Elizabeth Duemmel

Howard Young Foundation

Elizabeth Duemmel is the Community Development Director for the Town of Manitowish Waters. She grew up in Wausau, Wisconsin, but spent her summers on the shores of Rest Lake in Manitowish Waters. She has lived in the Northwoods permanently since 2015.

Elizabeth graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2009 with a degree in Rural Sociology with a focus in International Agriculture and Natural Resources in 2009. Following her degree, she stayed in Madison and worked as an AmeriCorps VISTA on a joint garden and nutrition education program for at-risk youth with UW-Extension and a local non-profit, Community GroundWorks. After her service, she continued to work for Community GroundWorks as a garden educator, as well as a consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to create community based garden programs around the state. Elizabeth was able to bring her knowledge of youth agriculture programs to Nepal in 2011 to work with a local organization in schools around the Kathmandu Valley. While she was there, she helped to develop a training program for the first cohort of Teach for Nepal Fellows - Nepali teachers that would be sent into rural schools to bring higher quality education to some of the most remote villages in Nepal.

Elizabeth returned to the United States in 2013 and began her Masters in Development Practice at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The two year degree focused on building bridges between the institutions that make up the development of a country - economics, education, public health, agriculture, policy, and leadership. This skill has helped her bring a new perspective to some of the big picture challenges in the Northwoods with the goal of finding solutions that are both inclusive and sustainable.

In her free time she enjoys teaching yoga classes, cooking delicious food, writing for her Northwoods Lifestyle Blog, Northerly Collective, with her friend Becca, and getting outside with her dog Sunny.