Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors is comprised of an interdisciplinary group of Vermont education professionals committed to the mission of the VTDSP. Our board members’ credentials cut across a broad array of education-related agencies and institutions throughout Vermont. The Board provides assistance with fundraising, public relations, and policy issues.

Ed formerly taught in public schools, at Essex Educational Center between 1993–1995, and the Randolph Area Technical Center between 1997–1999 before joining the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC) in 1999. In addition to his responsibilities there as a network analyst, Ed has also conducted a computer technology career workshop for seventh, eighth, and eleventh graders at the North East Career Fair at Lyndon State College for the last seven years. He also acts as a Technical Advisor for the VSAC Outreach Program’s “Fresh Start” initiative, an early college awareness program for low-income, college bound students entering their freshman and sophomore years of high school. Ed has been a mentor for high school and college students for job shadowing and internships within the Information Technology department at VSAC. In addition, Ed is the Chair of the select board in the Town of Huntington, and represents the Town of Huntington as a Commissioner on the Chittenden Country Regional Planning Commission. He has also worked with the Vermont Women’s Commission representing ACLU of Vermont, and Haymarket People’s Fund as a Vermont representative.

Prior to her appointment as Superintendent in 2005, Jeanné Collins served Burlington schools as the Director of Special Services. Jeanné has been an educator for 29 years, most of that time serving in special education across four different states. Active both nationally and statewide on policy setting in education, Jeanne has served as President of the Vermont Council of Special Education Administrators; Trustee for Vermont Superintendent’s Association; Unit Liaison on the national Council for Administrators of Special Education; was named as the Gail Lynk Administrator of the Year in 2003; and was elected to serve on the Governing Board of the American Association of School Administrators in March of 2008.

Marianne has worked in higher education for nearly 20 years. Since 2001 she has been employed by the Community College of Vermont (CCV) where she serves as a Coordinator of Academic Services. In addition, she is an advisor with the External Degree Program through Johnson State College. Marianne is active with the study abroad program and various diversity initiatives at CCV. While in graduate school, Marianne’s coursework focused on issues of social justice. Her Master’s thesis focused on white privilege and communication, and at CCV she has chaired the diversity committee. She has also participated in the Burlington racism circles, attended the A World of Difference training, and other regional and national conferences on social justice.

After completing his freshman year at Williams College, Phil enlisted in the navy and saw combat action in the submarine service in the South Pacific. After the war Phil returned to Williams and graduated in 1948. He graduated from Cornell Law School in 1951 and moved to Burlington, Vermont to commence the practice of law. In 1960 Phil was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives, where he gained influence as part of a freshman caucus known as the “Young Turks.” In 1962 he ran a successful campaign for Governor against the Republican incumbent. His election made history, as Phil was the first Democrat to hold that office in 108 years. Phil’s success was confirmed as he was re-elected in 1964 and 1966. Phil’s administration was energetic and reform minded. Among his many accomplishments Phil helped end the outdated Overseer of the Poor system of welfare administration, he founded the Vermont District Court, the Judicial Nominating Board and Vermont Student Assistance Corporation. He co-founded the Vermont–New York Youth Project with New York City Mayor John Lindsay. Phil has remained active in politics running for the United States Senate in 1970, and serving as an adviser to New York City Mayor Abe Beame. In 1982, he returned to elective politics, serving in the Vermont State Senate and winning re-election in 1984 and 1986. While in the Senate he revitalized the Vermont Human Rights Commission. Phil has long been committed to the cause of civil liberties, serving for many years on the Vermont Advisory Commission to the United States Civil Rights Commission. He has been active in the legal profession, chairing a blue-ribbon commission that reformed the Vermont Bar Exam in 1982 and recommended adoption of Vermont’s continuing legal education requirement. He has been in private practice since 1989.

Wendy Koenig has a broad range of experience relating to higher education, politics and business. She began her career in Washington, DC, working for a grass-roots firm on defense appropriations issues. Over the course of her career, she went on to work for a higher education search and consulting firm, opened a flagship office for a new media company in New York City and moved to Vermont in 2001 to head up the Association of Vermont Independent Colleges. While there, she served her 18 member colleges by lobbying on the state and federal levels, coordinating joint academic programs and professional development activities, and procuring grants and federal funds. In July 2008, she joined the staff of the Office of Federal, State and Community Relations at UVM as the Director of Federal Relations. Ms. Koenig has served on a number of non-profit boards including, The Girl Scout Council of Vermont, the Vermont Teacher Diversity Scholarship Program, and is a member of the Board of Trustees at Sterling College.

