The Vermont Gay Tourism Association (VGTA), the only statewide organization that markets Vermont tthe Gay & Lesbian traveler, has elected a new board of directors and has formed new initiatives.

The VGTA has elected a diverse new board of directors representing a wide array of Vermont tourism professionals. Board members include:

Pearl A.B. Teague, CPA, was hired as Controller at Central Vermont Medical Center. She has more than twenty-two years of experience in public accounting and in the health care industry. Pearl’s extensive health care consulting and auditing experience includes three years with the fifth ranking accounting firm RSM McGladrey, three years with a Big Four accounting firm and three years with a regional accounting firm.

Union Street Media Inc., is pleased to announce the hiring of two employees. Minna Brown, is a Account Manager. She was previously employed as an Outreach Director at Focus the Nation a non-profit organization. Elissa Giroux is the Director of Internet Marketing. She has 12 years of Internet Marketing experience and was previously employed with Dealer.com as Search Operations Manager.

New England Federal Credit Union (NEFCU) President and CEO John Dwyer recently announced the hiring of three new employees.

Patrick Calecas joined NEFCU on February 8, 2010 as Business Loan Officer. Patrick resides in Montgomery, VT and brings more than 20 years of commercial banking and lending experience to the position, having served with banking institutions in Connecticut and Vermont. He will join NEFCU’s other Business Loan Officer, Rob Wheeler.

TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®, has named Heather L. Burnett manager of its store located at 2300 Saint George Road in Williston, Vermont. She is responsible for new business development, consumer and business lending, and managing personnel and day-to-day operations at the store serving customers throughout the region.

Prior to joining TD Bank, Burnett served as an assistant branch manager at Citizens Bank in Burlington, Vt. She has nearly 10 years of combined experience in sales, management and banking.

Robert F. Cioffi, a native Vermonter from St. Albans, has been elected chair of the University of Vermont Board of Trustees.

Cioffi is currently a venture partner at Alerion Partners, a private equity fund located in Rowayton, Connecticut. He lives in New Canaan, CT with his wife Meghan (UVM Class of 1991) and their three children.

William Holden, Senior Security Technician of NPI (Network Performance Inc.), a Network Services and Security Provider located in South Burlington, Vermont, achieved the (ISC)2 (International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc.) sanctioned CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) certification. The CISSP, accredited by the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) to ISO (International Standards Organization) standard 17024:2003 is a high level internationally recognized certification for systems security professionals.