Jennifer Beck Kitchel Reining died January 13, 2022, of metastatic breast cancer, at her home in East Thetford, Vermont. She was 56 years old.

Born on February 19, 1965, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, Jennifer was the daughter of Brinna (Baird) Sands and Douglas Binney Kitchel, Jr. She spent her early years in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, attending rural elementary schools before moving with her mother, brother (Davis Kitchel), sister (Ellen Kitchel), and a number of barnyard animals to Lexington, Massachusetts. Her love for The Kingdom was deep, and she frequently returned to visit friends and family.

In high school, Jennifer moved to the Upper Valley with her mother, siblings, and stepfather, Frank Sands. During those years, rather than asking someone to take her to soccer practice in Hanover, New Hampshire, she stashed a canoe on the Vermont side of the Connecticut River, paddling over in the afternoons. After high school, Jennifer attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1987 with a major in art history and a minor in geology. She rowed varsity crew for four years, earning the Warren C. Nagle Jr. Award, alongside her friend Laurie Benton, for women who "persevere" toward the goal of giving their absolute best. Jennifer's athleticism was a fundamental feature of her life, and she could be found running, walking, rowing, and biking in every kind of environment and weather. Indeed, she was rowing away on a Concept 2 machine until just a few days before her death.

Jennifer earned a master's degree in 1990 from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (now the Yale School of the Environment). There, she met Conrad Reining, whom she married in 1994 in a field at Brinna and Frank's home in Norwich, Vermont. Jennifer and Conrad have two children, Charlotte and Anabel Reining. She was an extraordinary mother to these two young women.

In 1995, Jennifer received a JD from Vermont Law School, graduating magna cum laude and third in her class. She clerked for the Vermont Supreme Court in 1995 and 1996 before taking a position at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC, as a staff attorney in the Office of General Counsel. Jennifer and Conrad moved back to Vermont in 1997, eventually settling in their beloved house in East Thetford.

After their return, Jennifer worked at the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, then as an associate at Hershenson, Carter, Scott, and McGee and as an assistant attorney general in the Vermont Attorney General's Office. In 2005, she took a position as assistant director with the Hitchcock Foundation, an entity within the Dartmouth-Hitchcock hospital system dedicated to aiding and advancing the study and investigation of human ailments and injuries. She became the foundation's executive director and stayed with the organization for the rest of her career.

As anyone who encountered Jennifer can tell you, she brought a fierce intellect, wry sense of humor, and deep humanity to everything she did. During her time with the Hitchcock Foundation, she met Deogratias "Deo" Niyizonkiza, who escaped Burundi's civil war in the 1990s and was the subject of Tracy Kidder 's 2009 book Strength in What Remains . With little fanfare, Jennifer crafted the legal documents to help Deo achieve his dream of creating a model rural healthcare system, Village Health Works, in his native Burundi. Today, VHW is finishing construction of a state-of-the-art teaching hospital, the Kigutu Hospital, Women's Health Pavilion, a 150-bed facility that will provide critical medical care to some of the world's poorest people.

Jennifer was also a lover of animals and there was a constant flow of rescue dogs through the Reining household. The two most recent, Lucy and James, are pit bull mixes that came from Puerto Rico via the Student Rescue Project, an organization that works with Upper Valley high school and college students to relocate abandoned dogs to homes in New England. As with VHW, in her quiet way, Jennifer was instrumental in creating the legal structure the Student Rescue Project needed to become a successful non-profit organization.

A fundamentally humane and humble person, Jennifer had a steely determination when confronted with injustice and incompetence. And she rarely lost a debate. Yet she also knew how to really enjoy life, ferreting out the most exquisite music, food, and art, regaling you with side-splitting stories, singing in perfect tune, and performing stand-up comedy, all while wearing her signature red lipstick that was invariably purchased at a most amazing discount price!

Jennifer leaves us all far too early. There is a deep hole in our hearts. We will try to fill them with all those things that have become meaningful to us because of her.

And let us not forget, as she would say, to "text your Mom" and in everything you do, "be kind, and make it fun."

If you are so inclined, please consider donations in her honor to Village Health Works (villagehealthworks.org) or the Student Rescue Project (studentrescueproject.org). A private burial will be held this winter, with a celebration of her life in the spring. Finally, our heartfelt thanks go out to the many dedicated nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals at Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Bayada Hospice who did all they could for Jennifer during this very challenging time.