Representative Kathleen James Contact information

KATHLEEN JAMES was first elected in 2018 and served on the Education Committee during her first two terms. She was named a Vermont delegate to the New England Board of Higher Education and in 2020 was appointed to the Select Committee on the Future of Public Higher Education in Vermont. In 2021, she served on a legislative task force that recommended equitable updates to Vermont’s education finance system.

During the 2023–2024 biennium, she’s serving as Assistant Majority Leader (Whip) and ranking member of the General and Housing Committee. She’s been selected for several bipartisan leadership programs, including the CSG Eastern Leadership Academy (2021), NCSL Emerging Leaders Academy (2021), SLLF Emerging Leaders Program (2022) and the CSG Toll Fellowship (2022).

In November 2019, she worked with volunteers to found the Southern Vermont Communications Union District (SoVT CUD), named one of 12 Vital Projects for the regional economy for its efforts to bring high-speed broadband to Bennington County’s underserved roads and regions. She was named a Vermont Conservation Voters “Rising Star” in 2019.

Born in Chicago and raised in Nebraska, Kathleen earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. She worked as a Capitol Hill reporter for Roll Call, a reporter-researcher for TIME, and a senior editor for Snow Country before settling in Manchester in 1996. She has since worked as director of admissions at Southern Vermont College, editor-in-chief of Vermont Magazine, and communications director and grantwriter at The BOMA Project. From 2010 to 2020, she worked for the nonprofit International Skiing History Association. She’s now the part-time communications director for the nonprofit Kenya Drylands Education Fund.

Kathleen has served on the boards of Manchester Elementary Middle School (MEMS), Zion Preschool, Northshire Community Foundation, Friends of MEMS and the Manchester School Fund. She is past chair of the Town of Manchester Democrats and a Class of 2018 graduate of Emerge Vermont.

Her wife, Alexandra Heintz, is the patient safety officer at Southwestern Vermont Health Care. Her adult children live and work in Chicago and New York City.