Edward Simmons (Chair of the Board) Ed has lived on Cousin’s Island in Yarmouth for the past 30 years. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University with an M.S. from the University of New Hampshire and an Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Having begun his career as a teacher for Lawrenceville School in NJ and the American International School in Vienna, Austria, Ed became headmaster first at the Dunn School in California and later at Sun Valley School in Idaho. In 1987 he became a Senior Vice President at Merrill Lynch in Portland. He is a partner at Hightower Advisors in Portland. Ed is an active outdoorsperson who has volunteered his time with a variety of organizations, including Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation, Friends of Casco Bay, and the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program. He is a summer resident of Rangeley.
Ben Whalen (Vice Chair of the Board) Ben is a co-owner of Bumbleroot Organic Farm, an organic vegetable and flower farm on 89 acres of conserved land in Windham, Maine. After graduating from the University of Vermont in 2009, he has worked on farms across the country from a California cattle ranch to an organic farm in Colorado and has called Maine home since 2014. He believes in the transformative power of agriculture as a force for environmental protection and community building. Ben has been active in farmland conservation and advocating for young farmers at both the state and federal levels, including testifying in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee on behalf of organic farmers. Ben lives on the farm with his wife, Melissa, two daughters, Mackenzie and Lulu, and their dog, Bowie.
Norton H. (Buzz) Lamb, Jr. (Treasurer of the Board) Buzz lives in New Gloucester and is serving his third stint on the NRCM board. A former computer consultant, Buzz has served on numerous nonprofit boards over the years, but still finds time to work several hundred acres of woods and fields. He also shelters horses from an equine abuse center and raises heritage chickens, turkeys, and bees. He has a strong interest in the protection of the North Woods, transportation policy, and land use management. Buzz holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Amy Scott (Secretary of the Board) Amy lives with her husband and three children in Greenwood, Maine, and is a Program Manager at the Northern Forest Center. She brings expertise in facilitation and community engagement to her work, drawing on her experience as program and development staff with nonprofits including College of the Atlantic, Western Mountains Alliance, the Bethel Area Nonprofit Collaborative, and CORE. She worked as an associate with Good Group Decisions in Brunswick for several years, consulting with both nonprofit and business clients. Amy believes in the power of authentic relationships and the theory that “we are better together.”
Lucy Abbott of Bethel is a long-time Katahdin Circle member, retired from the U.S. Foreign Service. She grew up in Africa and has since worked all over the world. Her decades of experience covering energy and environment issues around the globe have convinced her that petroleum products and production, despite their unprecedented contributions to economic development, are the root of many of our current challenges, from corruption to consumerism to pollution and climate change. Lucy has served on the boards of the Bethel Rotary and Bethel Library Association. And on a lighter note: Since moving to Bethel, she has been a pioneer in developing gardening and home maintenance techniques for the weak, thrifty, and slothful.
Emily Beck is a retired attorney who moved from New York to Seal Cove in 2005. From 2006 until retiring in 2017 she was an owner and partner of Young Beck LLP, a general practice firm concentrating in Trusts and Estates Planning and Administration, Real Estate, Business and Nonprofit law, and Land Use and Conservation. From 2006 to 2014 she served on the board of directors of the Mount Desert Island Historical Society, for which she also edited the annual magazine, Chebacco. She recently concluded 14 years as a director of Friends of Acadia. Currently, she is a member of the board of directors of Maine Coast Heritage Trust and serves on its MDI Lands Committee. Emily holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, and a Certificate in Environmental Law from Pace University School of Law. She loves sailing, hiking, downhill and cross-country skiing, all things Italian, gardening, pottery-making, and the great state of Maine.
Sarah Cotton of Hope is passionate about keeping our water clean and clear and protecting natural spaces. After earning her B.A. in Environmental Studies at the College of St. Benedict (MN), Sarah volunteered with AmeriCorps in northern California working on water quality in coastal redwood forests. After enjoying California for a few years, she moved back to her home state of Minnesota and worked for a Soil and Water Conservation District where she coordinated its education and outreach efforts to help landowners take action to conserve natural resources. After visiting Maine several times to see family, she moved here with her husband in 2019. Sarah works in the Admissions Department at the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School where she is involved with their custom programs; she works with students and their parents to prepare them for their courses. She loves exploring the many places in Maine to hike, canoe, and sit by the ocean.
Sam Day grew up in the Kennebec River Valley, and after leaving for a few years, returned to build a home in Dresden with his wife, Anna, and their bird dog, Hank. He owns a small construction company, specializing in energy-efficient remodels and new construction. Sam has a long history of advocating for Maine’s environment with NRCM, Trout Unlimited, Say No to NECEC, and others. He served on the board of Maine Rivers prior to joining NRCM. When he’s not swinging a hammer or writing testimony, Sam can be found wading up a trout stream or following his dog through the grouse woods.
