PAI Staff & Board of Directors

Anika joined Public Assets Institute in August 2022 after graduating from Middlebury College with a bachelor’s degree in environmental policy. Prior to joining Public Assets, she worked as a political science research assistant, initiated a grassroots advocacy campaign, and worked on federal level lobbying efforts to protect public lands in the Southwest.

Anika is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah and currently resides in Burlington. In her free time, she enjoys mountain biking, skiing, and cooking.

Jack Hoffman joined Public Assets Institute in October 2007. He does research and analysis on state fiscal and economic issues and prepares periodic reports published by the institute. Before joining Public Assets, Jack covered politics and state government in Vermont for 20 years. He was chief of the Vermont Press Bureau, the capital bureau for the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Covering state government, he focused on tax and budget issues, especially education funding. After leaving journalism in 2002, he served for five years as executive director of the Vermont Broadband Council, a non-profit organization promoting the use and availability of broadband in the state.

Before he started his reporting career, Jack traveled extensively in Africa. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Libya in the late 1960s. He has called Vermont home since 1965, when he first enrolled in Middlebury College. He and his wife, Lark Upson, lived in Marshfield for nearly 30 years and currently reside in Turenne, France.

Julie joined the Public Assets team in 2018, working on policies that improve the economic wellbeing of everyone in Vermont, informed by conversations with the community and data analysis. She is excited to be working on systems-level solutions after working for a decade with families experiencing homelessness and domestic violence survivors, and seeing the financial struggles they face in the current system.

Julie has a PhD in Social Policy from Brandeis University, with a focus on asset distribution and inequality. She studied the impact of federal and local housing policy on wellbeing for families living in poverty. Julie currently lives in South Burlington and loves spending time with her family, talking to neighbors while walking her dog, baking, and playing ice hockey.

Sarah works to translate complex information into memorable visuals, provide Vermonters with reliable information and context for public discussions, and connect with others who support and wish to advance Public Assets’ vision of a just and thriving Vermont. She earned her bachelor’s degree in mid-life at Northern Vermont University. She lives in Walden with her husband and daughter, and manages a maple sugar orchard.

Bekah Mandell loves thinking about the power of narrative to move people and policy. Prior to joining Public Assets she worked with national and local non-profits including the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Vermont Works for Women. She holds a law degree from Boston College Law School and a BA in Latin American Studies from Vassar College.

Bekah grew up in Middlesex, where she still lives, and is thrilled to be working with a team committed to building a Vermont that works for all.

Katrina joins Public Assets Institute as a State Policy Fellow after spending several years in Washington, D.C. analyzing federal legislation for the U.S. Senate Budget Committee and Senator Bernie Sanders. Katrina also has experience with state-level policy in Vermont’s agricultural and transportation sectors. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Vermont studying community and international development and is currently completing her master’s degree online through the University of Washington’s College of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Katrina is originally from the Upper Valley and has a passion for all things Vermont. Like Julie, Katrina enjoys playing ice hockey in her free time. She also enjoys jogging, reading, and finding the best swimming holes in the state.

Steph came to Vermont and Public Assets Institute in 2015 and became the Executive Director in 2023. She is glad to be back to her New England roots after stints in the Midwest, the Ohio Valley, and on the West Coast. At Public Assets, she works on making Vermont’s unique education funding system, the state budget and family economic policies more equitable and responsive to the needs of Vermonters. Her fiscal experience in the public and private sectors in multiple states informs that work, including staff time in AmeriCorps programs, state budget offices and state legislatures.

She currently resides in Burlington with her spouse and two kids.

Leslie’s work at VHFA includes overseeing the agency’s research, data, communications and public engagement activities. She has 25 years of professional experience in program evaluation and public policy research in the areas of housing, human services, and community development. Her work has most recently been focused on Vermont, and she has a broad understanding of housing issues and HUD programs as a result of her many years of experience in Washington, DC as a Congressional housing and community development program evaluator.

Black-Plumeau has a Public Policy master’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany and a bachelors degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College.

Jared Duval serves as Executive Director of the Energy Action Network (EAN), a collective impact network made up of a diverse group of leading non-profits, businesses, public agencies and other stakeholders seeking to advance Vermont’s transition to a sustainable energy future. Previously, he served as economic development director for Vermont’s working lands and green economy sectors at the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development. 

Jared grew up in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, as part of the ninth generation of his family to call the Green Mountain State home. Growing up in a lower-income family with parents who were not college graduates, Jared is deeply aware and appreciative of the social safety net of local, state, and federal programs that helped his family when they were economically insecure and that also helped him to access higher education. 

He attended Wheaton College in Massachusetts (double-major in Economics and Political Science), graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa (2005). He has graduate degrees in social science research from the University of Cambridge and in public affairs from Princeton University. He lives in Montpelier with his wife, the Rev. Joan Javier-Duval and their son, Liam. 

Carlen (she/her) is a long-time child policy advocate and educator. A staff member of Voices for Vermont’s Children for over 30 years, Carlen has served as research director, executive director, and is at present a senior policy associate focused primarily on public education and health equity. Carlen has extensive experience in data and policy analysis, outreach, coalition building and coordination.

Prior to joining Voices, Carlen was the executive director of the Vermont Association for Cerebral Palsy, taught reading, high school social studies and American History in Vermont public schools, was a foster parent to teenagers, and served as a safe home with the Washington County Runaway and Homeless Youth Program. She has served as a commissioner on the Montpelier School Board, as a board member of Turtle Island Children’s Center, and is a founding board member of Public Assets Institute.

