Board of Directors

Cate MacLachlan, President

Cate moved to Vermont in 1996 after graduating from Earlham College with a degree in Peace and Global Studies. Throughout her academic and professional career, Cate has focused on issues of equity and justice for underserved and underrepresented populations, which included work at Legal Aid’s Lawline in Burlington, Vermont. In 2001, Cate obtained her Masters of Social Work from Boston College and became an integral part of Spectrum’s team responding to domestic violence issues, eventually serving as Co-Director of Spectrum’s Violence, Intervention and Prevention Programs. While at Spectrum she also served as Coordinator of the Chittenden County Domestic Violence Task Force.

For the past 10 years, Cate MacLachlan has owned and operated Artemis Fitness in South Burlington, Vermont, a gym created specifically to serve the needs of women. Cate is currently a Trustee at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, and served on the Board of Directors of ECHO for six years. She is also a certified Personal Trainer. Cate lives in Burlington with her husband and two children.

Mary M. Lee, Vice President

Mary M. Lee joined Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium in 2017 which serves Champlain College, Middlebury and St. Michael’s College.  With over 30 years’ experience in human resources and organizational development, she has held senior leadership positions in diverse industries including financial services, technology, consumer products, education and healthcare. She has experience in global organizations, not-for-profit, for-profit and growth-oriented organizations.

Mary received a Master’s of Science in administration from St. Michael’s College and holds an undergraduate degree from Trinity College. In addition, she holds multiple designations and certifications. Mary is actively engaged in a number of community organizations and resides in Burlington with her husband and teenage son.

Tom Clavelle, Treasurer

Prior to his retirement in December of 2020, Tom was one of the principal owners of Engelberth Construction, where he served as Executive VP/CFO for 27 years. In addition to his ownership responsibilities, Tom oversaw the financial management, human resources, information technology, and strategic planning initiatives for the company. Earlier in his career, Tom held financial management positions in the retail and hospitality industries. He was a licensed CPA in Vermont for 35 years and is a graduate of the University of Vermont.

Tom has served on the Board of Directors for United Way of Northwest Vermont, Lake Champlain Chamber (board chair), and the Greater Burlington YMCA. He was also on the school boards for Shelburne, CSSU (chair), and CVU. In 2017, Tom received the Business Leader Award from the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports for his long-time commitment and support for worksite wellness.

Tom is a native Vermonter (Winooski) and has lived in Shelburne with his wife, Wendy Saville, for the past 30 years. He has two grown children, Tyler and Kasey. In addition to spending time with family and friends, Tom enjoys bicycling, cooking, scuba-diving, and most things active.

Dr. Michelle Miller, Secretary

Dr. Michelle Miller (she/her/hers) recently retired from Champlain College as Senior Associate Provost after 32 years. Hired as the founding director of the college’s medical radiography program, she taught for 13 years before moving into academic administration. There her expertise eventually focused on accreditation, assessment of learning outcomes, and data analysis where she led the college’s institutional research function. As a “pinch-hitting” academic administrator, Michelle also managed at various times international education, the library, and the e-learning functions. She has served as a site visitor for the New England Commission on Higher Education and in multiple leadership roles for the Vermont and American Societies of Radiologic Technology, including terms on the board of directors and the bylaws committee. Prior to joining Champlain College, she directed the radiography program at Western Wyoming Community College. Dr. Miller’s educational journey includes a Baccalaureate degree in Radiologic Science from Quinnipiac University, a Master of Education degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Vermont, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Concordia University (Montreal) in Educational Technology.

Traci Griffith, Member at Large

A lawyer, journalist, academic, and advocate, Traci most recently served as an Associate Professor in the Communications Department at Simmons University and previously was Chair of the Media Studies Department at St. Michael’s College in Vermont. Her areas of research focus have included First Amendment law and ethics, as well as Race and Gender representation in media. She is a former correspondent and national editor for the Associated Press and holds a JD from Notre Dame, M.S. in Journalism from Florida A&M, and BA in Political Science from DePaul. Her most recent work includes a well-received 4-part series with New England News Collaborative on racism in New England.  She served on the executive committee of the national board of the ACLU for eight years.