Anthony Eames serves as Managing Director of Responsible Investment Strategy for Calvert Research and Management, an affiliate of Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM). For 26 years, his career with Calvert has centered on providing education, insights, and portfolio positioning to investment professionals and clients about the benefits of sustainable and responsible investing. Anthony is also a director of US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment, the leading industry voice advancing sustainable investing across all asset classes, whose mission is to rapidly shift investment practices toward sustainability, focusing on long-term investment and the generation of positive social and environmental impacts. A graduate of Wittenberg University, he is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF), Accredited Asset Management Specialist (AAMS), and Global Financial Steward (GFS), and holds FINRA Series 7, 24, and 63 licenses. He lives in South Freeport with his wife, Kimberly, four children, two dogs, and three cats.
Maria Gallace of Cape Elizabeth is Director of Charitable Giving for East Brown Cow, a family real estate development firm in Portland. She holds an advanced degree in education and has worked professionally and as a volunteer in schools in the Boston area and Maine. She also serves on the board of Maine Public.
Francesca Galluccio-Steele of Portland is a retired elementary school principal with her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Throughout her career she also served as an educational researcher and a lobbyist for the National PTA and the National Education Association in Washington, DC. Prior to moving to Maine, she and her family lived in many parts of the country, enjoying the natural world each place offered. Francesca has served on the Maine Audubon board and has served as a family court mediator. Presently she is on the boards of Greater Portland Landmarks and Sea Change Yoga. She is an award-winning photographer, avid gardener, and inveterate world traveler. Preserving the natural world and working to limit climate change are her passions.
Marcia Harrington is a survey researcher specializing in evaluations of program effectiveness for government, private, and nonprofit organizations. Her passion, however, is advocacy and community organizing to protect the environment. In 2013, she co-founded Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) Midcoast, which coordinated with NRCM’s staff to successfully pass ordinances restricting polystyrene foam food ware and single-use plastic bags in Brunswick and Topsham; this measure is now statewide. In 2022, she helped lead a group to preserve a large parcel of varied habitats that drained to Maquoit Bay. She is an active member of the Citizens Climate Lobby and loves hiking, cross-country skiing, skating, biking, and kayaking in Maine’s one-of-a-kind outdoors.
Kevin Kobel has considerable experience in financial and organizational management. He recently retired from Accenture after a 30-year career. In the last 20 years, he was a Senior Executive in its Growth & Strategy group and collaborated with numerous senior Accenture leaders on growth strategy, market/competitive assessment, financial planning, and operational improvement. Prior to that, he consulted with Global 2000 Clients in the Telecommunications and High Technology industries. He is a graduate of Babson College with a B.S. in Business Administration and earned his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Kevin enjoys hiking, camping, biking, skiing, and boating. He is passionate about preserving and protecting the natural world in Maine. He and his wife Rebecca (who was raised in Maine) moved to Cape Elizabeth from New York City in 2000 to raise their twins Hannah and Christopher.
Al Manville has extensive experience working in the conservation and wildlife management arenas both as a 23-year federal employee (National Park Service Ranger Naturalist, USDA Botanical Research Assistant, and Branch Chief/Senior Wildlife Biologist for USFWS) and from his 19 years working for conservation organizations (Vice President at Defenders of Wildlife; Executive Director, Adirondack Mountain Club; among others). This work includes extensive fundraising and constituent engagement. Al continues to teach part-time as a Senior Lecturer/Adjunct Wildlife Professor at Johns Hopkins University, including in Acadia National Park. He holds a B.S. in Zoology from Allegheny College; an M.S. in Natural Resources and Wildlife Management from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point; and a Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology and Management from Michigan State University. He has testified on more than 40 occasions before Congress and related bodies. He has conducted numerous research efforts globally, is a widely published author, and has been a go-to for media. A Certified Wildlife Biologist, Al is also a private pilot, wildlife photographer, kayaker, and dog owner. He and his wife Sandy Scholar have co-owned a camp on Moosehead Lake for 31 years—his favorite wildlife retreat.
Diana McDowell has lived in Lamoine since 1978. Her family started vacationing in Maine in 1956 and moved here in 1965. She attended local schools and majored in art at the University of Maine. She retired from Friends of Acadia after 20 years where she worked as Director of Finance and Administration. She worked in similar capacities for other local nonprofits for 11 years, and some for-profits for 8 years. She especially enjoyed working for nonprofits due to their mission-driven activities. She is interested in keeping Maine’s air and water clean and wild lands available to the public. Other interests include hiking and swimming at Acadia National Park, traveling to see wild places, and art. She is currently a full-time artist.
