Mulvaney-Stanak Seeks Chittenden 6-2 State Representative Seat

Former City Councilor, Labor Activist Brings Political and Community Organizing Experience to the Race

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   May 13, 2020

CONTACT:

Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, 802-448-0838

email: emmaforvthouse@gmail.com www.emmamulvaneystanak.com T: @emmajmsvt F: @emmaforvthouse

MULVANEY-STANAK SEEKS CHITTENDEN 6-2 STATE REPRESENTATIVE SEAT

Burlington, VT- Community leader, labor organizer and former Burlington City Councilor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak announced today she is seeking the Democractic nomination and Progressive endorsement for the Chittenden 6-2 house district state representative seat.

“I am inspired to run for elected office again to bring my years of leadership fighting for working people and personal experience as a parent to young children to the House. When representatives debate issues like paid family leave or ways to better support quality child care, you need Vermonters like me who have first-hand experience. I struggled to get an employer to approve decent family leave and I also returned to work only one month after having my second child because I could not afford to take more time as a self-employed person. This is my story. We must do a better job at supporting young families in this state.” Mulvaney-Stanak served on the Burlington City Council from 2009-2012 and as State Chair of the Vermont Progressive Party from 2013-2017. She served on the Burlington Retirement Taskforce under the Kiss administration and on the Board of Finance, Ordinance Committee and Community and Economic Development Committees when on City Council. She advanced updates to strengthen the city livable wage ordinance and began policy discussion to create public-private partnership standards for climate change initiatives, project labor agreements for city development projects and lead a successful city boycott against Arizona-based businesses in response to the anti-immigrant racial profiling law, SB1070.

Mulvaney-Stanak began her economic justice career advocating and winning the first-ever cost-of-living annual adjustment to the Vermont minimum wage and later a similar increase to the tipper minimum wage. She went on to lead organizing and leadership development work for Vermont-NEA, the state’s largest labor union. She became a nationally recognized speaker and trainer on labor organizing during her decade-long tenure at the union.

“My union organizing experience with educators solidified my core beliefs in workers’ rights and building a strong public education system. As I launched my consulting business in 2018, I began to focus my work on examining and addressing inequities inherent in the school system ranging from how we fund schools to the curriculum and systems that marginalize people of color, LGBTQ, transgender, and Indigenous young people.” Mulvaney-Stanak has served on various non-profit boards including the Vermont Women’s Fund, the Haymarket People’s Fund, Governor’s Institutes of Vermont and most recently, Robin’s Nest Child Care Center located in the Old North End. She is a graduate of the Vermont Leadership Institute and Smith College with a degree in political science. Originally from Barre, Vermont, she lives in the Old North End with her wife, Megan and two small children.

“Today, May 13th, is also my grandmother’s birthday. She would have been 103 today. She encouraged me to run for city council several years ago with wise words that women should not wait their turn to run for office. She was a leader within her local Democratic Party chapter in Long Island in the 1950s, but was never able to rise to a higher position than secretary. The time is now for folks marginalized from the political process to run. We need their voices more than ever.”

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