Rosemary Webb, trustee emerita
Brief Biography
A graduate of UVM, Rosemary began her career as a child advocate at the age of fifteen, lobbying the U.S. Congress for passage of the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation Act of 1977. She co-authors curricula and parent/guardian resources for the Shelburne-based Child Lures Prevention/Teen Lures Prevention, which works with schools, child advocacy centers, law enforcement, faith-based organizations and other youth-serving organizations nationwide to provide personal safety programming to students in Grades PreK-12.
In 2006, Rosemary garnered an Emmy Award for co-producing, “Smart Choices, Safe Kids: A Child Lures Prevention Town Hall Meeting,” which was broadcast statewide throughout Illinois, compliments of NBC-5 Chicago. By Presidential invitation, she attended the 2007 White House Rose Garden signing of the PROTECT Act, which formally established the federal government’s role in the Amber Alert system and strengthened penalties for crimes against children. At the invitation of America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh, Rosemary served as a spokesperson in a series of national child safety PSA’s.
During Vermont’s creation of Act One, Rosemary testified before the Vermont Senate Judiciary Committee at one of its special sessions concerning sexual offender protocol and laws. She also served as a member of the Vermont Department of Children and Families’ Community Outreach Working Group, which created legislative recommendations on how most effectively to implement sexual abuse prevention education programming in Vermont.
More recently, Rosemary enjoys alliances with Erin’s Law, the Moore Center for Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA Safe Sports and Mercy Ships.
She sits on the board of the Global Army Against Child Abuse, headed by L. Raphael Genève, based in Geneva and New York City. Wooden has initiated prevention efforts in international communities with high needs and strong cultural resistance, securing funding for these projects through organizations like Rotary International. Locally, Rosemary served for the past five years as vice-chair of Connecting Youth (CY), and on its Executive Committee until its recent dissolution. She currently serves on the Chittenden County Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force and its Prevention Education subcommittee. In 2016, she completed the Vermont Victim Assistance Academy. Rosemary’s daughter, Sophia, attended VCS for 7th – 10th grades, from 2011 to 2014. A recent empty nester, Rosemary lives in Hinesburg with her husband, Scott.