SUE RACANELLI, PRESIDENT, lwvofvt@gmail.com
Sue has been a member of the League for a decade and is committed to issues of voting rights and elections. She strongly believes there is no better organization than the League of Women Voters to receive reliable, accurate, nonpartisan information.
Prior to moving to the brave little state of Vermont, Sue’s career focused on the non-profit sector. As Manager of the Nonprofit Resource Center at The San Diego Foundation, she provided critical information and support to nonprofits including trainings on incorporation, governance, fundraising, and sustainability and was responsible for both internal and external communications as Director of Public Relations at The Arc of San Diego.
Sue enjoys research, reading, the company of her dog, and entertainment from her flock of hens!
MARGUERITE ADELMAN, VICE PRESIDENT, madel51353@gmail.com
Chair, Non-U.S. Citizen Voting Committee
Marguerite, a Winooski resident, is a retired administrator who has worked in education, government, and non-profits in Illinois, New York, and Vermont. She was the founding Executive Director of a peer- run mental health agency in New York: National Alliance on Mental Illness of Champlain Valley.
As an experienced grant writer, communications director, and administrator, she has won many state and national awards for the programs that she developed. Besides being a member of the League, she is also a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Amnesty International of Champlain Valley, and the VT Military Poisons Coalition.
Marguerite is an avid reader and loves to paint, travel, and garden in her spare time.
RACHEL ONUF, SECRETARY
Rachel is Director of the Vermont Historical Records Program based at the Vermont State Archives & Records Administration, a division of the Office of Secretary of State. She provides technical assistance to Vermonters who preserve and provide access to historical records and is an active member of the Collections Care and Conservation Alliance (CCCA) and Vermont Arts & Culture Disaster and Resilience Network (VACDaRN). Previously, she was a member of the Vermont Suffrage Centennial Alliance, along with several members of LWVVT.
Prior to moving to Vermont in 2015, Rachel served as Roving Archivist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Director of Archives at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. She taught as an adjunct for Simmons College School of Library and Information Science and worked as an independent consultant for many years. Rachel received a BA from Swarthmore College, an MA in Library and Information Science from the University of Michigan, and an MA in American History from the University of Virginia.
Rachel lives on a sidehill farm near the village of East Orange with her partner, flock of sheep, and Glory the donkey.
MAISIE WOOD, TREASURER
Lobbyist and civil rights activist, educator, historian and author. Recipient of state and national appointments and commendations; Kentucky Colonel; written into Maryland Women’s History in 1987; the John Adams of the American with Disabilities Act.
PELIN KOHN, pkohn@montpelier-vt.org
Dr. Pelin Kohn is a leadership educator and administrator at Norwich University. As an experienced leader with over 20 years’ experience working with corporate and future leaders, she is passionate about leadership. She worked as an executive coach before becoming a professor at the college, designing and implementing leadership development and advancement workshops for corporations. Dr. Kohn has worked with global CEOs, middle management, and novice managers to improve their leadership skills.
As an elected official on the Montpelier City Council, Pelin contributes to creating a more diverse community by raising the voices of all Montpelier residents.
SUSAN KUECKER
Susan was born and raised on an Iowa farm and is descended from Vermonters who moved to Iowa in the 1850s to find better farmland. She is a graduate of Iowa State University (Carrie Chapman Catt’s alma mater), where she received a degree in early childhood education. After graduating, she taught children and adults with intellectual disabilities for eight years before switching to the museum field due to her love of history.
Susan has moved around the country following her husband’s engineering career living in four states in the last dozen years. She has long had an interest in League activities as an aunt was a member of Wisconsin’s state board of directors. Susan became a member of the League following the 2016 election while living in Massachusetts and contacted the Northeast Kingdom chapter after moving to Vermont. She has been a resident of Vermont for the last six years and currently volunteers one day a week at the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury. She is an active member of the Friends of the Cobleigh Library in Lyndonville.
ANNE MIXER, amixer@comcast.net
Chair, Youth Voter Registration
Anne is from the Midwest community of Muskegon Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan receiving undergraduate degrees in Education, Special Education and an MSW in Policy and Planning. Anne’s work in mental health settings, juvenile detention and residential treatment programs and a decades-long career as the director of a day treatment program for children and adolescents with
behavioral and emotional difficulties all reinforced the importance of understanding laws and policies that impact every aspect of community life.
