Natalie Beckwith

36 | President, Lewis Creek Builders
Residence: Chittenden

Career highlight: Growing a business has been a challenging, humbling, and overall joyful experience. I get to help bring people together to achieve truly extraordinary things. Building is a team sport, and I’m proud of my team. Bringing folks with a wide range of experience and varied skillsets together to do something as tangible and meaningful as building and improving homes in our community is an honor. Building an organization that supports people in thriving professionally in and in their lives beyond work is something I am proud of and will always fiercely protect

Community involvement: I’m passionate about providing safe, supportive, and inclusive opportunities for sustainable careers in the trades. Bringing more young people to construction is crucial, not just for my organization but for our community and what it looks like to create and care for resilient housing in the coming decades. Through Lewis Creek Builders, I’m thrilled to support Vermont Works for Women and their programming connecting women+ to the trades and fostering a more inclusive industry. We regularly host interns, apprentices, and work shadows from VWFW, Center for Technology Essex, and local high schools. 

Growing up, I had the great privilege of participating in the earliest years of Very Merry Theatre, a non-profit organization bringing children and their communities together with the arts. Don Wright of VMT, my earliest mentor and first employer, showed me the incredible impact of creating spaces for people to show up as they are and contribute to something bigger than themselves. Whether I am volunteering my time to a local non-profit, participating in peer coaching with other small business leaders, raising donations for the food bank, or sponsoring events I believe in, I endeavor to do just that: show up as I am with whatever I have to offer, however imperfectly.

Motivation for living and working in Vermont: I was born and raised in Burlington, but left for college and worked in Boston for a few years. After losing my father unexpectedly when I was in my early twenties, I was drawn to return to the family and community I have in VT, and once I was home again could not imagine settling anywhere else.

Favorite part of your job:  My favorite part of running a small business is the boundless opportunity for learning and growth. An organization is a living, breathing, constantly evolving thing; there is no being stagnant, there is no complacency. I get to constantly ask the question, “what does the business need from me right now?” and the answer nearly always involves challenging myself in new ways.

Most inspiring mentor: I was incredibly lucky to have a fantastic mentor, Barbara Dumery, in the era that I worked in healthcare analytics and security technology after college. Her approach to managing people and processes is still my blueprint today. She challenged me, as a very young professional, to take things on I wasn’t quite “ready” for, with just the right amount of support and right-sized structure.

Best career advice: The best career advice I ever received was from my dad when I was 17 and I felt an enormous amount of pressure to go to college and to “be successful”. I wanted to take a year off to work and travel and he told me that success could look like taking whatever next opportunity felt right in my bones, regardless of what other people expected of me or what my previous plan had been. My life and career would look entirely different if not for that advice.

What would most people be surprised to learn about you? When I was 3-5 years old I wanted to be a clown in the Big Apple Circus.

What three words best describe you: Curious, nurturing, and whimsical.

Favorite Vermont escape: I gravitate towards water, especially rivers, and will swim no matter how cold. However, my favorite place in Vermont is at home in my backyard with my family.

Favorite Vermont season: Open window season. The weeks in the spring and in the fall when the windows can be open 24-7 without it getting too hot or too cool.

If you had unlimited access to funds, which cause(s) would you support: Food, water, healthcare, and housing for all, provided as locally as possible. I fundamentally believe that when basic needs are met, everyone thrives. Oh, and also, getting rid of AI.

What one song is on your playlist that are you embarrassed to tell your best friend: I will never be embarrassed by enjoying music–but my friends might be embarrassed by my love of Air Supply.

Where do you see yourself professionally in the next 5-10 years: I’ve spent the last decade growing a business, with excellent partners, and I want to steward Lewis Creek Builders through the next decade by investing more in my team and taking steps to expand ownership of this wonderful living organism that is the small business we’ve built and care for.