John Reuwer, MD

John is a retired emergency physician who as a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility has worked for over 35 years to educate the public about the dangers of nuclear weapons. In the search for alternatives to violence he has served on nonviolent intervention teams in conflict zones on three continents and several U.S. cities. As a board member of World BEYOND War, he researches and teaches alternatives to war in the pursuit of human security. 

Ben Cohen

Ben is the co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade.  Ben also founded People Power Initiatives, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities and TrueMajority. He has served on the boards of Heifer International, Oxfam America, Greenpeace, and Hampshire College. He is the recipient of the U.S. Small Businessperson of the Year Award, several honorary doctorates, and is the author of several books.

Col. Rosanne Greco

Colonel Rosanne Greco retired honorably after 30 years of service in the U.S. Air Force.  Specialized in strategic intelligence and arms control. U.S. delegate to four international arms control negotiations: the Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty’s Standing Consultative Commission (SCC), the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE), and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Worked with United Nations officials in New York City on peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs.  She has served as a City Councilor and the Chair of the South Burlington City Council.

Jojo Kofman

I'm from San Francisco, but currently a sophomore at the University of Vermont studying sociology and political science. I'm involved in solidarity movements at the local level through mutual aid efforts, and on the international level through clubs like Amnesty International. 

Bill Lofy

Bill Lofy is co-founder of Kria Botanicals, a botanical extraction business based in South Burlington. For the past two decades, Bill has worked in a range of senior positions in advocacy and governance: chief of staff to Governor Peter Shumlin, senior strategist for the late Senator Paul Wellstone, and advisor to over a dozen gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns. He is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Cape Verde) and the author of Paul Wellstone: The Life of a Passionate Progressive.  

Robert Spottswood

Robert grew up in Minnesota helping to end the war on Vietnam.  By now works in family therapy with the hardest child behaviors -- a systemic field -- while supporting community connections in his neighborhood.  He sees wars and weapons as a highly monetized system serving Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics.  "Not that much different from the war years on Vietnam, but this time we're working on the wider system."

Laurie Gagne

Laurie Gagne, PhD was Director of the Edmundite Center for Peace and Justice at St. Michael's College where she also taught courses in Peace and Justice. Now retired, she has edited a book on Simone Weil, Love in the Void, and served on peace teams in Palestine, Cleveland, and Washington, DC. 

Dr. Paul Manganiello

Paul is retired Reproductive Endocrinologist from Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center with an MPH from The Dartmouth Institute. Currently volunteer Medical Director of the Good Neighbor Health Clinic in WRJ,  living with wife Wendy a retired nurse in Norwich, Vermont

Crea S. Lintilhac

Crea graduated from Skidmore College in 1975 and earned a Master’s Degree in Teaching in Geology from the University of Vermont in 1977. Crea pursued post-graduate studies and research at the Marine Science Institute in Connecticut, the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, and the Geophysics Department at the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. She received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Middlebury College in 1998. In 2014 Crea received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Vermont.

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She is a member of the Board of Advisors at the Rubenstein School of the Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont and serves on the Water Resources & Lake Studies Center board. Crea also serves as an officer and trustee of several environmental advocacy boards in Vermont.

James Ehlers

Former candidate for Governor of Vermont, James’ work focuses on the merits of communities, states, and the nation, investing in an Inclusive Economy, an economy where sound public policy in energy, agriculture, urban and suburban development, and jobs is reflected in swimmable, drinkable, fishable waters. 

Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben is an author, environmentalist, and activist.  In 1988 he wrote The End of Nature, the first book for a common audience about global warming.  He is a co-founder and Senior Advisor at 350.org, an international climate campaign that works in 188 countries around the world.

Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith

​Peter W. Galbraith’s thirty year career in public service includes being the first US Ambassador to Croatia, an Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations in Afghanistan, a Cabinet Member in East Timor’s first Transitional Government, a Senior Professional Staff Member with the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and a Senator in his home state of Vermont.  As US Ambassador to Croatia, Peter Galbraith co-mediated and signed the 1995 Erdut Agreement that ended the war in Croatia by providing for the peaceful reintegration of Serb-held Eastern Slavonia.  He is the author of two critically acclaimed books on the Iraq War, including the best selling The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without End.

