About Me
Richard Berkfield is a writer, executive director, and solo parent based in Southern Vermont.
In September 2021 he lost his wife. He had two boys and a $5M nonprofit he'd spent over a decade co-building. He held it together long enough to realize holding it together wasn't working.
He writes about what comes after — loss, burnout, parenthood, identity, and the question of who you are when everything you built around yourself shifts. Not from resolution. From the trail.
The Long Climb is his attempted memoir, publishing on Substack in real time.
Richard is Executive Director of the Vermont Wilderness School and former co-founder and Executive Director of Food Connects, a food systems social enterprise. Most days he's thinking through something on a trail in New England.
Working together
I work with a small number of people as a coach — leaders and parents in their 40s and 50s navigating a significant loss or transition. Not therapy. A structured engagement with someone who's genuinely been through it and is further along the same trail.
