Previous Program & Speakers

Zoe Sahloul is a passionate advocate for inclusion and social integration of Arabs and other Muslims living in Maine. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Zoe immigrated to Canada in 1992 to escape the civil war and to find peace and safety. She is the founder and president of the New England Arab American Organization (NEAAO), a group whose mission is to help ease the integration of Arab immigrants into American society and bridge the gaps between cultures.

In addition to serving as a board member for several organizations, Zoe currently partners with a variety of groups including 'Through These Doors,' Westbrook Police Department, Westbrook Community Center, 'Portland Empowered,' and Westbrook School Department to support marginalized Arab communities. Zoe is also focused on creating avenues for new Arab immigrants to engage in their communities by establishing collaborative connections to create more opportunities in the workforce. She is a strong and passionate advocate for women’s rights and justice, children’s rights and protection, education, and a leading voice for immigrant social integration and racial equity in Maine. Zoe also served as the founding board chair of the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition.

Zoe will be focusing her talk at Portland Rotary on the work of NEAOO and their efforts to support New Mainers.
 

Geoff Iacuessa was promoted to President & General Manager of the Portland Sea Dogs on September 10, 2018, after serving eight years as the Executive Vice President & General Manager. The 2019 season will be Geoff’s 20th season with the organization. He began his career with the team as an intern in 2001 and was hired as Director of Group Sales prior to the 2002 season. In 2004 Geoff became the Director of Sales and Promotions and after the 2006 season, Geoff was promoted to Assistant General Manager for Sales and Promotions.

Geoff was honored as the 2015 Eastern League Executive of the Year. In 2011 he was named to the Portland Press Herald’s “40 under 40” list, recognizing 40 local business leaders under the age of 40. Geoff is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a degree in sport management. In addition to his work with the Sea Dogs, Geoff serves on the PeoplesChoice Credit Union Board of Directors, the Maine Children’s Cancer Program Board of Directors, and the Portland Community Chamber’s Economic Development & City Affairs Committee.

Geoff lives in South Portland with his wife, Kristie and son, Hudson.
 

Scott Dunn is a fourth-generation maple syrup maker, as well as the Vice President of the Maine Maple Producers Association. Growing up in Vermont his family collected sap from trees and boiled it over an open fire to make maple syrup. Today he owns and operates Dunn Family Maple in Buxton, Maine, with his family collecting sap from about 1500 trees. Maple syrup is produced using modern technology, including reverse osmosis and a high-efficiency evaporator. Hosting several maple events each spring, Scott is able to spread his love of maple to the public by offering tours that explain the entire process and samples of their different maple products.

Scott’s presentation will cover his family history of maple production, sap collection and how they process maple sap into syrup with modern technology. The challenges associated with todays maple market and where Maine ranks in maple syrup production compared to other producing states.

For more information, go to: dunnfamilymaple.com
 

Our speaker/program this week will be Carolyn Nishon, Executive Director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra (PSO). Carolyn joined the PSO staff in August 2008, after participating in the year-long Orchestra Management Fellowship Program through the League of American Orchestras, where she served as the Orchestra Manager of the Aspen Music Festival Concert Orchestra and worked with symphonies in North Carolina, Spokane, and Baltimore. Carolyn received her bachelor's degree in English and Psychology from the University of Michigan, where she served as the Executive Director of the Michigan Pops Orchestra.

Bob MacKenzie is a 30-year veteran of law enforcement, currently serving as Chief of Police with the Kennebunk Police Department. Chief MacKenzie began his law enforcement career in 1988 with them and rose through the ranks, being promoted to Chief of Police in 2008.

Chief MacKenzie is a graduate of the 243rd FBI National Academy in Quantico, VA, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice through Husson University. He is the producer of the “Point of No Return,” a 30-minute movie which depicts the consequences of underage drinking and has been shown in 34 states. Chief MacKenzie is a Past-President of the Kennebunk Rotary Club, in which he has served for the past eleven years and is the Chair of the Rotary District 7780 Recovery Initiative.

