my love for fiber arts and American History I founded The Windham Textile and History Museum in 1980, where I served as the Executive Director until 1995. The Museum was dedicated to the study of the American textile industry (1850-1950), its products and most importantly the lives of its workers.  I taught workshops and seminars and was guest lecturer on the subjects of the “Working-class Women in New England,” “Textiles and Technology,” “The American Industrial Revolution” and “Unionism” at Connecticut universities. I conducted numerous oral histories after training with Dr. Bruce Stave, Director of the Oral History Department and Chair of the History Department at the University of Connecticut. I invite you to read my full resume.

 As a sociologist, I am greatly interested in all aspects of work and its affect on people from the business owner to the hourly worker.  I examine the literature of business looking at work from many points of view. Interdisciplinary study is a significant way to explore this subject.   I am always interested in considering many other related subjects.

I enjoy teaching the Social Science studies of: Business Studies, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Organizational Management, Sociological Studies, Women’s Studies, Traditional American and Ethnic Fiber Arts, Marriage and Family including genealogy and oral history and memoirs, The American Textile Industry, Oral History and  the history of workplace and its workers.  I am looking forward to hearing about your ideas and interests.

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By the way, I still love fiber arts and have a four-harness floor loom.  One of my favorite pastimes is working in my gardens, and I love my four beautiful noisy grandchildren.