After retiring to Vermont in 2012, Anne joined the League after attending a lecture series at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library on the Constitution. She currently is Coordinator of the League’s Youth Voter Project, which has the goal of accessing and registering eligible 17 to 24-year-old Vermont voters in public schools, colleges, and community settings to reach marginalized populations.
MADELINE MOTTA, madelinemmotta@aol.com
Chair, Inmate Voter Registration
Madeline is a Vermont Superior Court Assistant Judge and corporate and government ethics compliance consultant, lawyer, and academic. Dr. Motta completed her JSD Doctorate in law degree from McGill University, Faculty of Law with a focus on fiduciary law, ethics and bio-medical regulatory law. She holds a JD degree from the University of Massachusetts School of Law with extensive experience in anti-trust in health care and MSW clinical social work from McGill University.
Madeline was instrumental in establishing the Vermont State Ethics Commission and was the first League appointee to the newly formed Commission and was subsequently elected Chair of the State Ethics Commission.
Madeline established the LWVVT Inmate Voter Registration Initiative through a national grant to register inmates to vote in Vermont correctional facilities. In 2020, collaborating with the Vermont Department of Corrections, she created a professional inmate instructional video to assist inmates to register to vote given that the Covid pandemic had closed correctional facilities to volunteers. She was also responsible for the translation of LWV voter education materials into Somali, Nepalese and Chinese to reach out to new citizens. Madeline co-chaired the LWVVT Education Committee during the 2020 elections.
Dr. Madeline Motta was appointed in 2022 to the Vermont Opioid Advisory Settlement Committee. In 2019, she was awarded the LWVVT June Carmichael Award for Outstanding Service to the League.
JOANNE NECRASON, joanne.necrason@gmail.com
After a two year absence from the Champlain Valley League to care for her husband, Joanne is looking forward to again promoting our mission through membership on our Board. As a daughter of a naturalized American citizen, she has particularly appreciated representing us at Naturalization Ceremonies.
Originally from Rochester, N.Y. she joined the LWV in Cooperstown, N.Y. in 1971 and credits the League with expanding her knowledge of citizen participation in government.
Joanne’s 32 years in education in four states included teaching grades 7-12, school district and building administration, and educating future teachers at both SUNY Oneonta and University at Albany. She earned two Master’s degrees in both Reading Education and Educational Administration and Leadership from the University at Albany.
Retiring with her husband to Grand Isle County VT in 2002 she found a new community of active citizens. Joanne served on the Boards of the Champlain Islands Parent Child Center, Island Arts, C.I.D.E.R. (Champlain Islanders Developing Essential Resources), and was instrumental in the creation of the Vermont Shakespeare Festival.
She and her husband were politically active at both the local and State level during their years in the Champlain Islands. Now residing in South Burlington, she is happy to have supportive children and grandchildren living in Vermont.
SONIA SCHUYLER, sonjapeter@comcast.net
Chair, Elections
Sonja joined the Champlain Valley League in 1970 when a unit formed in Richmond, VT, becoming active on the local Natural Resources committee, and later, the state Natural Resources committee. She joined the State Board as Natural Resource Chair in 1979. In addition, she has been newsletter editor, local and state President, and state Treasurer. The 1980’s were a very busy time for action on clean air and clean water and she lobbied at the state and national level for clean air and clean water laws. She was the League representative to the Vermont Clean Air Coalition, which worked hard on passage of national legislation to control acid rain and the long range transport of air pollution and also served on National LWV committees to re-write the clean water and natural resource positions.
Her League experience has taught her many things that have been helpful in her career. She became comfortable with public speaking, learned how to write a press release, learned how to produce a TV show, and, most importantly, learned how to move a meeting to consensus.
Sonja has a MS in Zoology, with emphasis on ecology, from the University of Vermont and worked as an environmental and energy consultant. She is now retired. Married to Peter Schuyler, they have two children and three grandchildren as well as two former exchange students whose families have become part of their extended family.
