The Vermont Senate Committee on Committees recently filled positions on both the Environmental Justice Advisory Council and the Vermont Commission on Women.
The Environmental Justice Advisory Council advises state agencies on environmental justice issues and on how to incorporate environmental justice into agency procedures and decision-making, and evaluates the potential for environmental burdens, disproportionate impacts or benefits on environmental justice focus populations as a result of state actions. Recent appointees are:
- Gayle Pezzo, Colchester (mobile home park representative) — Pezzo is board member and president of her resident-owned mobile home park community of about 600 residents. Before moving to Vermont in 2016, she worked primarily in Long Island, NY, as a clinical director in an intensive care, outpatient substance-abuse treatment facility.
- Britaney Watson, North Springfield (social justice organization representative) — Watson serves as environmental justice chair for the Rutland NAACP branch; as a member of the BIPOC Advisory Council at Let's Grow Kids and at the Vermont Renews Coalition; and as a member of the Vermont Releaf Collective. She spent the last year as environmental justice community engagement and network coordinator at the Center for Whole Communities and at Rights and Democracy Vermont, where she engaged communities across Vermont and led the establishment of the first Vermont State Environmental Justice Network.
- Zoraya Hightower, Burlington (municipal government representative) — Hightower has worked for more than 10 years on environmental and social justice issues - from renewable energy finance in Kosovo and fishery sustainability in the Philippines to removing no-cause evictions in Vermont. She also works as director of equity and inclusion at Nature 4 Justice and as an equity consultant at the Creative Discourse Group, and serves on the first woman of color on the Burlington City Council.
The Vermont Council on Women is an independent, nonpartisan state government commission working to advance rights and opportunities for women and girls in Vermont. Recent appointees are:
- Esther Charlestin, Bridgeport — Charlestin is dean of students at Middlebury Union Middle School and previously served as a member of the Middlebury Selectboard and the Middlebury Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Workgroup.
- Kellie Campbell, Georgia, VT — Campbell is chief information officer for the Vermont State Colleges System. In addition to leading the Information Technology Shared Services organization across the VSCS, she also supports the broader system transformation efforts underway, working to build a sustainable public higher education model in the state. Campbell recently served as a committee member of The Boston Club, one of the largest communities of women focused around the advancement of women to top leadership roles across the private, public and nonprofit sectors, and on the Executive Board for Vermont Women in Higher Education as well as a commissioner on the Vermont Commission on Women in a previous appointment.