The Chief will be making a return visit to the Portland Club to report on a broader effort with clubs across Southern Maine to tackle opioid addiction and offer ideas on how Rotary can be part of the solution.
 

Kay Aikin graduated from Pennsylvania State University with one of the first sustainability engineering degrees in the country. She has spent her career as an energy engineer, architectural designer, and business development executive. Kay’s expertise involves reconciling diverse needs requirements, engineering feasibility, and budgetary limitations to ensure that every project is both cost-effective and sustainable. She has spent the last 4 years with her Introspective Systems co-founder Dr. Caryl Johnson studying the application of complex system design in relation to the integration of Distributed Energy Resources into the electrical grid. Kay’s engineering focus has been on electrical grid and Iot applications for xGraph as an expansion of her experience in sustainable technologies. She helped design the xGraph computing platform as the first Autonomic Computing System used to distribute intelligence to the edge of the Internet of Things. 

Before Introspective Systems she had 25 years as an owner and executive in the construction industry, running design/build construction companies, managing multi-million dollar sales forces, and consulting on business and market development issues. She has also given back to the industry by working as a Regional Vice President of the Pennsylvania Home Builders Association, helping to shape responses to industry and community concerns. As a sales manager for Shulte Homes, a large nation-wide modular homebuilder, she helped spearhead the move from small starter homes to larger custom homes.
 

The Deering High School Choral musical family will be presenting a holiday program for us this Friday. At Deering, the young people are committed to a high-quality choral program.

The vocal ensemble performs repertoire that is both stylistically varied and of high musical quality. Students are aware that being a member of the Deering Chorus is different from being in any other class. During rehearsals, students are asked to concentrate on greater refinement of previously acquired choral skills. These skills include diction, articulation, dynamics, octavo reading and producing a beautiful tone. Emphasis on part singing and sight reading are also part of this group. A great deal of time is spent on vocal and musical techniques, as well as performance standards. 

Many of the students who become involved in the choral program remain for their entire high school careers, primarily because being in a choral group is like being part of an extended family, as there is a special bond that is created among people who make music together. 

A select group of students from DHS's chorus, under the direction of Dr. Peter Stickney, will be performing selections that celebrate the diversity of the holiday season. In between songs, we’ll provide some narrative that relates to the context of each selection. Please be sure to join us!

Kathleen Summers-Grice is the founder of Eaton River Strategies, a full-service public affairs and consulting company offering clients strategic guidance on corporate and political initiatives since 2006. Ms. Summers has over 30 years of experiences in politics and public affairs in New England.

As founder of Eaton River Strategies, Ms. Summers-Grice has developed and implemented strategic grassroots campaigns, earned media initiatives and grasstops engagement in every New England state, for clients such as Verizon, Pfizer, AARP, Delta Airlines, Ford Motor Company, and the United States Chamber of Commerce.  

Nationally, she has also helped clients such as AARP develop cutting edge engagement programs. Her work in designing and implementing AARP’s 2016 voter engagement campaign, “Take a Stand”, made her a finalist for Campaigns and Elections Reed Award for the best public affairs campaign that year.

Before founding Eaton River Strategies, Ms. Summers served as the New England Representative for the United States Department of Labor. Sworn into this position in 2003, she acted as Secretary Chao’s Regional Representative, serving as the primary liaison between the Department of Labor and elected officials, stakeholder groups, and state labor officials. She has also been at the center of Republican politics as the Deputy Political Director for Fred Thompson’s 2008 Presidential campaign, and a consultant on numerous gubernatorial, congressional and senatorial campaigns.  

In 2005 she was tapped by the International Republican Institute to provide political training to elected officials in Morocco as part of their Democracy in Training Program. In 2012 she was recognized by Campaigns and Elections as one of their top 500 including being one of the top political operatives in New England.

