Meet our 2021 AmplifiHER Honorees

Valerie Rochon

Community Impact
Portsmouth, NH

Valerie Rochon is Chief Collaborator (President) of the Chamber Collaborative of Greater Portsmouth. Valerie is the embodiment of leadership by example. Though her staff may not always appreciate her Vermont-bred “no snow days” approach to winter customer service at the Chamber’s 500 Market Street headquarters, Valerie was quick to send the staff home to work remotely under the Governor’s Stay At Home orders in March 2020, while “standing the watch” at the office herself, in order to serve the hands-on needs of Seacoast businesses who needed import/export documents and other forms processed in person.

While there, she answered phones and counseled members and nonmembers on COVID guidelines. This work prompted Valerie to join the Citizen Response Task Force (CRTF) appointed by Portsmouth Mayor Rick Becksted in May “to help the City quickly and safely respond to the Governor’s guidelines for reopening, in Portsmouth.” Valerie was one of the CRTF “essential workers” who met in the downtown streets with City staff to determine how to save Portsmouth’s shops and restaurants by streamlining the process for restaurants to establish outdoor dining and for businesses to secure curbside pickup sites. In just 7 weeks the CRTF, the City Planning Department and DPW worked with 21 restaurant owners to approve 180 permits to convert parking spaces and sidewalks into dining spaces and to create curbside pickup sites citywide. The City of Baltimore took three and a half months to achieve a “street-dining” solution; meanwhile Portsmouth businesses were open and operating throughout the critical summer months.

Continuing through the winter and now into season 2 of ‘dining in the streets’ Valerie has worked constantly toward discovering a path to ‘yes’ through all the challenges of pandemic-world.  As if that weren’t enough, Valerie marshalled every resource the Chamber and her connections could command. The Chamber website listed all open businesses – not just Chamber members. With the City Economic Development Department and the Seacoast Economic Development Commission and NH Small Business Development Center, she directed her team in providing information about financial resources, grant opportunities, resiliency training and sources for items including PPE, digital thermometers, blankets and gas heaters. And, starting in April 2020, she hosted a free weekly (now every-two-weeks), “Chamber Chat Live!” Zoom webinar, welcoming guests who provided insight from the NH Business & Economic Affairs Division, NH Department of Health and Human Services, UNH Diversity and Seacoast Black Lives Matter, SBA Small Business Development Center and City Departments to provide updates, answer questions, and hear concerns.

“Let us know who YOU want to hear from each week,” she said at the launch. “This is new territory for all of us, changing hourly. Let’s communicate as we navigate through together.” Most importantly, throughout her tenure at the Chamber she has developed, as one Board member put it, a reputation for ‘always remembering to send the elevator back down,’ mentoring and championing her team, her partners and her fellow-Collaborators. There should be a new dictionary entry for ‘Chief Collaborator,’ with her picture alongside.