Liz Filskov

Liz is a World Languages teacher in the Rutland City Schools. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in French Literature from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a Master of Arts in Teaching French and Francophone Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Liz teaches French part-time at Castleton University, and offers graduate level ethnic studies and world language methodology professional development courses through the Castleton Center for Schools. She chairs the Wallingford Democratic Committee, and is a state delegate for the Rutland County Democratic Committee. Liz is passionate about issues that affect children, families and communities. She is currently running for School Board in Wallingford.

Chad Hollister

Chad Hollister Band hails from Vermont.  They have been evolving and touring the country for over 20 years.  Anthony J. Resta (Collective Soul, Elton John, Shawn Mullins) says "Hollisters music is pure sonic alchemy" which means it's damn good in Vermont terms!
Chad has opened for Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Tom Petty and has shared the stage w/ every PHISH member, Billy Gibbons, Merl Saunders, Warren Haynes and Blues Traveller. His music is a voice for the Positive and reminds you that life is truly a gift as is the ability to share it through music. Chad has just signed a record deal with Pacific Records out of SanDiego, CA and released "Stop the World" featuring the 10 piece band. 

Don Mayer

Don Mayer is the co-owner of Small Dog Electronics in Waitsfield, South Burlington, and Rutland, plus Key West, Fla.

Gaye Symington

Gaye Symington lives in Jericho where she and her husband raised three now grown kids. Gaye served twelve years in the Vermont House, four of them as Speaker. Her career and public service have focused on sustainable community development, economic fairness and good food. 

Jill Michaels

For the past 20 years Jill Michaels has been the Principal of a Community Investments a firm that assists nonprofits, businesses, municipalities, and state government in Northern New England. Before that, in Vermont, she was the Executive Director of the Green Mountain Economic Development Corporation and came to Vermont to serve and Director of Development for the Town of Rockingham. Earlier work in Philadelphia included serving as Executive Director for the Community Development Coalition, Inc., a coalition of 20 community development corporations across the city; Researcher for employment and training think tank, Public/Private Ventures, and staff to City Councilwoman Joan Specter.

Dr. Ira Hefland

Ira Helfand, MD is co-chair of PSR’s Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee and also serves as co-president of PSR’s global federation, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Dr. Helfand has worked for many years as an emergency room physician and now practices internal medicine at an urgent care center. Dr. Helfand represents IPPNW at the annual World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates. He is also a member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)’s International Steering Committee. Dr. Helfand co-authored PSR’s report, Nuclear Famine: 2 Billion at Risk?, which outlines the global health consequences of regional nuclear war. He was a leading medical voice in ICAN’s campaign for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Dr. Helfand addressed national delegations at international conferences on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in Oslo, Norway, Narayit, Mexico, and Vienna, Austria, during the May 2016 U.N. Open-Ended Working Group on disarmament in Geneva, and throughout the U.N. General Assembly negotiations in 2017.

Robin Lloyd

Robin Lloyd is long-time Vermont peace activist, filmmaker and philanthropist. She is co-founder of The Peace & Justice Center, and member of the board of the Burlington branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Robin has been arrested and awarded multiple times for her tireless efforts and dedication for peace and justice.  

Ali Dieng

Ali Dieng (D/P) is the new Burlington City Councilor for Ward 7. He is the Family Outreach Coordinator and Parent University Manager for the Burlington School District Expanded learning Opportunities. In this role, Ali works with families, assisting them with paperwork and processes to access afterschool programming for their children.

Jennifer Decker

Jennifer Decker is dedicated to a just and peaceful world and has worked for a healthy planet in efforts that span youth work, mental health, nonviolence, and activism to end racism.  She has worked for A Better Chance, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends, and has a Master's in Group Counseling and Organizational Dynamics.  Since 2004,  Jennifer has worked as a child and family therapist in Vermont, and she has recently served AFSCME local 1674 in a variety of roles to improve working conditions in community mental health.  

James Haslam

James co-founded Rights & Democracy after serving as the Executive Director at the Vermont Workers’ Center for over 15 years. He has extensive experience in running grassroots legislative advocacy campaigns, labor and community organizing. 

