About the Board
The Brattleboro Women’s Chorus board of directors is vivacious, creative, supportive, productive, and full of wonderful energy. Serving on this board spoils us for all other board work.
Read more about us below.
Becky Graber, Musical Director
Becky Graber is our fabulous leader and an inspiration to us all. If you want to know all about Becky, check out her bio here. In fact, she’s so fabulous she even has her very own website!
Linda Bailey, Co-Treasurer
Linda is glad her work as a gardener keeps her outside and active much of the year. She has been a ‘fall only’ Women’s Chorus singer for years, but is happy she can sing in the spring now also. While practicing chorus songs in the garden is fun, singing with this group of women provides a special nourishment. When not gardening or singing, she might be biking, hiking, teaching cross country skiing, keeping in touch with far-flung family, or working on learning a new way to preserve the harvest.
Beth Gildin Watrous, Member
Beth joined the chorus in 1998 and has loved singing with this wonderful group ever since! Singing uplifts her spirit and gives her a sense of sending positive energy into the universe. Beth has been an educator her whole career, as an elementary and special education teacher in Brattleboro and Bernardston, and as Student Support Services Coordinator at Greenfield Center School. Beth is currently a volunteer Guardian Ad Litem and reading tutor. Besides singing, Beth loves playing ukelele and other stringed instruments, indulging in fiber arts explorations, gardening, kayaking, reading, dog walking, and visiting with family and friends.
Beth Nichols, Member
Beth joined chorus in 2022 and has been enjoying the music, community, and endorphins ever since. She has been a business owner, creative director, and marketing researcher. Her freelance gigs have included writer (specializing in investing and personal finance), editor, and qualitative researcher. Mostly retired now, she enjoys family, her golden retrievers, music, hiking, trail maintenance, volunteering, and her newfound passion for weaving.
Kate Traeger, Vice President & Communications &
Operations Manager
Kate Traeger is the Communications & Operations Manager of the BWC. She has dabbled in many professions (a “Kate of all Trades” per se): community coordinator, naturalist, graphic designer, summer camp director, Mad Scientist, performer, marketing/pr maven, and mother. She joined the chorus in 2005 and has been unable to stay away since! Besides singing, she loves chocolate, lake time, snow play, reading, hiking, traveling and coming home.
Judy Vawter, Member
Judy is a fourth generation San Franciscan. She came to visit her daughter in 2019, bought a house, retired, and moved here permanently in February of 2020 (right before COVID hit). In her first Spring and Summer here she felt like she was in an outdoor survival reality show. The bugs, the birds and the beasts got to her, but then Fall and Winter came and changed everything. Her introduction to Chorus was on Zoom. She worked as an administrator and curator for an historic mansion and art collection in San Francisco for over 20 years. She also had a small interior design business. But nowadays, she has found a new passion – power tools and building and repairing things. And, of course, Chorus!
Betsy Williams, President
Betsy was in the audience for the first BWC concert, joined that spring and has never left! She loves to sing and harmonize, finding it to be food for the spirit. She also plays stand-up bass and sings with friends in the “Seymour Sisters,” a small string band. She lives in Westminster West, works as a mediator in Greenfield Massachusetts, and when not singing, playing music or working, prefers to be outside hiking, biking, or skiing.
Norma Willingham, Secretary
Norma sang with Becky the first session and remembers switching parts and a snowy concert. She has been a member almost every season since. Singing makes her smile. The Women’s Chorus repertoire uplifted her spirit right from the start, and this was particularly important during Covid. Norma has been an educator her whole career, in Brattleboro as the principal of The Neighborhood Schoolhouse and then a faculty member at Landmark College. Besides singing, Norma loves gardening, reading, spiritual dance, and visiting with her daughter.
Ruth Wilmot, Co-Treasurer
Ruth Wilmot was coming to BWC concerts for 10 years before she finally joined the chorus and has been a member ever since! Ruth’s professional life has ranged from teaching social studies to 5th graders in Tokyo, to being a special events coordinator at a local college. She is currently working as an ADHD coach with both students and adults. Ruth relishes rare opportunities to speak Japanese and seeing her daughter embrace world travel as well. She also enjoys hiking and traveling.