Board of Directors

Maria Gallace (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.

Edward Simmons (Vice President 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 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.  He is a partner at Hightower Advisors in Portland.  Ed is an active outdoors person who has volunteered his time with a variety of organizations including Maine Adaptive Sports and Recreation, Friends of Casco Bay, and Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program.  He is a summer resident of Rangeley.

Bill Meserve (Treasurer of the Board) Bill 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.

Sally Oldham (Secretary of the Board) Sally 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 nonprofit environmental organization whose mission is to preserve and enhance the scenic character of America’s communities and countryside.

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.

Michael Catania of Portland recently retired from the position of executive director of Duke Farms (Hillsborough Township, New Jersey), which serves as a model of environmental stewardship and sustainability. Previously, he was the founder, president, and general counsel of Conservation Resources Inc. (CRI), a nonprofit conservation group that provided financial and technical assistance to the New Jersey conservation community. Michael graduated from Rutgers University and Rutgers School of Law and began his career with the nonpartisan New Jersey Legislative Services Agency, where he drafted many of the state's landmark environmental laws. He spent a decade as a VP with The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey, and has been Deputy Commissioner of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, among other positions. He currently serves as Chair of the New Jersey Natural Lands Trust and as Trustee and Environment Committee Chair of the Victoria Foundation.

Seana Cullinan of Portland studied art in college and worked as a jewelry designer in New York City and later in Peterborough, NH. After a horticulture internship at Stonecrop Gardens in Cold Spring, NY, she ran her own landscape and garden design business in NH before enrolling in The Conway School, receiving her Master’s Degree in Sustainable Landscape Planning and Design. Seana moved to Maine in 2013 and opened Larkspur Design, a design/build landscape company that combines all of her favorite things by focusing on boosting biodiversity and creating connectivity for wildlife by re-introducing native plants into developed landscapes. She imagines that each will become part of a growing network that will weave its way through Southern Maine and beyond, providing food, cover, and connectivity for the insects, birds, and animals of New England.

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 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 for youth as well as the environment. In 2013, she co-founded Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) Midcoast, which successfully achieved ordinances restricting polystyrene foam foodware and single-use plastic bags in Brunswick and Topsham. She is an active member of the Citizens Climate Lobby and loves hiking, skiing, skating, biking, and kayaking in Maine’s fabulous outdoors.

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.

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.

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 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 rejoined 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.

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.

Amy Scott lives with her husband and three children in Greenwood, Maine, and is the director of CORE, a community development organization located in Bethel that serves rural communities throughout the state. 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, Northern Forest Center, Western Mountains Alliance, and the Bethel Area Nonprofit Collaborative, CORE’s predecessor. 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.” She is a Maine Network Partners Fellow and actively applies network theory to her work with communities.

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 recently participated in the Lift 360 nonprofit board member training 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.

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.

Ben Whalen of Windham hails from Massachusetts. He first gained an interest in agriculture working on a cattle ranch in California. He has since worked on farms in Colorado, Vermont, Massachusetts, and now Maine. He prefers his guitar turned up to 11 and loves the scent of lavender. His spirit animal is a Kodiak Bear. Roar. Ben is co-owner with his wife and another couple of the eight-acre Bumbleroot Organic Farm in Windham. On the farm, Ben does everything from seeding greens to weeding and harvesting, and he handles all of the fence-building and accounting for Bumbleroot. On his days off you can find him building a house for his wife Melissa and his dog Bowie, or playing video games. He is involved with MOFGA, Maine Farmland Trust, and the Young Farmer’s Coalition.

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, coining the term “lecture-free teaching” and publishing a book with that title. Her B.A. in Biology is from Wellesley College and her Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior is from the Cornell University Medical College. After living all over the United States, she and her family settled in Maine in 1979. She currently resides in Brunswick where she enjoys anything out-of-doors.