STATE OF VERMONT

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

VERMONT STATE POLICE

PROMOTION ANNOUNCEMENT – CAPTAIN/CO-DIRECTOR, FAIR & IMPARTIAL POLICING

DATE:                          Sept. 20, 2021

FROM:                         Col. Matthew T.  Birmingham, director

PROMOTION:              Co-director – Fair & Impartial Policing and Community Affairs

Col. Matthew T. Birmingham, director of the Vermont State Police, is pleased to announce the following promotion:

Lt. Barbara Kessler, commander of the Royalton Field Station, to captain/ co-director, Fair & Impartial Policing and Community Affairs at Headquarters. Capt. Kessler joins co-director Dr. Etan Nasreddin-Longo in leadership of the office.

Capt. Kessler has served the people of Vermont for more than 24 years, graduating from the Vermont Police Academy in 1997 and beginning her career as a trooper at the Bradford Barracks. She worked for the DUI team for a short time in 1999 before transferring to Royalton Barracks. In 2000, she became the first woman to serve on the Vermont State Police Scuba Team. She left the Scuba Team in 2006 to join the newly formed Crash Reconstruction Team. She then was promoted to sergeant/patrol commander at the Royalton Barracks in 2008. She transferred to detective sergeant at the Royalton Barracks in 2013, investigating deaths and major crimes. In March 2015, she was promoted to lieutenant/assistant staff operations commander at Headquarters, then was transferred that June to the become director of the Office of Professional Development in Pittsford, which handles VSP recruiting, hiring and training. She returned to Headquarters as assistant staff operations commander in December 2017 before being transferred to the Royalton Barracks as its commander in 2018.

The co-directors of Fair & Impartial Policing and Community Affairs oversee the agency’s comprehensive program to ensure fair and impartial policing practices at all levels of the state police. These efforts include building relationships of trust with communities of color and other minority communities, diversifying the workforce, and improving cultural awareness. Among the objectives of the co-directors are administering initiatives related to recruitment and hiring; training; supervision and accountability of front-line supervisors; outreach to diverse communities; the collection of traffic-stop data; assessment of institutional practices; and reviews of state police policies.

The work of the co-directors is part of the Vermont State Police’s longstanding commitment to fair and impartial policing, which has accelerated since early 2020 with the Department of Public Safety’s proposed modernization strategy — work that continues today.

Capt. Kessler succeeds Capt. Julie Scribner, who is retiring at the end of this week. Capt. Kessler’s promotion was effective Aug. 29, 2021. She can be reached at Vermont State Police Headquarters in Waterbury at 802-244-8727, or by email at barbara.kessler@vermont.gov.

More information about Fair & Impartial Policing and Community Affairs is available at https://vsp.vermont.gov/communityaffairs.

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