As Speaker of the House, Gaye Symington has a record of bringing people together to tackle tough issues and get things done. Running for office was never in her plans, but when she saw her neighbors being torn apart by the way schools were funded, she decided to get involved at the state level to make a difference. As a Representative (Jericho, Underhill and Bolton) and then as Minority Leader, Gaye worked in a nonpartisan way to make progress on critical issues like fair school funding, access to healthcare, energy efficiency and growing our rural economy.
In 2003, realizing that the Legislature was not moving in a direction that reflected Vermont's values, Gaye worked tirelessly to recruit new Democratic candidates to run for the House of Representatives. Her colleagues elected her unanimously to be Speaker in 2005 and 2007.
As Speaker, Gaye has earned a reputation as a thoughtful, inclusive, hard-working leader with a command of policy details. Even though she wasn't required to do so, she appointed members of the Republican and Progressive parties to chair committees in the House.
Before entering politics, Gaye was a senior fiscal manager for non-profits, started a whole grain bakery, and earned an MBA from Cornell University. She has a B.A. in art with a concentration in environmental studies from Williams College. Always curious to learn more, she has studied land use law, the New England food system, energy efficiency and solar design. Her work in the non-profit sector involved implementing accounting systems and sound fiscal management practices to strengthen the organizations for which she worked.
After moving to Jericho, Vermont in 1988, Gaye jumped into working on various projects in town. Over the next six years she co-founded the Community Center, volunteered for library and school activities, served on the board of the Vermont Community Loan Fund and the Vermont Education and Health Finance Agency, and was a founding member of the Mount Mansfield Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. She also served state-wide organizations as a member of the board of the Vermont Community Loan Fund and the Vermont Education and Health Finance Agency.
During her tenure as Speaker, Gaye presided over the passage of a comprehensive health care bill that has been cited as a national model. Under Symington's leadership the Vermont House crafted legislation to bring broadband and telecommunications services to all corners of Vermont, to provide more funding and breadth to workforce development, to protect Vermont's groundwater, and to proactively address climate change and Vermont's energy future.
When the Legislature is not in session, Gaye can be found on the sidelines of AAU basketball games, Chittenden East Youth Football, and Mount Mansfield High School soccer and tennis matches, or on the Nordic trails at Bolton Valley Resort. She and her family still reside in Jericho.