Charles Hemingway

Charles was born in Vermont and grew up in Hinesburg. At 18 years old, Charles moved into one of Spectrum’s housing residences, known as King Street at the time. Charles spent three years living at Spectrum and participated in housing and other programs. During his first year at Spectrum, Charles completed his senior year of high school at Champlain Valley Union High School, graduating in 2015.

Following graduation, Charles remained in Spectrum’s housing program and worked at Details Works, where he gained life, work, and communications skills that helped him become self-sufficient and positioned him to begin a long-term career path in teaching.

Today, Charles lives in Hinesburg and works as a daycare provider at Little Tots on the Common in Richmond. He is earning his college degree in Early Childhood Education from CCV and plans to graduate in 2025.

Chol Dhoor

Chol is the founder and executive director of the Sudanese Foundation of Vermont (SUDFUND) Inc. SUDFUND is a nonprofit organization with the mission of investing in and supporting families so they can raise their children to succeed academically and athletically in Vermont.

Chol came to America in 2007 through the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program due to civil war in Sudan. Prior to coming to Vermont, he lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for 12 years. He was accepted at the University of Vermont in 2008 and graduated in 2011 with BA in Economics. He was a McNair Scholar and a recipient of the Merage Foundation Scholarship for the American Dream in honor of Vermont’s former governor Madeleine Kunin.

He is very active in the community and works with new American community members to identify their unique needs and raise funds to support summer camp scholarships, mentoring, and soccer programs. He also organizes community events to broaden families’ networks.

Chol has served on a number of boards and committees since he graduated from college. He was appointed in January, 2018 by Mayor Miro Weinberger to serve on the Community Development and Block Grant Advisory Board of Burlington and make funding recommendations to the city council. He was also a member of the Vermont State Health Assessment team, which developed the State Health Improvement Plan 2018-2023.

During his free time he enjoys traveling, reading (a lot), photography, outdoor adventures and spending time with family.

Janet McLaughlin

Janet’s passion for a more equitable society has driven her nearly two decades in nonprofit programming and philanthropy. Since 2021, she has been responsible for strategic direction and daily operations of VTAEYC, the state’s professional membership association for early childhood educators. Previously, after joining Let’s Grow Kids in 2016, Janet led a strategic realignment of its programmatic work as Chief Programs Officer, served as the acting CEO, and its Chief Operating Officer overseeing programs, communications, operations, and evaluation. She joined LGK from the Vermont Community Foundation, where she headed its Food and Farm Initiative, an effort to connect more Vermonters with healthy local foods. Previously, she spent 9 years at the DC-based Share Our Strength, where she was the national director of Cooking Matters, a food skills education program for low-income families. Under Janet’s leadership, Cooking Matters grew dramatically, attracting its first two multi-million dollar multi-year funders, and leveraged state and federal funding to support local and state partners. She also worked closely with Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, leading the launch of the Chefs Move to School campaign.  Janet’s undergraduate degree is from Harvard University and she holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. She currently serves as the Board Treasurer of Pine Forest Children’s Center and as member of the Board of Directors of the J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation. Janet lives in Burlington and is a recovering DC-er, enthusiastic eater, dedicated “all levels” yogi, wife of a real Vermonter, and mom of two energetic little boys.

John Moorhead

John is the Chief Marketing Officer of Seventh Generation. He is a mission driven leader who has held several roles across Brand Marketing and eCommerce over 10 years, with 6 years in Investment Finance prior to joining Seventh Generation in 2012. John is married to a Middle School Math Educator (and Professional Chef); and together they have two young kids, James and McKenna, who keep them on their toes. He loves all kinds of sports, the great outdoors, and is now getting into birding!

Marlon Fisher

Marlon Fisher has spent his life working in countless settings with children and young adults, helping them to create a safe and healthy life for themselves. He has always been drawn to working with youth who come from difficult backgrounds, or who may have been let down by the adults or institutions in their lives.

