Fred Schmidt was awarded a PhD in Development Sociology with minors in Community Development and Southeast Asian Studies from Cornell University in 1973. He did his undergraduate work in education at Antioch College, has been certified to teach high school and was awarded a level 3 proficiency in the Malay Language by the Foreign Service of the State Department following Peace Corps service in Malaya, 1963 to 1965. Schmidt currently holds an Associate Professorship at the University of Vermont in the Sociology Department, College of Arts and Sciences and in a new department of Community Development and Applied Economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. In addition he has appointments in the Graduate College, in the School of Natural Resources and with the Extension Service as a Community Resource Development Specialist.
Fred directs the Center for Rural Studies in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Vermont. Created with academic and trustee support in 1979, the Center's purpose is to provide information (or provide the tools to generate information) necessary for rural people to exercise control over their individual and collective destiny. With a full time staff of eight and an extensive associates network throughout this campus, the Land Grant network and in the action world, the Center conducts a variety of research tasks including program evaluation, community needs assessment, market studies, political polls and attitudinal surveys, as well as routinely constructing organizational, demographic and economic profiles. An emphasis upon research into locally controlled, cooperative, small-scale forms of community economic and social organization, natural resource based development, social service delivery (including Early Head Start, Even Start and Youth at Risk program evaluation) and community self-development in both domestic and international situations have dominated the agenda at the Center for Rural Studies. In recent years, the Center has become focused upon the electronic delivery of useful information to rural communities. We are working actively on dissemination projects with local officials, chambers of commerce, and state agencies (including the Secretary of State, the Departments of Education, Agriculture and Human Services) to provide rural peoples with the tools to better understand their environment, economy and demography. Check us out at http://crs.uvm.edu.
Schmidt has worked in the U.S.S.R., Uganda, Kenya, Honduras and Scotland on projects reflecting local control, rural and agricultural development, health and social service delivery, and innovative, democratically established environmentally based organization. He served as a community development field worker in the Peace Corps in Malaysia from 1963 to 1965 and earlier with American Friends Service Committee in Mexico.
Fred currently serves on the board of directors of the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA Board President, 1994-96), a national organization promoting mobility as a critical test of public infrastructure. CTAA represents several hundred rural and small city transportation systems as well as an extensive network of state delegates and regional programs. At CTAA, Schmidt has led an initiative to certify transit operators and is now working on programs for drivers and dispatchers. In the past he has served on the national board of Rural America and Rural Voice. Fred is an elected local official, serving his town of Shelburne, Vermont as a Justice of the Peace, a member of the Board of Civil Authority and a member of the Planning Commission. Fred has held Gubernatorial appointments on various state boards, including the state's Rural Development Council.
Schmidt's teaching interests focus upon human ecology, community organization and development, agricultural and rural development policy, research methodology, program evaluation and rural life. Current projects include a grant from the Economic Research Service, USDA to develop community level economic indicators and collaboration with a University team who have received support from the McConnell Foundation to build sustainable rural communities in Northeastern Vermont. Other program evaluations currently under way include Early Head Start, Even Start, Enhancing Community Awareness and Building Community Collaboration. (The latter two activities are in cooperation with the state and national Extension Service.) New contracts involve the Center in evaluation of distance learning efforts among the University, rural high schools, local government and libraries in Vermont=s Northeast Kingdom.
Recent Publications and Reports:
With Al Luloff and H. E. Echelberger
1990 Attitudes and Resource Use: A Study of North Country Citizens. A monograph published by U.S. Forest Service.
With Jan Flora, Cornelia Flora and Gary Green
1990. "Local self-development strategies: national survey results." Journal of Community Development, Vol. 21, 1990, pp.3-15.
1991 "Chapter 9. The Insights of Sociology", in A Community of Voices: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Editors Toby Fulwiler and Arthur W. Biddle, New York, Macmillan Publishing Company.
with Jan L. Flora, James J. Chris, Eddie Gale, Gary P. Green and Cornelia Flora.
1991 From the Grassroots: Profiles of 103 Rural Self-development Projects. Agriculture and Rural Economy Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Staff Report No. 9123.
with Eddie Gale, Cornelia Flora, Jan Flora and Gary P. Green
1991 Policy conclusions from the self-development case studies. in M. Lapping (ed.). Rural Development.
with Jan Flora, Cornelia Flora and Gary Green
1991. "Local self-development strategies: national survey results." Journal of Community Development.
1991 "More Dilemmas: Rural Development on the Ropes," The Rural Sociologist, Spring.
with Flora, Jan L., Gary P. Green, Edward A. Gale and Cornelia Butler Flora
1992 "Self-Development: A Viable Rural Development Option?," Policy Studies Journal, Vol. 20. No. 2.
with Gary P. Green, Jan L. Flora and Cornelia B. Flora.
1993 "Community-Based Economic Development Projects Are Small but Valuable," Rural Development Perspectives, Vol. 8, Issue 3.
with Gary P. Green, Jan L. Flora and Cornelia B. Flora.
1993 From the Grassroots: Results of a National Study of Rural Self-Development Projects. Agriculture and Rural Economy Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Staff Report No. AGES9325. November.
with Jan L. Flora, Edward Gale, Gary P. Green, and Cornelia B. Flora.
1993. "Local Response to Economic Crisis," in David Bruce and Margaret White (editors), Community-Based Approaches to Rural Development, 1993. Rural and Small Town Research and Studies Programme, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick.
with Wiberg, Kevin and Robert Manning
1994 "The 1992 Vermont Recreation Survey and Environmental Index: Vermonters' Perceptions of Recreational and Environmental Issues in Vermont," Forthcoming in the Proceedings, Northeastern Recreational Research Symposium, April 12th.
with Mark Brennan, Al Luloff, and Vaughn Collins
1994 "The Impact of Hazardous Waste Transportation On Rural Communities in Pennsylvania and Vermont," Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, December.
with Cathy Kassab and A. E. Luloff
1995 "The Changing Impact of Industry, Household Structure, and Residence on Household Well-being," Rural Sociology, Vol. 60, No. 1, Spring.
with Center for Rural Studies Staff
1994, 1995, 1996 & 1997 AFindings from the Vermonter Poll,@ Center for Rural Studies, University of Vermont, Annual Citizens= Opinion Poll, January.
with Cathy Halbrendt, Jane Kolodinsky and Q Wang
1996 "Willingness to pay for rBST-free milk: A two-limit Tobit model analysis" accepted for publication in
Applied Economics Letters.with Center for Rural Studies Staff and the Vermont Department of Health
Since 1992 AAnnual Vermont Population and Housing Estimates.@ Vermont Department of Health. Burlington, Vermont.
