Welcome Galen Fastie!

Galen Fastie joined Athena Advocacy this month as a Clerk.  He will work on a variety of projects for Athena Advocacay and our clients.  Galen is a recent Middlebury College graduate.  We are very pleased to have him on the Athena Advocacy team.

Galen's former work experience includes working for Senator Patrick Leahy's office in Washington, D.C.  When asked about his time in D.C. he stated,

"Working in D.C. gave me great exposure to the process of lawmaking.  I am eager to work with the law directly now.  I want to learn how the law affects people directly and get hands-on experience."

Galen has also worked at Middlebury Colleges IT support desk and taught summer camp classed to gifted Vermont children.

Galen is a lifelong Vermonter, so it is especially important to him that he could come home and work within his community.  He expressed this passion eloquently:

"I want to join Athena so that I can help support a vulnerable group at home and in our neighboring communities.  Access to legal and other professionals services is not always classified as a social justice issue, but lack of access to these services can leave disadvantaged groups vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.  It is easy to think we can defer our responsibility to our community, to say - we'll do good work in five or ten years once we've found our professional footing.  I am so glad my first job out of college will allow me to work directly with vulnerable Vermonters.  We learn to be good citizens by being a good citizen, and it is not possible to separate that from our careers and professional lives, expecially in the field of law."

We are proud Galen decided to make Athena his first stop on what we are sure will be a remarkable career.  He will be part of our Court Specialist team and will help with our outreach efforts to ensure all Vermonters have access to legal and professional services when in need.

Welcome Galen!