The UVM Board of Trustees welcomed five new members this month: three legislative trustees, an undergraduate political science major and a gubernatorial appointee. Together, their backgrounds span the fields of federal politics, the culinary arts, accounting, electrical contracting and environmental consulting.

The new legislative trustees, elected by the Vermont General Assembly to six-year terms, are Bernard Juskiewicz, Curt McCormack and Tristan Toleno. They succeed Carolyn Branagan, Christopher Bray and David Potter, while Ed Pagano, who was appointed to a six-year term by Governor Peter Shumlin, succeeds Mark Young. New student trustee David Brandt, selected by the Associated Directors for the Appointment of the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College Student Trustees, Inc., succeeds Raj Thakrar and will serve a two-year term.

Pagano, a 1985 graduate of UVM, joined the law firm of Akin Gump after serving in the Obama administration as senate liaison and deputy assistant to the president for legislative affairs. His responsibilities included managing the Senate Legislative Affairs Office and advancing the president’s legislative agenda and promoting his priorities on Capitol Hill. Before joining the White House in 2012, Pagano worked for nearly two decades for Sen. Patrick Leahy in his senate office and for the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Leahy. During this time, he served as Sen. Leahy’s chief of staff, managing the senator’s offices in Washington and Vermont and overseeing the senator’s work on the Judiciary, Agriculture and Appropriations committees. Pagano, who was a member of the men’s basketball team at UVM, began his professional career as an associate at a large law firm before moving on to serve as a field director for the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign in Vermont in 1992. He received his J.D. from Fordham Law School.

Juskiewicz, a Republican from Cambridge, started his career in accounting and management with IBM in East Fishkill, N.Y. before transferring to the IBM plant in Essex Junction in 1978. Upon retirement he worked as district manager for the Department of Employment and Training and served on the Lamoille Union High School Board; Cambridge Elementary School Board, Cambridge Selectboard; Cambridge Recreation Board; Reparative Board, and coached Little League, basketball and soccer, and was a founding member and first Vice President of Lamoille County United Way. Juskiewicz currently serves on and is president of the Cambridge Regional Health Center; Vermont Golf Association; and the Cambridge Town Finance Committee. A graduate of The College of the Emporia, Juskiewicz has been a member of the Vermont House since 2013.

McCormack, a Democrat from Burlington, was born in Queens and moved to Vermont in 1971. He represented the City of Rutland from 1983 to 1996 in the Vermont House and served as chair of the Committee on Natural Resources and Energy as well as the Joint House/Senate Energy Committee. He also served as vice chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Environment Committee and representative on the NCSL High Level Radioactive Waste Repository Task Force; co-chair of the New England Recycling Council; House representative of the Vermont Low-Level Radioactive Waste Commission; and vice chair of the Vermont Rail Council. McCormack was the sponsor of Act 78, Vermont's comprehensive solid waste law – the first-in-the-nation 1989 law that regulated chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). McCormack has worked as an environmental consultant for the State of Vermont, City of Burlington, Peace Corps and USAID. 

Toleno, a Democrat from Brattleboro, grew up in Marlboro and graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 1989 before attending Wesleyan University as a philosophy and religion major. He chose to follow a passion for food and became a chef, graduating from New England Culinary Institute in 1996 before moving to New York City, where he developed his cooking skills. He eventually moved back to Brattleboro and was the managing partner and chef of Riverview Cafe. He continues to work in food service as a caterer, having started two small catering brands, Entera Catering and Rigani Catered Wood-Fired Pizza. In 2011, Toleno completed a two-year MBA at Marlboro College, where he studied sustainability and system change.

Brandt, a graduate of Mount Mansfield High School where he was involved in student government, is currently a sophomore at UVM pursuing a degree in political science. He works as a part-time intramural sports official for Campus Recreation and is an AdvoCat for UVM’s Undergraduate Admissions Office. He also serves as a Student Government Association senator and is a staff writer for The Vermont Cynic.