The Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees will have a new Chair for the first time in eight years. At its Thursday meeting held at Castleton State College, the VSC Board elected Martha O’Connor of Brattleboro to take the gavel from outgoing Chair Gary Moore of Bradford.
O’Connor is serving in her third six-year term on the VSC Board. She was first appointed by Governor Howard Dean in 1999 and subsequently reappointed by Governor Jim Douglas in 2005 and Governor Peter Shumlin in 2011. She has chaired the Board’s Finance and Facilities Committee since 2006. O’Connor has a rich record of public service in Vermont.
The UVM graduate first taught elementary school in Connecticut and Vermont. She has served on the Executive Committee of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, the Brattleboro Select Board, and the UVM Board of Trustees. In addition she has served as chair of the State Board of Education, chair of the Vermont School Boards Association, chair of the Brattleboro Union High School Board, and President of the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce. In addition to the Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees, she currently serves on the Supreme Court Character and Fitness Committee, the Development Committee of the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and chairs the Vermont Lottery Commission. Martha O’Connor and her husband Timothy O'Connor have 3 adult children and 3 grandchildren – all living in Vermont.
Tim Donovan, Chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges, noted “I’m thrilled to have Martha O’Connor elected to chair the VSC Board. These colleges are an essential part of Vermont’s education fabric. Despite decades of chronic underfunding, they each serve the state and its citizens with distinction. Martha is a committed public servant and skilled leader. I have great hope that, as chair, she can help turn the funding curve so these colleges can serve Vermont even better.”
Outgoing chair, Gary Moore, observed, “Martha O’Connor is eminently qualified to chair the VSC Board. Very few have had as much experience chairing boards and commissions. She gets things done. Her dedication to the VSC and to those they serve has been demonstrated over and over. I have no doubt she will guide the VSC forward in these trying financial times. She is the right person at the right time and I look forward to working with her in my remaining seven months on the board.”
Moore did not seek reelection as chair and has announced that he will leave the VSC Board at the end of his current term in March 2015. Since his first appointment to the Board by Governor Richard Snelling in 1991, Gary Moore has served on the VSC Board of Trustees with distinction for 24 years, including as its chair since 2006. In March, the New England Board of Higher Education honored Moore with the David C. Knapp Award for Trusteeship.
In addition to electing O’Connor as Chair, the VSC Board elected Representative Tim Jerman of Essex Junction as Vice-Chair, Heidi Pelletier of Montpelier as Secretary, Karen Luneau of Saint Albans as Treasurer, and Linda Milne of Montpelier as Chair of the Audit Committee. All positions are elected to one-year terms.
The Vermont State College system is composed of five unique institutions: the Community College of Vermont, Castleton State College, Johnson State College, Lyndon State College and Vermont Technical College. With more than 25 locations across Vermont, the five colleges serve more than 12,000 students annually, of whom 83% are Vermonters.