When Sen. Becca Balint is sworn is as the Vermont Senate’s new president pro tem next month, she will shatter not one, but two glass ceilings over the state’s highest legislative body: Balint will become the first woman and the first openly gay pro tem in the state’s history. "I am a woman, I am an openly gay woman, I am a mom, I am a Vermonter," says Balint. "When I walk into that building [the Statehouse] though...the biggest weight that I feel is wanting to do the work that Vermonters have sent me there to do and make lives easier for people on the ground."

Balint is a former teacher who was elected to the Vermont State Senate in 2014, becoming its first openly gay member. Her Democratic Senate colleagues elected her majority leader two years later. Balint grew up in upstate New York and attended Smith College, then received a masters degree in education from Harvard and another masters in history from UMass Amherst. She and her wife have two children and live in Brattleboro. Balint is part of a first ever all-female leadership team that will run the Vermont Senate, which includes incoming Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, Majority Leader Alison Clarkson and Asst. Majority Leader Cheryl Hooker.