Emily Beck is a recently 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 Non-profit 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, and is currently a member of the board of Friends of Acadia (since 2007) and the MDI Lands Committee of Maine Coast Heritage Trust (since 2009).
Tom Carr has lived in Harpswell year-round since he retired from running his family business in New Jersey several years ago. A lifelong outdoorsman and environmentalist, Tom has dedicated countless hours to trail and stewardship work for the Maine Island Trail Association, the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, and groups in New Jersey. He is a prolific nature photographer: every hike, paddle, backcountry ski trip, or ramble with his dogs has him on the lookout for photogenic flora and fauna. Since moving to Maine, he has shared his focus between land and sea and became a Registered Maine Sea Kayak Guide.
Charles Culbertson is a Microbial Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Augusta, Maine. He began his USGS career in 1978 with the National Research Program (NRP) in Menlo Park, CA and spent 21 years with the NRP working on a range of research topics, including microbial transformations of arsenic, selenium, mercury, chlorofluorocarbons and hydrocarbons. In 1999 he transferred to the USGS New England Water Science Center, Augusta office, where he works on fresh and estuarine water quality issues, as well as the occurrence and distribution of arsenic in drinking water supplies, throughout the state of Maine. In addition, he has worked with the USGS National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program in groundwater and surface water studies throughout New England and Virginia. Charles lives in Alna.
Maria Gallace (Vice President of the Board) Maria is Events and Charitable Giving Director for East Brown Cow Management, Inc., Portland. She holds advanced degrees in education and has worked professionally and as a volunteer in schools in the Boston area and Maine. She serves on the board of Maine Public Broadcasting Network. Maria lives in Cape Elizabeth.
Patricia Hager, NRCM Board President
Patricia Hager (President of the Board) Patty divides her time between Massachusetts and Mercer, Maine, having retired as Academic Dean of Concord Academy in 2007. There, her colleagues praised her as an insightful leader who could “whittle down unwieldy problems into manageable components...” Patty has another side: accomplished outdoorswoman who regularly takes long canoe excursions with her husband, daughters, and friends. She now lives along the Sandy River, where her family launched many paddles when she was growing up.
Marcia Harrington is a survey research director who specializes in evaluating program effectiveness for government, private, and non-profit organizations. Now at the Altarum Institute, Marcia assesses the effectiveness of food and nutrition programs. She is a co-founder of Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) Midcoast, which successfully got ordinances passed in Brunswick and Topsham that restrict polystyrene foam foodware and single-use bags. She loves all things outdoors, volleyball, and, now, pickleball! Marcia resides in Brunswick.
Karen Herold (Secretary of the Board) draws on her legal background and a lifetime of hiking, biking, and paddling to promote sound environmental policies and to protect Maine’s natural areas. She is on the boards of Maine Conservation Voters and Maine Conservation Alliance, and lives in Cumberland.
David Kallin is and environmental attorney at Drummond Woodsum in Portland. His practice includes land conservation, land use, natural resource law, school and municipal law, administrative law, and general litigation. A dedicated outdoorsman, David, his wife Emily, and their two young children did a 2,185-mile thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2014 and documented much of their journey online.
Dennis King was CEO of Maine Behavioral Healthcare. From 1999-2015 he served as the CEO of Spring Harbor Hospital in Westbrook. He was the founding CEO of The Acadia Hospital in northern Maine. He has an MPA from the University of Maine. He and his wife, Sandra, have a camp on Green Lake in Hancock County and have been NRCM members for more than 20 years.
Norton H. (Buzz) Lamb of New Gloucester, returns for his third stint on the NRCM board, after reaching his term limit last year. A former computer consultant, Buzz has served on numerous nonprofit boards over 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 degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
Bill Meserve (Treasurer of the Board) is a retired partner at the law firm of Ropes & Gray. He has a summer home on Cushing Island. He serves on the Bingham Foundation Advisory Committee, on the Appalachian Mountain Club board in Maine, and on other boards in New England and beyond. Bill has degrees from Tufts, Harvard, and the London School of Economics. He enjoyed a visit to the proposed National Park lands with NRCM staff and has been an advocate for NRCM’s funding proposals.
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 currently medical director of Seaport Community Health Center in Belfast. He lives with his wife Emily in Belfast, and they have 3 grown children who live in Colorado. He is currently on the boards of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and Physicians for Social Responsibility. He has degrees from Amherst College (BA), University of Vermont (MD) and University of North Carolina (PhD in epidemiology). 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.
