About

In Vermont - a state proud of its progressive values - Green Mountain Justice is in the intersections where neighbors face overlapping marginalization: poverty intersecting with mental health challenges, being BIPOC compounding housing discrimination, disability meeting rural isolation.

Too many people are being encouraged by their tribes to ask their neighbors, “are you like us?” instead of “what’s it like to be you?” We’re witnessing classism calcifying into caste behavior - we, the privileged, maintain our attachment to comfort while outsourcing care for our disenfranchised neighbors to a broken, dehumanizing system of inadequate charity and transactional services.

GMJ works in the gaps where existing services fall short, dismantling the constructions that separate “us” from “them.” We collaborate with partners who share our uncompromising commitment to universal justice and dignity.

Through our interdependent, relational, neighbor-centric approach, we integrate support from trustworthy service providers, advocacy groups, and our volunteer ‘Neighbor Care Neighbors’ to help everyone:

Find purpose and meaning in difficult times
Build healthful relationships while releasing harmful attachments
Connect more deeply through whatever transcends and unites us - whether we call it God, Love, human dignity, nature, or ancestral wisdom

This is our community justice ministry.

Our Foundation

Founded on Unitarian Universalist values, we believe beloved community happens through the transformative power of Love. We work with anyone who shares these core values:

Interdependence — We honor the interdependent web of all existence. We acknowledge our place in the web of life, and we work to repair harm and damaged relationships.

Pluralism — We celebrate that we are all sacred beings. We embrace our differences and commonalities with Love and curiosity.

Justice — We work together to dismantle racism and all forms of systemic oppression. We collaborate to manifest a just world that works for everyone.

Transformation — We are open to growth and deeper relationship to that which transcends, calling us into deeper connection with each other and the sacred.

Generosity — We cultivate a spirit of gratitude, sharing our resources and our presence, acknowledging our interdependence and mutuality.

Equity — We respect the inherently equal worthiness of every person, and we work to call out and dismantle structures and actions that subordinate the needs of the marginalized to those of the privileged.

Our Founder

Tom Morgan

Tom and his family settled in Vermont after a long career in national security. He likes to say he traded a career in national security to focus on spiritual security. Tom has lived and served all around the world, spending most of his time designing, operating, and repairing highly complex systems. Tom has served at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, the Charter House Coalition low-barrier homeless shelter, and as Community Minister intern at the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society in Middlebury. He is a partially disabled combat veteran.

Our Board

Jason Duquette-Hoffman, President

Jason is the Assistant Director of the Privilege & Poverty (P&P) | Democracy Initiatives in Middlebury College’s Center for Community Engagement. Jason’s work is centered on supporting the P&P academic cluster and service learning experiences. Jason also leads the CCE’s democracy and civic engagement initiatives. Growing up on a mountainside in the Mad River Valley, Jason continues to nurture his lifelong love of Vermont and its people, communities and landscape. An avid outdoors enthusiast, Jason can be found roaming the mountains, forest trails, rivers and lakes of the state with his family and his derpy dog Mango.

Brock Leach, Secretary

Rev. Dr. Brock Leach became a Unitarian Universalist minister after several decades leading innovation teams and organizational change efforts at PepsiCo, including serving as CEO of Frito-Lay North America and Tropicana. His 14 years of ministry have been focused on formulating and leading change initiatives for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) and the Unitarian Universalist Association. Projects have included the development and launch of the UU College of Social Justice; Commit2Respond, a denomination-wide climate justice campaign; and creating a Human Rights impact assessment system. Most recently, he helped to establish the UU Religious Innovators Network and the UUA’s New Communities Fund. Brock works with the UUA in deepening its support of innovators and teaches a leadership formation course at Meadville Lombard Theological School. He brings nonprofit governance experience as a board member for a range of nonprofits working in human rights, education, and health.

Gordon Gibson, Treasurer

Dr. Gordon Gibson is a psychologist whose professional background has been in community and organizational interventions and trauma-informed behavioral healthcare evidence-based treatments. He was a founding member of Hayes-Gibson International developing and managing affordable and supportive housing programs for individuals with disabilities— physical, mental health, substance use, HIV/AIDS, and developmental disabilities, and older adults, as well as for unhoused community members. Gordon has deep roots in justice work, having marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. William Sloan Coffin, and mediated with Rev. Ralph Abernathy.