The Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS) has welcomed five new members to its Board of Directors: Debra Royce, Beth Anderson, James J. Fogler, Marc H. Monheimer and Michael H. Lipson.
Debra Royce is Treasurer at Revision Military Ltd. Ms. Royce has been with the company since 2007 and brings with her 20 years of corporate experience providing strategic financial leadership and risk management. Prior to working at Revision Military, Ms. Royce held financial leadership roles with the Chittenden Service Group, Ben & Jerry’s, and the G.S. Blodgett Corporation. Ms. Royce is also on the Williston Federated Church’s Finance Committee and has also served on the board of Women Helping Battered Women. Ms. Royce lives in Williston.
Beth Anderson is the Director of Operations at the Vermont Oxford Network and brings to COTS nearly 20 years of experience building programs and partnerships in the corporate, government and non-profit communities. Ms. Anderson is returning to COTS where she had been the Director of Operations from 2009-2011. Prior to living in Vermont, Ms. Anderson earned her Master of Business Administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business and held high-level positions at several financial firms, including Oliver Wyman; Goldman, Sachs & Co. and the American International Group. She is a volunteer with Girls on the Run and lives in Burlington.
James J. Fogler is President and Publisher of The Burlington Free Press/Gannett Co. He has nearly 25 years of experience in marketing and communication leadership roles in an international news and information company operating on multiple platforms including online, mobile, newspapers, magazines and TV stations. Before joining the Free Press, Mr. Fogler was the vice president of marketing for the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle from 2007-2010. Previously, Mr. Fogler was president and publisher of the Ithaca (NY) Journal from 2004-2007. He also held marketing management roles with Gannett media in Binghamton, NY; Poughkeepsie, NY; Westchester, NY; and Lansdale, PA. Mr. Fogler has been with Gannett since November 1988 and is a graduate of East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.
Marc H. Monheimer is Director of the Fletcher Allen Health Care Foundation, a member of the Burlington Tax Appeals Board, and a director of the Vermont Stage Company. Mr. Monheimer was a member of the Fletcher Allen Health Care Board of Trustees from 2004 through 2011. He was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Vermont School of Business Administration and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. In 2004, he retired as Associate General Counsel/Insurance at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a Washington, D.C.-based federal agency. He is an honors graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and its law school. He practiced law in San Francisco until moving to Washington, D.C, in 1993.
He served as an officer in the United States Army from 1952-1954, during which time he received a Bronze Star for meritorious service. Mr. Monheimer brings to COTS his experience negotiating and documenting varied, complex, and highly technical business transactions in real estate and development, corporate, commercial and partnership law, and investor and lender financial transactions. The father of five, with nine grandchildren, Mr. Monheimer is an avid cyclist and enthusiastic snow-shoer and cross-country skier. Monheimer currently resides in Burlington.
Michael H. Lipson serves occasionally as an Administrative Law Officer for the VT Office of Professional Regulation and conducts a limited private and consulting law practice in South Burlington, Vermont. His background includes experience in public utilities, civil litigation, and administrative law. Mr. Lipson graduated from the University of Connecticut (B.A. 1966), the National Law Center of George Washington University (J.D. with honors 1969) and Georgetown Law Center (LL.M. 1972).
Mr. Lipson served on the legal staff of Green Mountain Power Corp., where he was General Counsel, until 1999. He was a member of Miller, Eggleston & Cramer in Burlington from 1985-1990. Formerly he was professor of law at the University of Toledo College Law. He previously served as Deputy Director of Vermont Legal Aid, Inc., as a fellow with the Institute for Public Representation in Washington, DC and as an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission. He co-authored, with Robert S. Catz, MATERIALS ON THE PROCESS OF FEDERAL CIVIL LITIGATION (Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., 1988), a law school casebook. He is a member of the Chittenden County and Vermont Bar Associations. His areas of practice include Civil Litigation and Administrative Law. He is the father of two children and enjoys time with his family, fishing, travel, golf, and jazz.
Founded in 1982, COTS provides emergency shelter, prevention assistance, transitional and permanent housing, services and outreach to families and individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.