Carlen has a B.A. from Vermont State University and a post baccalaureate teaching degree from the University of Vermont. Carlen happily lives in Montpelier most of the year but spends a few months in San Francisco to be near her two daughters and their families including two wonderful grandkids.

Sandrine, originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been in the U.S. since 1997 and Vermont since 2006. She is currently President of the VT New American Advisory Council (VNAAC) and also the Director of the Housing Advocacy Programs Team, a program of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO). For the last 11 years, she has been working at CVOEO managing rapid rehousing, advocacy, and support services to vulnerable communities including asylum seekers and mobile home park residents. 

Prior to her position at CVOEO, Sandrine was a Project Manager in Cameroon for VSO International where she provided project turn-around expertise, monitored project activities and daily operations focused on the health improvement and development of rural communities of the North region of Cameroon. 

She graduated in International Relations from the University of Kinshasa-Democratic Republic of Congo, and holds a MS in International Community Economic of Development and MS in Organizational Leadership from the Southern New Hampshire University. She is a Board member at CVOEO and Northgate Residents Ownership Corporation (NROC).

Stephen Klein, now retired, joined the staff of the Vermont General Assembly in 1992 as a fiscal analyst in the Legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office. In 1993, he was appointed chief fiscal officer. The nonpartisan office provides fiscal analysis, budget evaluation, performance oversight and fiscal policy support for the Committees on Appropriations, Finance, Ways & Means, and Transportation and for the Legislature as a whole. Klein oversaw up to 14 full-time staff and many consultants.

Klein served as president of the National Association of Legislative Fiscal Offices in 1998-1999 and was a member of NCSL’s Executive Committee from 2002-2005. He has served on the advisory board of the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, which advises the Center’s staff on research content, direction and dissemination to policymakers in the New England region. Klein also served as a guest lecturer on the legislative budget process at the Vermont Law School.

Prior to joining the Vermont Legislature, Klein served as a director of the Massachusetts Senate Post Audit and Oversight Bureau, assistant director for the Endowment Fund of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston, and legislative director and legal counsel for a Massachusetts state senator.

Klein received his A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley, his M.A. in Urban Studies & Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.

In retirement he has been active in refugee work, and food assistance and other community organizations. He also spends time biking, walking and being a grandfather.

Mattison has built her career as an e-commerce and user experience consultant and now leads as Head of Product for Yelo, a social ride network app for college students. Growing up in a military family, she lived in Georgia, Alaska, and Germany before catching her first glimpse of Vermont while attending Dartmouth College. A few years after graduation, she returned to Vermont and has made it her home ever since. Beyond her tech career, Mattison is committed to community service, serving on the boards of Vermont Public and Vermont Professionals of Color. Previously, she dedicated six years to the board of Outright Vermont, including time as co-chair.

Since 1990 Paquin has advocated on behalf of his constituents and Vermonters with disabilities. His work in the Vermont House of Representatives contributed to expansions of health insurance coverage to low-income Vermonters, equalizing entitlements to home care and nursing home care, and protecting all aspects of the state’s community-based Medicaid Long-term Care system for people with disabilities. He led Disability Rights Vermont in shaping corrections policy to better serve people with psychiatric disabilities and preserving the civil rights of people facing forced treatments in many settings.

Having received a BA in the Study of Religions from the University of Vermont in 1975, Paquin worked in trades from silversmithing to carpentry until an injury in 1988 took him off the job site and landed him, two years later, in politics. He served 12 years in the Vermont House and then 18 years as executive director of Disability Rights Vermont.

He lives in Barre Town, enjoys playing music, and is currently a Communication Support Specialist assisting people with disabilities in civil court and state administrative settings. Paquin also serves on the boards of the Vermont Center for Independent Living and Camp Exclamation Point, Inc.

Weiwei Wang (she/her) is Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Vermont Professionals of Color Network (VT PoC). Founded in 2019, VT PoC is dedicated to advancing the prosperity of all professionals of color throughout Vermont by “building from within”. Previously, she worked at the University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies managing and conducting research on multi-state USDA funded projects focused on food access, as well as in Boston and Shanghai as a project manager for companies ranging from regional to international in scale. In both her personal and professional life, Weiwei brings a passion for community connection and development, and redefining accessibility for historically excluded communities, through changing systems of oppression. Learn more about her work at www.vtpoc.net or @vtpoc_network on social media platforms.

In addition to PAI, Weiwei serves on the board of The Governor’s Institute of Vermont, Vermont Public, and the University of Vermont Medical Center. She is based in Chittenden County.

Jonathan Williams grew up in a small town in central New Jersey. After attending Boston University, he served in the US Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Morocco for more than two years. There he lived in a small, rural village on the Algerian frontier, working with a women’s artisan cooperative and teaching English.

Subsequently, Jonathan moved to Vermont and earned a master’s degree in public administration from UVM. He has worked as an advocate for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns and as an administrator for several Vermont communities. Williams then worked for more than seven years as a development professional for the Vermont Foodbank, having also served on the Foodbank’s leadership team. Jonathan served a term in the Vermont House of Representatives, where his work focused on helping Vermont communities recover from severe flooding. He helped found and administer the Barre Community Relief Fund, a 501(c)(3), in that time. Now, Jonathan serves as the Executive Director for Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to ensuring every youth in Vermont has a safe and happy childhood.

Jonathan lives Barre City with his partner Becky and two dogs. In his free time, he enjoys playing board games, painting, and trying his hand at a variety of musical instruments.