Kim Gleason for Vermont Senate, an engaged leader and a fresh perspective.

My Vision

I’m Kim Gleason, and I’m running for the State Senate to represent our Grand Isle District, which includes Colchester, South Hero, Grand Isle, North Hero and Isle La Motte.

I’m running because I share a deep commitment to our communities. I want to bring a fresh perspective and a strong engaged local voice to the decisions that are made in Montpelier. I’m concerned about affordability, accountability and transparency, and I believe in the power of cooperation, collaboration and relationships to move the work forward. I want to ensure that our laws reflect our communities’ values - informed by us, rather than imposed on us.

By listening, engaging, and working together, we can build solutions that strengthen our communities. I would be honored to represent our district as your Senator.

A woman with blonde hair and sunglasses smiling while sitting on a rocky beach near the water, with two golden retriever puppies.
Close-up of a smiling woman with blonde hair, wearing a light blue shirt.

My professional background has been in finance, and my heart has been in education. For twelve years, I worked for TIAA, helping educators understand their retirement investments, and I worked alongside VSAC and former Governor Jim Douglas to launch the Vermont Higher Education Investment Plan/VT529. This provided me the opportunity to support families’ education goals, while helping them to address their affordability concerns. I worked with a consortium of small non-profit hospice organizations to find efficiencies in shared contracting and alignment of business practices, offering me valuable insight into the challenges of our eldercare system.

Over the last twenty years I’ve served on local school boards, the State Board of Education, the Vermont Pension Investment Commission and several other non-profit boards. Most recently, I served on the School District Redistricting Task Force, engaging with more than 5,000 Vermonters. Our final report offered a path forward for greater efficiency and capacity in our education system through cooperative services, and that plan was largely adopted this year by the legislature and the Governor. Forced mergers are not the answer. Our local elementary schools are critical to attracting families and sustaining strong communities.

Person riding a bicycle on a hillside road with fall trees, a river, and the sun in the sky.

I’ve delivered meals to our neighbors in Grand Isle county for the last six years and I’ve seen first hand the challenges of food insecurity. I’ve been a mentor, consultant, substitute teacher, and volunteer. As the Partnership and Outreach Specialist for MENTOR Vermont, I support youth and help build relationship-centered communities by forging meaningful connections through mentoring.

Affordability is front and center for all of us. We feel it at the grocery store, at the gas pump, in housing costs, healthcare bills, and property taxes. None of these challenges can be solved in isolation. We need to work together to improve access and affordability in healthcare and housing, while balancing our shared commitment to our environment and the beauty of Vermont. We need to support education in ways that prepare our students to be the thinkers, doers, and leaders that Vermont’s workforce so desperately needs, while making sure they and we can afford to stay in Vermont!

I believe in a thriving Vermont, where our smart, strategic growth has invested in thriving, safe downtowns, and robust village and town centers.

I believe in an affordable health care system that is available when and where Vermonters need it.

I believe in an education system that ensures each Vermont student has the opportunity to grow, learn and become the thinkers, doers and leaders that Vermont so desperately needs.

I believe in a place where we have set the standards for growth that reflect our values as a state and protect our greatest assets, our natural resources. Our Vermont brand and our future depends on it. These balances must make development more predictable and timely, and must anticipate and mitigate the detrimental effects to our environment.

This must all happen in a manner that is affordable and sustainable so that Vermonters can stay and thrive in the state we love, and visitors can become neighbors invested in Vermont's future.