TA News

Thetford Academy has selected Wynona I. Ward, Esq., Class of 1969, as the recipient of its inaugural Alumni Achievement Award. The Award recognizes a member of the alumni community who has demonstrated exceptional professional success, leadership, community service, and/or commitment to the Academy’s values of excellence, commitment, cooperation, caring and diversity.

Wynona Ward is the founder and director of Have Justice, Will Travel, Inc. (HJWT), a Vermont-based “mobile, multi-service program that assists victims of domestic abuse through the legal process, from the initial interview and relief from abuse order through self-sufficiency and independence.” Since 1998, Ward has been working to end the generational cycle of abuse in rural families by providing legal and supportive services for battered, low-income women and their children. She has been honored as a “CNN Hero of the Week,” by the American Red Cross with a Community Impact Award, and by the American Bar Association for Outstanding Dedication to Advancement of Innovations in the Delivery of Legal Services,” and has earned many other accolades and awards for her work.

Thetford Academy classmates Charlie Bacon and Ted LaMontagne, who both nominated Wynona for the award, shared that “Winnie” was one of TA’s quieter students. She excelled in school, graduating third among her class of 60, but flew under the radar and rarely drew any attention. “Unbeknownst to most of us, she had an unsettled home life.” Ward often speaks about her youth living on a rural back road in Vermont where family violence was an accepted way of life. Though her path after high school took several turns, it ultimately led her back home to help rural women – like those in her own family – suffering from domestic violence and abuse. 

At 17, unable to afford college, Wynona left Thetford Academy to begin working as a secretary in nearby Hanover, NH. At 25, she enrolled at Boston University where she studied for two years. She completed her BA at Vermont College while traveling across America with her husband Harold (her high school sweetheart) as a truck owner-operator. At 44, Wynona entered Vermont Law School where she studied Vermont Family Law, and in 1998 she founded Have Justice, Will Travel. She had a vision of providing direct legal services to those that she knew from personal experience did not have access to the justice system.

Nancy Cushman, another Thetford Academy alumna (Class of 1979) who nominated Ward, wrote, “Perhaps the best example of the way Wynona embodies Thetford Academy’s core values is when a client was interviewed by a Vermont Women’s Fund reporter who wrote; “Sandy [the client] credits Wynona for giving her the confidence to leave. ‘One of the first things you did, well, it wasn’t something you wrote on a legal pad, she says, looking fondly at Wynona; ‘You hugged me. I was just so embarrassed. And you made me feel welcome. But without Wynona’s free legal help Sandy says ‘I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I wouldn’t have been able to protect myself or my children.’

With offices located in southern, central, and northern Vermont, HJWT has served thousands of women, men, and children since 1998. Each year over 1,000 calls are received from Vermonters asking for assistance with their family law issues. At this time HJWT has five employees:  two attorneys, two legal interns, and an administrative assistant, who attended Thetford Academy.

Wynona Ward ’69 will be recognized for her achievements at Thetford Academy’s Class Day on Friday, June 12, 2026.