Marian joined IBM in 1973 in Burlington, Vermont, and has held technical and management jobs in areas as diverse as product engineering, data processing, product planning, technical vitality, and community relations. Currently, Marian is manager of IBM’s Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs programs in Vermont. In this role, she serves as the primary link to state education communities and manages IBM’s local grant programs. Marian was a founding member of the Lake Champlain Regional School to Work Collaborative. She serves on the Lake Champlain Regional Workforce Investment Board where she is a member of the executive committee. Marian is immediate past chair of the advisory board for Linking Learning to Life, a regional school to career non-profit, and is a member of the advisory boards for the Vermont Teacher Diversity Scholarship Program and the Teachers Apprenticeship Program. Marian also coordinates IBM’s education outreach in Vermont through activities such as e-mentoring and hands-on science in the classroom, as well as IBM’s Reinventing Education programs that support educator professional development and leadership of educational change.

From 1971 through the present Bud has been a professor at the University of Vermont. In 1971 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. During his tenure at the University of Vermont he has taught quantitative methods and organizational theory. He has served as director for several grant programs, served as Deputy Commissioner of Education for the state of Vermont and department chair for the UVM Department of Education. His research and teaching interests include: local and large scale assessment, school effectiveness, school improvement, evaluation and quantitative research methodology. He has had appointments as visiting scholar to Stanford University, Oulu University in Finland and Oxford University, England.

Sherwood Smith first arrived in Vermont through a New England Board of Higher Education Pre-Doctoral Fellowship for 1995-1996 and taught in the Higher Education Program (HESA). After completing his doctorate in June 1996, he stayed on at the University of Vermont as a post-doctoral fellow and now as faculty. While completing his doctoral program work he developed and taught a graduate course “Multicultural Issues in Adult Education,” lectured on the history of African-Americans in adult education, and taught undergraduate seminars. In the past, Sherwood has worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania, Cooperative Extension Agent in Grant County in Washington, adjunct faculty for the School for International Training’s college program in Kenya, and Assistant Director of Residence Life at Pennsylvania State University. Currently, he teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses. Research interests focus on experiential issues related to identity development and attitude change, evaluation methodologies related to social justice education, and multicultural education theory to practice issues. His work has led to numerous presentations for a variety of professional conferences, including the American Association of Adult and Community Education, American College Personnel Association, Lilly Conferences, and International Educators (NAFSA). He is actively involved in faculty and staff development training on multicultural issue as part of his work as the Director for the Center for Cultural Pluralism part of the Provost’s Office.

Moise has over 15 years experience in Higher Education Administration and Teaching. He has taught both in the United States and abroad. As an administrator, Moise has worked providing services to majority and minority populations in Student Activities, Residential life, and Student Life/Student Affairs. He currently serves as a board member of the Vermont Teacher Diversity Scholarship Program and is a former board member of the Center for Peace and Justice. He is interested in issues of Peace and Social Justice, and access to college and academic success for first generation low income white students, minority students, first generation immigrants, and foreign-born students. As a professor, Moise has taught at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, Springfield College, The Center for Social Research and Development in the Caribbean, and currently at Saint Michael’s College in the department of Peace and Justice and Political Science. He has lectured at Worcester State College, Mt. Holyoke College, Brandeis University, and Vermont Community College in Burlington, as well as at various other venues. He is a student advocate and often travels to high schools speaking with student groups and parents. He has trained High School immigrant liaisons in the areas of student success, advocacy, college preparedness and the admission process.

Commissioner Vilaseca has over 29 years of experience in Vermont education, having spent his entire professional career in Vermont schools. He began as a classroom teacher at the Georgia Middle School in Georgia, VT, and served as a teaching principal at the Reading Elementary School. He then served as the principal for Westford Elementary and Middle School, Assistant Principal and then Principal of Essex High School, a position he served in for 10 years, and Superintendent of the Colchester school district. Most recently he served as the Superintendent of Franklin West Supervisory Union.

Chrispin White has served as the Director of the Robert T. Stafford Center for the Support and Study of the Community (The Center) at Castleton State College for the past 11 years. The Center strives to lead members of the Castleton State College community toward a heightened sense of social responsibility and toward a lifelong commitment to their local, national and global communities. As an alumnus of Castleton (class of ’86), Chrispin feels that the opportunity to integrate academic knowledge with work responsibilities in a professional environment is an essential step in our students’ careers. Chrispin also teaches the Community and Work Experience course at Community College of Vermont in Rutland. He is married with three children (all boys) and is a mentor and youth coach in his spare time.