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The statewide non-profit organization working for the legalization of gay and lesbian marriage hired its first paid employee last month.
Dorothy Mammen, the successful candidate from a recruiting process that began in May, started work as coordinator of the Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force on July 12.
The position, seed funding for which came from a local targeted donation, involves day-to-day administrative tasks as well as fundraising, outreach, education, and volunteer coordination.
In the past, the group has relied solely on volunteer efforts to accomplish these tasks. "(But) for quite some time we have realized that we need somebody working full time to coordinate our incredible volunteers around the state and to recruit more volunteers," said Beth Robinson, president of the VFMTF board. "Far from supplanting our volunteer contributions, our expectation is that Dorothy will dramatically expand our volunteer ranks in the coming months."
Mammen, whose background and education are in the fields of biology and computer science, said she was finding "not a lot of real life importance and value in those fields." A long-time political activist on issues ranging from battered women to animal protection, she began volunteering for the Task Force in 1997. "I was always doing Task Force projects instead of working, anyway," she said.
Robinson noted that the number of quality applicants made the decision difficult.
"Dorothy is passionately committed to equal justice under the law for her gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, and we're thrilled to have her on board," added Robinson.
The source of that passion, said Mammen, is her belief in the richness of human diversity. "I've never understood the need to distinguish between groups and pick on people," she said.
Mammen, her two children, and her husband, Middlebury College biologist Stephen Trombulak, live in Middlebury.
