Tristan Toleno is an American politician, chef, and businessman serving as a member of the

Vermont House of Representatives The Vermont House of Representatives is the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The House comprises 150 members, with each member representing around 4,100 citizens. Representatives ar ...

from the Windham-2-3 district.

Early life and education

A native of

Marlboro, Vermont Marlboro is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,722 at the 2020 census. The town is home to both the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum and Marlboro College, which hosts the Marlboro Music School and Festi ...

, Toleno graduated from

Brattleboro Union High School Brattleboro Union High School (BUHS) is a public school in Vermont that serves the towns of Brattleboro, Vernon, Guilford, Dummerston, and Putney. The Brattleboro Union High School is connected with the middle school, Brattleboro Area Middle Scho ...

. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and religious studies at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

, Toleno earned an Associate's degree in culinary arts from the

New England Culinary Institute The New England Culinary Institute (NECI) was a private for-profit culinary school in Montpelier, Vermont. It was founded on June 15, 1980, by Fran Voigt and John Dranow. The first NECI class, conducted by Chef Michel LeBorgne, had seven st ...

and decided to pursue a culinary career.

Career

After graduating from culinary school, Toleno moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and worked as a chef. Toleno and his wife, Susie, eventually returned to Marlboro, where Toleno earned his

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Marlboro College Marlboro College was a private college in Marlboro, Vermont. Founded in 1946, it remained intentionally small, operating as a self-governing community with students following self-designed degree plans culminating in a thesis. In 1998 the colle ...

and began managing restaurants. Toleno later established two catering companies. Toleno was elected to the

in 2012. He also serves as Assistant Majority Leader of the House. Toleno has also worked as a professor of management at

. He served as the interim director of the Marlboro College Graduate School.

References

Living people Democratic Party members of the Vermont House of Representatives Wesleyan University alumni Marlboro College alumni People from Marlboro, Vermont 21st-century American politicians Year of birth missing (living people) {{Vermont-politician-stub