Sally Oldham of Portland is a “mostly retired” architectural historian with extensive experience in the fields of historic preservation, scenic conservation, and transportation policy. She has served in a board or advisory role for Greater Portland Landmarks, Maine Preservation, and the Western Prom Neighborhood Association. Prior to moving to Maine in 2005 from the Washington, D.C. area, Sally served as president of Scenic America, a national non-profit environmental organization whose mission is to preserve and enhance the scenic character of America’s communities and countryside.
Kathryn Olmstead lives in Caribou. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana with a M.A. in English and Education from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She moved to Maine in 1974, served as regional representative for US Senator Bill Cohen, as a journalist for the Aroostook Republican and News in Caribou, as a correspondent for the Bangor Daily News, and taught journalism and photography part time at U Maine campuses in Fort Kent and Presque Isle. Kathryn served 25 years on the journalism faculty of the University of Maine in Orono, the last six as associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She co-founded Echoes magazine, a quarterly journal of rural culture, that she published from 1988 to 2017. She is a trustee of Maine Public (Broadcasting Network) and a member of the Maine Community Foundation Gannett Scholarship Committee.
Tony Owens, MD rejoins the board of directors after a mandatory one-year hiatus, during which he served as a member of NRCM’s National Advisory Board. During his tenure on the board, Tony served as vice president and then president. He also chaired NRCM search for a new executive director in 2010. He has been an effective advocate for Maine’s wildlife and natural resources, testifying at hearings, writing opinion pieces, and communicating with his elected representatives. Tony is an emergency room doctor at Maine Medical Center.
Russell B. Pierce, Jr. is an attorney with the law firm of Norman Hanson & DeTroy LLC in Portland. In 2006, Russ represented NRCM pro bono as we began work on Plum Creek’s application to the then-Land Use Regulation Commission. Since then, he has been an integral member of NRCM, representing us before regulatory bodies and in the courts and advising on a range of environmental issues. NRCM recognized Russ for his service and commitment in 2009, when we presented him with an Environmental Award. Most recently, Russ served on a three-member advisory committee to help the City of South Portland craft the Clear Skies Ordinance that will protect local residents and the environment from toxic air pollution and other impacts from loading tar sands crude oil onto tanker ships in Casco Bay. Russ is an avid birder, gardener, and hiker, and in his spare time writes and paints with a focus on Maine’s outdoors. Russ and his family live in Portland.
Liz Rettenmaier of Bangor moved to Maine fifteen years ago, and can't believe her luck. She moved from Portland to Bangor ten years ago, spends any winter weekend she can skiing, works from Boothbay Harbor for the summers, and enjoys exploring local hiking trails in the spring and fall. She currently sits on the Bangor Historic Preservation Commission and the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club board of directors. Liz has more than twenty years of policy development, facilitation, and communications experience focusing on environmental and natural resources management and land use. After college, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, and has been looking for opportunities to explore ever since.
Sarah Short is development director at the Mitchell Institute. A native of North Carolina, Sarah spent her summers on Mount Desert Island and always wanted to live in Maine full-time. Prior to moving to Maine, she worked in fundraising at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She participated in the Lift 360 nonprofit board member training last fall and chose NRCM as her mentoring organization. She is also active with NRCM Rising. She has a BA from Amherst College and an MBA from Yale University.
Edward Simmons has lived on Cousin’s Island in Yarmouth for the past 30 years. Ed is a graduate of Wesleyan University with a M.S. from the University of New Hampshire and a 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. For the past 7 years he has been a partner at Hightower Advisors in Portland. He is an active outdoors person and has volunteered his time with a variety of organizations including Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation and the Friends of Casco Bay and Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program. He is a summer resident of Rangeley.
Stephanie Smith is a graduate of Bucknell University with an M.S. in Early Childhood Education and post graduate work at Wheelock College specializing in The Hospitalized Child. She worked for many years as Director of the Child Life Department at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Stephanie then spent 15 years at the Matrix Parent Network & Resource Center in Novato, CA, serving as Director of Parent Services from 2008 to 2015. She summered in Maine as a child and now has moved full-time to her (deceased) parents’ home in Camden. She is passionate about conservation and sustainability issues and headed up the successful effort to pass a plastic/paper bag ordinance in Camden. She serves on the Camden Conservation Commission.
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 Maine more than a decade ago.
Bonnie Wood is Professor Emerita of Biology at the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI). While at UMPI, Bonnie focused on reforming science pedagogy and coined the term “lecture-free teaching” to describe a classroom style that engages students fully in their classroom experience. In retirement, Bonnie enjoys road cycling, cross-country skiing, swimming, and gardening. She resides in Brunswick.