Joseph Gainza

Joseph Gainza was the Vermont Program Coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee from 1995 to 2009. He served for several years on the steering committee of United for Peace and Justice, the largest peace and justice coalition in the US. Joseph worked nationally and locally for just immigration policies, an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, racial, economic and labor justice. Joseph organized the Vermont Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons which succeeded in having 66 towns pass an abolition article and the Vermont Legislature pass a resolution calling for an abolition treaty. He founded the Central Vermont Farm Worker Coalition which today annually hosts the Mexican Mobile Consulate to provide services for Mexican farm workers in Vermont. He is a member of the board of Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, a national organization whose work includes the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Richard Czaplinski

Richard Czaplinski is president of the Will Miller Green Mountain Veterans For Peace, Chapter 57. He is a Vietnam era veteran, serving in the US Navy from 1964 to 1969 under the command of Admiral H. G. Rickover in the BuShips/Naval Reactors Program in Washington, D.C. After receiving a Navy ROTC scholarship in 1959 he attended the University of Wisconsin, graduated in 1964 with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and was commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy. After military service, he returned to the University of Wisconsin obtaining a secondary school teaching certificate in math and physics, and two masters degrees, one in Water Resources Management and a second in Urban and Regional Planning.

In 1972 Richard took a job with the Vermont Water Resources Department and spent the next 15 years preparing the river basin plans for the State of Vermont, managing the state flood plain program and performing other duties in the area of environmental protection. After 15 years, he left state service and has been working part time as an environmental protection consultant working for conservation organizations. He presently serves on the Board of Directors of the Vermont Natural Resources Council as secretary and on the Board of Friends of the Mad River (a local watershed organization) as vice president.

Chiho Kaneko

Born and raised in Japan, Chiho Kaneko holds a BS in Agronomy from Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. She first came to the United States to earn her master degree in landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts, and ultimately decided to pursue art instead. Ever since that time, Chiho has used visual art, writing, and most recently music, as a classical soprano, as vehicles for exploring humanity and finding elusive common ground for all of us on this planet. 

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As a child, Chiho was taught that no humans should ever again suffer the atrocities experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She was forced to look directly in the eye of nuclear technology issues when the atomic power disaster at Fukushima that began in 2011 dramatically impacted the lives of its residents, including her own family and friends. In her ongoing efforts to share the human perspective of nuclear war, Chiho served as a volunteer interpreter at the United Nations (UN) for the survivors of A-bombs (the Hibakusha) who provided testimony at the UN during its Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Chiho Kaneko currently serves on the boards of two nonprofit organizations: Hartland Community Arts in Hartland, Vermont and Fairewinds Energy Education in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Marina Meerburg

Marina Meerburg lives in Stowe and is a long time environmentalist and active member of the community. Marina has a BS in Economics from Stockholm School of Economics and is a freelance translator and business owner. In 2018 she ran a spirited campaign as candidate for State Representative from Stowe.

Sylvia Knight

A native of western Massachusetts, Sylvia learned early about reverence for life, but also became aware of racism, social and economic inequality, and the dangers of nuclear weapons.

After living in two large cities in the ‘60s and ‘70s learning about racism, oppression, war-making and government corruption, Sylvia has lived the latter half of her life in Chittenden County, Vermont, engaged in activism in pesticide issues and water quality, working with the concept of Earth Community—the interrelated community of life on Earth – and bringing testimony to town and state government about the dangers of pesticides. Living in Burlington VT with her husband Robert Wright, they are both allies of Migrant Justice, supporting the work to raise the voices of immigrant farmworkers, empower them to find solutions to the serious problems they encounter, and to alter the economic power dynamic in the industry. Our ways of working evolve with movements for human rights.

Sen. Anthony Pollina

Senator Anthony Pollina of Middlesex, Washington County, was born on February 17, 1952, in New Jersey. Anthony graduated from Johnson State College with a degree in Political Science and Environmental Studies. He is the Director of the Vermont Democracy Fund and Producer & Host of Equal Time Radio on WDEV AM & FM. He was the Founder and Director of Rural Vermont; Senior Advisor to US Representative Bernie Sanders; Policy Director and Executive Director of Vermont Public Interest Research Group. He has taught at Johnson State College, Community College of Vermont, and Vermont College and was the Director of the Washington County Community School. He has served on the Governor's Agricultural Advisory Board, the Board of Vermont NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers Association), Vermont Peace and Justice Center, National Biotechnology Working Group, Central Vermont Solid Waste District, and National Family Farm Coalition. He is pleased to be married to Deborah Wolf and they have two wonderful, grown daughters.