Carina Driscoll
Board Member
Carina Driscoll is a forty-nine-year Vermont resident and business owner and community builder living in Burlington’s New North End. Driscoll is a parent of two with husband Blake Ewoldsen and is the current Owner/Manager of Butter Bar & Kitchen, which she founded in January of 2022 to offer a positive, community-oriented gathering place for her neighbors after COVID. It is now the neighborhood’s spot for good food and good times on North Avenue.
Driscoll co-founded her prior business, Vermont Woodworking School in 2007 with her husband, Blake, and furniture-making instructor, Bob Fletcher. They identified a need for a school in Vermont to ensure our heritage of fine wood furniture-making and craftsmanship would be carried into Vermont’s future. Driscoll partnered with an investor to develop a 15,000 square foot historic dairy barn turned modern woodworking facility with room for forty students. Driscoll transitioned ownership of the school to two program graduates and the school continues to operate today in Fairfax, Vermont.
Carina Driscoll has been involved in community development and as a public servant in several different capacities. Driscoll managed the Burlington Skatepark Taskforce as they launched their initial fundraising campaign and set up the first temporary skatepark in the South End on the dormant Champlain Parkway road, the precursor to the Burlington Skatepark on our downtown waterfront; Driscoll coordinated the 2000 statewide campaign to re-elect her father, Bernie Sanders to Congress, coordinating town hall meetings and spaghetti suppers all over the state of Vermont, and building national support for his grassroots campaign to represent working class families across the country; Driscoll also worked in entrepreneurship and small business development as the Resource and Referral Specialist for the Vermont Women's Business Center and the Women's Small Business Program. And prior to leaving to found the Vermont Woodworking School, Driscoll was the Communications Director of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility. Driscoll has also served on the Board of the Champlain Housing Trust and Spectrum Youth and Family Services.
In 1998, Driscoll was elected to the Burlington School Board. In 2000, with 76% of the vote, Carina was elected to the Vermont State Legislature to Burlington's sole single-seat district as the youngest woman elected to the legislature to date. During that session, due to redistricting, Carina's legislative seat was eliminated, and she chose to run for and won a seat on the Burlington City Council in 2002. Carina left her Council seat before her first child was born in 2004. As a School Board Member, a State Legislator, and a City Councilor, Carina prioritized representing the interests of the working-class families, youth, women, and seniors.
Driscoll was appointed to and served on the Transition Team of Mayor Weinberger after he was elected Mayor for the first time in 2012. After running her business for 5 years, Carina took a leave of absence from the Director position to serve as Assistant to the Mayor for Miro Weinberger for one year. As Assistant to the Mayor, Carina assisted the Mayor in managing Mayoral initiatives and ran the searches for his key appointments, including the CEDO Director, the Fletcher Free Library Director, the Parks and Recreation Director, and the CAO. After one year, Carina returned to run her business.
In 2013, with Dawn Moskowitz and Jessica Nordhaus, Carina co-founded the Greater Burlington Women's Forum, a volunteer-led series of free brown bag lunch discussions and events offering presentations and discussion time, and an opportunity to connect with other women in the community who share a common interest in promoting women to Leadership.
Driscoll continues to dedicate her time and entrepreneurial efforts to ensure the vibrancy and quality of our community.