Representative Tristan Toleno Contact information

TRISTAN TOLENO grew up in Marlboro and graduated from Brattleboro Union High School. He was a philosophy and religion major at Wesleyan University, but then chose to follow a passion for food and be a chef. In one busy weekend, he graduated from New England Culinary Institute and married Susie Webster, also from Brattleboro. They moved to New York City, where he developed his cooking skills and Susie earned her Master of Divinity degree. Following their urban adventure they moved back to Brattleboro, where for the ten years of its operation, Toleno was the managing partner and chef of Riverview Cafe. Until 2019, he continued to work in food service as a caterer and wood-fired pizza chef and supporting the American Legion Post 5 banquet facility.

In 2011, Toleno completed his MBA at Marlboro College. A decade of business experience and activism in many arenas -notably the local food movement and kids’ health - drew him to study sustainability and system change. Tristan returned to Marlboro College to teach courses on complex systems to MBA and Non-Profit Management students; he eventually served as a program director in a shared leadership team and as interim Dean of the Graduate School. Since 2019, Tristan has worked with Global Round Table Leadership, a certified B Corp dedicated to guiding teams and organizations to make the transformational shift to shared leadership and sharing power. Susie Webster-Toleno serves as the minister to the Congregational Church of Westminster West and as a hospice chaplain.