DAISY BERBECO grew up in a small fishing community off the road system in coastal Alaska, where she developed a deep appreciation for the importance of human connection in community wellness.

Daisy is an expert in mental health and substance use policy and practice improvement. She has worked with thought leaders around the country in trauma-informed care, peer recovery groups, health care management, leadership, and care integration.

After studying science and international development at Sussex, Daisy worked in global health and the nonprofit sector in various locations including India and Vanuatu. She then spent seven years at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing in Washington D.C., and two years on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona before finally settling in Winooski in 2019.

Prior to her election as a state representative in the Vermont General Assembly, Daisy served as the Senior Advisor for Mental Health Policy at the Vermont Department of Mental Health, the Secretary for the Finance & Policy Division for the National Association of Mental Health Program Directors, a member of Vermont's Substance Misuse Prevention and Oversight Council, and the Vermont Suicide Prevention Coalition. 

She is currently a Justice of the Peace, on the advisory board of the Hopi Foundation's peer-run Substance Use Prevention Center, a commissioner of the Vermont Judiciary Commission on Mental Health and the Courts, board member of NAMI Vermont and board Co- Chair for the Vermont Association of Mental Health and Addiction Recovery.

She has been a member of the Vermont Agency of Human Services Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Steering Committee, an Executive Board Member of Urban Institute’s Vermont Prison Reform and Innovation Network and the Conference of Chief Justices State Court Administrators Behavioral Health Committee Funding Workgroup.