After an 8-year stint in the Army as an All Source Intelligence Analyst, Marlon began a long and rewarding career caring for youth in different settings: wilderness, residential, and community. Today, Marlon is the Associate Director of Next Generation Leadership for The Frederick Gunn School, located in Washington, CT. Marlon’s other passions include cooking, stand-up comedy, storytelling, and his two children. Marlon also serves on the board of Dad Guild.

Matt Frazee

Matt made the move to Vermont to join National Life Group in 2011.  In his many roles in the organization from Chief Accounting Officer to the Head of Operations, he has been focused on leading and living the values of National Life Group: Do Good, Be Good, Make Good. Using these values as the foundation, he began a transformation of providing a consistent, positive customer experience across the organization.

In his current role as Senior Vice President of Independent Distribution, Matt co-leads the distribution field leadership team for life and annuity sales through independent marketing organizations. He takes primary responsibility for implementing overall sales and distribution strategies for marketing organizations, identifying new business opportunities and continuously building relationships with existing organizations.

Matt has been involved in the communities he’s been a part of across the Northeast and Midwest, spearheading Deloitte’s efforts with Junior Achievement in New Jersey and Connecticut, and serving on the boards of Our Piece of the Pie, a Hartford, CT based organization, and the Howard Center here in Vermont.

Matt Murray

Matt is a native Vermonter from Essex Junction, Vermont. He spent six years in the US Navy. Following this, Matt held roles as the Vice President of Enterprise Strategic Growth and Retail Solutions at Dealer.com/Cox Automotive and GM of Automotive and Senior Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Podium. Today, Matt is the founder and CEO of Widewail, located at Hula in Burlington, Vermont.

Outside of work, Matt is married to his beautiful wife Angi, a dad to four great kids, a coach of youth sports, and an extraordinarily average guitar player.

Mike Lane

Mike is the founder and CEO of Fluency and formerly COO and Co-founder of Dealer.com, Burlington based technology companies.  He is an entrepreneur helping grow companies and sits on many boards. Joining the Spectrum board in 2015, Mike is inspired by the mission of Spectrum to empower teenagers to make and sustain positive changes. When not working on one of his many projects, Mike enjoys time with his family on the road, on the lake, in the mountains or just out in the woods.

Shap Smith

For more than ten years, Shap Smith, a shareholder and director of Dinse, Knapp, McAndrew, has concentrated in intellectual property, insurance coverage, and civil litigation. He is a member of the Torts and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association. Mr. Smith is listed in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He holds a BA from the University of Vermont and a JD from the Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington. Mr. Smith is actively involved with his fraternity Phi Delta Theta, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees. In addition to practicing law, Smith served as the Speaker of Vermont’s House of Representatives. Prior to being elected Speaker, he served on the Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources, Ways and Means and Joint Fiscal Committees. He is an avid cross country skier and lives in Morristown with his wife Melissa, son Eli and daughter Mia.

Thato Ratsebe

Thato works seamlessly across wide range of stakeholders, different nationalities, civil society, governments, and executives. She is a knowledgeable media and communications expert with skills in program coordination and implementation, relationship building and presentation. At AALV, she supervises team of interpreter services coordinators, assists with training recruited interpreters and prepare them to facilitate communication in different settings such as courts, hospitals and state departments and supervises program staff to ensure timely delivery and effective customer service delivery to clients.

Viki Zulkoski

Viki brings her long history of volunteering in support of children and young adults to Spectrum’s Board of Directors. After repatriating to her beloved Vermont after nearly 20 years in Asia, her desire to “pay it forward” brought her first to the Drop-In Center where she continues to make dinners for Burlington’s at risk teens. She and her husband Robert are the proud parents of three children and a newly certified therapy dog named Blue. An avid traveller, Viki is pursuing a degree in Film Studies from Arizona State University, filming assignments when fortunate enough from far-flung destinations worldwide.