Peter Millard of Belfast is a family physician and epidemiologist. He grew up in Windham and spent many years working in the Bangor area. He also worked for eight years in southern Africa (Zimbabwe and Mozambique) and is soon to retire from Seaport Community Health Center in Belfast. He lives with his wife Emily in Belfast. They have three children and three grandchildren. He is also on the boards of Physicians for Social Responsibility and Friends of Baxter State Park. He has degrees from Amherst College (BA), University of Vermont (MD), and University of North Carolina (Ph.D.). In another lifetime, Peter competed in the US Olympic Trials in the marathon and now enjoys biking, cross-country skiing, swimming, adventuring, and anything else that gets him outdoors.
Sadie Lloyd Mudge of Waldo brings professional experience in municipal planning, energy efficiency, nonprofit fundraising, and energy planning, and has been a leader in municipal energy planning (particularly solar development) in Maine. She holds a master’s degree in Planning from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Maine, where she conducted research on state demographics and climate change planning. Sadie grew up in Waldo County and currently serves on the board of directors for the Solar Energy Association of Maine as well as on multiple committees for Coastal Mountains Land Trust. She was a founding member of the NRCM Rising Leadership Team. In her free time, Sadie runs a small business and is an avid adventurer.
Kathryn Olmstead of Caribou is a former journalism faculty member and associate dean at the University of Maine in Orono. She edited Echoes magazine, a quarterly journal of rural culture, from 1988 to 2017, and the anthology Stories of Aroostook: The Best of Echoes Magazine in 2020. She was editor of the weekly newspaper in Caribou, regional representative for US Senator Bill Cohen, and columnist for the Bangor Daily News. A Michigan native and graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin, she moved to Maine in 1974. She is the author of Flight to Freedom: WWII Through the Eyes of a Child and True North: Finding the Essence of Aroostook. She moved to Maine in the 1970s seeking a more sustainable lifestyle in Aroostook County where she now resides in a restored log farmhouse overlooking the Aroostook River in Caribou.
Liz Rettenmaier moved to Maine in 2002 after calling the DC area home for most of her life. She is the Vice President of Council Oak, a small woman-owned public policy consulting firm, with more than 25 years of experience working as a senior facilitator supporting water resources and natural resources policy and program development for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of the Interior, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. With master’s degrees in Natural Resources Policy and Urban Planning from University of Michigan, Liz moved to Maine to work for the State Planning Office in 2002, until she returned to the life of a work-from-home consultant. Liz lives in Bangor with her husband and two teenagers and can be found in Boothbay Harbor for the summers, exploring local hiking trails in the spring and fall, and probably at Sugarloaf most weekends in the winter — enjoying the splendor of Maine from one end of Route 27 to the other. After college, Liz was a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, and has been looking for opportunities to explore ever since.
David O. Schylling is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. He began his career at Mellon Bank in Philadelphia and returned to New England to partner with his brother to create one of the country’s leading specialty toy brands, Schylling Toys. With customers in more than 22 countries and manufacturing on 4 continents, David pushed for sustainable production throughout their global supply chain. Toys were sourced and manufactured using recycled metal, plastic, and farmed wood. Limited packaging was also a priority. As an avid environmentalist and early adopter of clean energy, David has had solar panels in operation at his property since 2006. David and his wife are now living on the Pemaquid Peninsula in Midcoast Maine where they enjoy the outdoor activities Maine has to offer. He is a lifetime sailor whose summer cruises take him to many special places along the coast. He also enjoys hiking, biking, and skiing and appreciates the need to protect and preserve this special place we call home.
Stephanie Smith of Camden has lived full time in Maine since 2016 and started spending summers here in the 1960s. She has served on the Camden Conservation Commission where she headed up the local ban on plastic bags and polystyrene. She currently is active with the Restore the Megunticook River group in Camden, the Megunticook Watershed Association Environmental Committee, and is a founding board member of the MidCoast Regional Housing Trust. She is a second-generation supporter of Coastal Mountains Land Trust and was active with the Marin Agricultural Land Trust in California. In the past she served on the Knox County Homeless Coalition board along with numerous nonprofit boards in the San Francisco area. She is a graduate of Bucknell University and Wheelock Graduate School and holds a bachelor’s and master's degree in Education, as well as post graduate work specializing in hospitalized children. Her career included close to 20 years as the Director of the Child Life Department at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and 18 as the Director of Parent Services at Matrix Parent Network, a federally funded parent training and information center serving 4 counties north of San Francisco.
Anne Winchester grew up in Brunswick. Like many Mainers, Annie was introduced to the outdoors at an early age. She has camped in the Maine woods, climbed Katahdin (17 times!), and paddled innumerable lakes. After a career spent as a commercial lender in Boston, Annie and her husband, Jock, returned home to Pemaquid, Maine, more than a decade ago.
