Alan Robichaud,
Executive Director
Email: ajrobich@bccj.org

Judith Buswell,
Planning and Research Coordinator
Email: jsbuswell@bccj.org

Staff biographies

Alan Robichaud, Executive Director

Alan Robichaud has spent his most of his adult life in community development, both as employee and administrator with state and local organizations and as a volunteer with numerous community causes. As an employee, he has served in numerous administrative capacities, most recently as the Executive Director of the NH Disabilities Council and prior to that as an administrator with the Lakes Region Community Services Council, Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center, and the Laconia State School and Training Center. He is a frequent national presenter and consultant on family support strategies.

As a volunteer, Alan has been a board member with NH FamilyStrength and the Youth Services Bureau, including a term as Board Chairperson of the Youth Services Bureau. He is a founding member of the Lakes Region Community Development Clearinghouse. In 1997 he served as the Coordinator of the Ford Foundation "It Takes a Community" project and in that same year New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen appointed him to the Board of Trustees of the New Hampshire Community Technical College System.

He is the current Board Chair of the NH Rural Development Council, a non-profit organization that focuses on improving the environment for the State's smaller communities. Alan has also participated with the New Hampshire Mediation Program, and the New Hampshire Celebrates Wellness program.

A product of the Laconia School system, Robichaud graduated with honors from the NH Community Technical College in Laconia with an Associates Degree, from the University of Southern New Hampshire with a BS degree, and from Springfield College in Massachusetts with an M-Ed degree.

Says Alan, "The Citizens Council provides both opportunity and hope that the future of children and families in Belknap County is one that preserves the integrity of the family, promotes the fullest potential of each child, and develops the richness of community resources through the coordinated interaction of its financial and human resources. The extent to which individuals, however young or old, whatever gender and ability, can contribute their strengths, talents and time, will determine the degree to which we will collectively, and successfully, achieve our goals."
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Judith Buswell, Planning and Research Coordinator

Judy Buswell has been employed in a variety of non-profit sectors, all related in some fashion to community development. She was one of two staff members with the Belknap Juvenile Justice Initiative, the precursor to the current Belknap County Citizens Council. Prior to that time she spent 8 years as Promotions and Special Projects Coordinator in the Community Affairs Department with LRGHealthcare in the Lakes Region. She has worked as a Jobs Developer with the Lakes Region Community Services Council, as the Rural Arts Coordinator with the NH State Council on the Arts, as the Executive and Program Director with the Belknap Mill Society in Laconia, as a Project Coordinator with Community Health and Hospice, as the Director of St James Preschool in Laconia, as a freelance journalist for local print media, and as an classroom and music educator with schools in the Lakes Region.

She earned a BA in Music Education from Brigham Young University in Utah and an M Ed from Plymouth State College in NH. Judy is a church musician, currently as the Choir Director and pianist with the Unitarian Universalist Society in Laconia. An avid choral musician, she is a former member of the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Choir and now sings with the Pemigewasset Chorale Society and is a section leader with the NH Music Festival Summer Symphonic Chorus.

Says Judy, " I have been very fortunate to have experienced so many different parts of our community. One of my greatest satisfactions comes from being a part of matching up one resource with another to do the job more efficiently and creatively, which is just what this Citizens Council is all about."

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