Mayor Miro Weinberger has announced in City Hall Park the appointment of Eileen Blackwood, Esq., as the new City Attorney for the City of Burlington. Blackwood, who will be the first woman to serve as Burlington City Attorney, currently is a partner at the law firm Kohn Rath Blackwood & Danon in Hinesburg, having practiced law in Burlington for more than 21 years prior to merging her Burlington firm, Blackwood & Danon, with the Hinesburg firm Kohn & Rath in early 2009. Weinberger has asked the City Council to approve the appointment at its July 16, 2012 meeting.

HowardCenter is proud to welcome Sally Fox to its Board of Trustees.

Having spent her career in public service as a policy advocate and a lawyer, Fox became a Senator from Chittenden County in 2010 and serves on the Senate Health and Welfare and Finance Committees.

American Nuclear Society (ANS) President Eric Loewen, PhD, presented ANS members Meredith J. Angwin and Howard C. Shaffer, III with Presidential Citations in recognition of their successful public information efforts in Vermont and elsewhere. Angwin and Shaffer received their award during the ANS President’s Special Session at the ANS Annual Conference: “Nuclear Science and Technology: Managing the Global Impact of Economic and Natural Events,” being held June 24-28 in Chicago, Illinois.

At the podium to accept a bronze medal for political writing in this year’s recent 16th annual Independent Publisher Book Awards in New York City was former ABC News foreign correspondent, Barrie Dunsmore. His book, There and Back published by Wind Ridge Publishing, is a compilation of Dunsmore’s essays taken from his frequent Vermont Public Radio commentaries, newspaper columns, and magazine articles.

Lisa Ventriss, Chair of Mercy Connection’s Board of Directors, is pleased to announce the addition of two new board members, Hank Lambert and Kate Neubauer. The addition of fresh faces to the Mercy Connections Board of Directors promises to bring new ideas to an organization dedicated to nurturing self sufficiency through education, mentoring and community.

Lambert retired from the Vermont Local Roads Program at Saint Michael’s College in 2007 after 25 years. He currently consults for Vermont municipalities and often serves as interim administrator for Vermont Towns.