Coming home – the comfort of being in our most familiar place, among people who make us feel we truly belong – is one of the best feelings there is. For Jenn Papillo, that feeling made all the difference in the world in her ascent to the role of Associate General Counsel for the University of Vermont.

“I did not expect a homecoming so early in my career, especially for such a coveted position,” said Papillo, a Colchester native and Rice Memorial High School graduate whose embodiment of UVM’s values has earned her the President’s Our Common Ground Staff Award. “I’m very fortunate to have landed in this role.”

Papillo was studying at Florida’s first law school, Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, when she became “really intrigued” with the idea of working in higher education. “I’d always been driven by mission-centric organizations,” she said, citing her prior work on tax law for nonprofits as an example. “That sense of purpose was attractive to me.”

That opportunity presented itself in the form of a summer law clerk position in the General Counsel’s office at UVM in 2008. Her tasks varied – research, writing of policies, attending client meetings – but the overall experience of working in higher ed, back in the Green Mountain State, was transformative for Papillo.

“I came home for the summer and found a job that I really liked,” she said.

Papillo headed south to finish her education after the internship, clerking in the American Cancer Society’s Washington, D.C. office while earning her Master of Laws degree from Georgetown University. Still, when the chance to come back to Vermont to put down professional roots arose, she leapt at the chance. The UVM GC’s office expansion from three attorneys to four in 2010 presented just such an opportunity.

Beginning as an assistant general counsel, Papillo was promoted to her current position within five years. Her areas of work include student affairs, academic affairs, compliance services, international education, risk management, and athletics – “a lot of student-facing elements,” she says with pride.

“Jenn is a uniquely qualified and experienced attorney who puts student success front and center in everything she does,” said General Counsel Trent Klingerman, who leads the seven-member GC’s office at UVM. “She has a deep understanding of navigating the challenges facing students and the professionals who mentor and serve them, as well as the empathy and interpersonal skills that one can only acquire by truly listening to, and caring about, people.”

Papillo’s satisfaction with her role at UVM comes in part from reflecting on what makes it different from working for a traditional law firm.

“What I like about this job is that my work is not the same from day to day,” she said. “I have the great benefit that I get to work with all types of units across campus. Learning from each other and being part of a community are amazing parts of this job.”

“In a law firm, I’d be working with clients in a really transactional way. Here, my clients are my colleagues. Their success is my success.”

Papillo’s nomination for the President’s Our Common Ground Staff Award states that she “embodies the model UVM citizen,” by bringing “compassion, care, and empathy to the work she does every day.” Of the six OCG values, Papillo said she identifies most strongly with Respect – a vital element in identifying genuinely with those she serves.

“That’s a value I place on creating real relationships, on sitting and listening to the goals of my clients and the issues affecting our campus before offering my perspective,” she said.

Care and compassion also mark Papillo’s time away from the GC’s office, where she is dedicated to community service and connection. She served as president of the Vermont Diaper Bank and helped oversee the distribution of more than two million diapers to Vermonters in need from 2020-’23.

Papillo is also passionate about golf, and has seen her drive to succeed pay off on the links just as it has in her law career. She entered the Vermont Amateur Championships for the first time in 2022 and topped the women’s field by net score – with her father, Frank, serving as her caddy. She has coached the girls’ golf team at her high school alma mater, Rice Memorial, to the Division-II state crown in each of the past two seasons.

“I love golf because it gets me outside and allows me to drop all the other stuff from my mind,” Papillo said. “You learn focus by playing golf, to tune out distractions.” She added that the opportunity to mentor younger golfers at Rice plays to her natural strengths in communication and relationship building. “Coaching has been really neat, because it’s a way to engage with these girls in a relaxed setting and talk about a lot of other things besides golf,” she said.

Whether guiding the Green Knights to golf glory or helping clients of the UVM GC’s office find the path to achieving their goals, Papillo sees all her work within the context of one big picture. That view of shared success is only possible thanks to the uniquely informed perspective cultivated from her Green Mountain roots.

“I believe strongly in the values of higher education, and I feel very deeply as a native Vermonter, about the values of UVM and how they impact our community,” Papillo said. “I’m invested in the success of UVM, in the success of its individual units and the people who work here, and in the success of Vermont.

“Those things are all tied together, and I know that because I grew up here.”