Vermont-based progressive publisher Chelsea Green is opening an office in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company has hired Jennifer Nix as editor-at-large, focusing on books "relating to issues of sustainability and social justice." Nix, a former Variety staffer and Nation contributor, also has consulted for Chelsea Green. She helped discover George Lakoff, whose Don't Think of an Elephant is a bestseller. The move reflects an optimism that political publishing will remain strong over four more years, and follows the appointment of John Barstow as editor-in-chief last month.