Representative Mari Cordes Contact information

MARI CORDES, RN. After attaining her B.S. in Natural Resource Management, Economics and Policy, Mari raised her daughters on their family farm, and in 1988 graduated Magna Cum Laude with a nursing degree from Vermont College. As an RN, she co-led a nationally recognized multi-year project to reduce central line bloodstream infections at UVM Medical Center, and has presented nationally on topics in medicine. She organized and led medical teams providing disaster relief after earthquake in Haiti, and provided medical relief in Greece to refugees fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. She also organized teams to respond to communities hit by Tropical Storm Irene. She lived/worked in Ghana, West Africa through the Vermont Global Village Project for 2 months, overseeing care of VT students and providing public health care to village members. Mari was a founding organizer and 2nd president of her union, Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, AFT local 5221. Prior to being elected representative, Mari worked on numerous state policy-making initiatives. She led a coalition that improved VT law by eliminating loopholes that had allowed health insurance companies to continue to discriminate based on gender identity. She was a member of coalitions that worked to pass Act 48, the Universal Health Care bill, and Paid Sick Days legislation. She also worked to strengthen oversight of the regulatory process required for transfer of hospital assets from public to private. Mari was appointed to serve on the first Green Mountain Care Board Advisory Council, the Consumer Health Care Council (Act 48), and the Future of Nursing Commission. She has also volunteered as past treasurer of 350 VT, past advisor to Rights and Democracy VT, and is a current volunteer at Open Door Clinic in Middlebury, VT, Mari is mother to two children, grandmother to two grandchildren, and lives with her spouse on their off-the-grid homestead in Lincoln.