Kathleen graduated from Providence College with a bachelor’s degree in American History in 1987 and with a master’s degree in American History in 1989. She is from Upton, Massachusetts and now lives in Cumberland, Maine with her husband Roy.
 

L. Sandy Maisel is the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, past chair of the Department of Government (for 20 years), and founding director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College, where he has taught since 1971. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books (several in multiple editions), including most recently Trumping Ethical Norms: Teachers, Preachers, Pollsters and the Media Respond to Donald Trump and American Political Parties and Elections: A Very Short Introduction and Evaluating Campaign Quality: Can the Electoral Process Be Improved? 

From Obscurity to Oblivion: Running in the Congressional Primary chronicled Maisel’s unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for Congress from Maine. His published articles have appeared in many political science journals and anthologies, including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and the Legislative Studies Quarterly.

Maisel has served as president of the New England Political Science Association, twice a member of the Council of the American Political Science Association, and chair of the APSA’s research sections that focus on Political Organizations and Parties and on Legislative Studies. He has twice been awarded Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer grants, has been a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington and at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and has served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Melbourne and Monash University in Australia, at Harvard University, and at Stanford University. 

Maisel and his wife, Patrice Franko, who is the Grossman Professor of Economics, Professor of Global Studies and current director of the Goldfarb Center at Colby, live in Rome, ME.

Our Rotary District Governor John LoBosco joined the Rotary Club of South Portland-Cape Elizabeth, Maine, in 2005 and served as its President in 2010-11. He served on the club’s board for six years and as an Assistant Governor in the Portland area from 2013-2016. 

He enjoys working with clubs on long-term planning. His favorite Rotary event every year is the Rotary Christmas tree and wreath sale at Mill Creek Park in South Portland. 

John is an attorney at Unum Life Insurance Company of America in Portland. He is a graduate of Cornell University and Georgetown University Law Center. 

John resides in Cape Elizabeth with his wife, Sue (an adoption social worker). 
 

Tess Chakkalakal [pronounced “Chah-KAHL-ickle”] is the Peter M. Small Associate Professor of Africana Studies and English at Bowdoin College. She has published widely on nineteenth-century African American and American literature. She is the author of Novel Bondage: Slavery, Marriage, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century America (Illinois, 2011) which earned the Robert K. Martin Prize for best book on American literature and “a must read” title by Choice.  

Her book, Novel Bondage, takes apart the interconnections between marriage, slavery, and freedom, as conveyed in nineteenth-century novels and short stories by black and white authors. She examines how these early novels established literary conventions for describing the domestic lives of American slaves and their search to fulfill their aspirations for personal and civic freedom. Her work also focuses on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book that was written in the shadow of Bowdoin College. Prof. Chakkalakal’s writings challenge readers to reconsider the “marital work” of nineteenth-century fiction and its historical role in shaping our understanding of the literary and political meaning of marriage.

She is co-editor of Jim Crow, Literature, and the Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs (Georgia, 2013). Professor Chakkalakal has earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Duke University, Emory University, and the Mellon Foundation. Before coming to Bowdoin in 2008, Professor Chakkalakal taught at Williams College and Bowling Green State University.
 

After suffering severe injuries in a motor vehicle accident in 1990, both Catherine and her husband Glenn fell victims to modern medicines’ pharmaceutical trap. She and her husband began their journey with medical cannabis in 2002 to help Glenn eliminate about 9 different drugs he had been prescribed over the years for his injuries. Glenn became an official patient in 2009 under the care of Dr. Sulak. Catherine became his caregiver. Seeing the amazing results that cannabis provided him and their ability to produce such a great medicine, together in 2010 they started HomeGrown HealthCare, Apothecary and Learning Center now located in Winthrop, Maine. As caregivers, they are dedicated to sharing their knowledge with folks suffering from a variety of ailments, including Chronic Pain, Cancer, PTSD and Addiction Recovery. They have been featured in the documentary The Science vs The Stigma in 2011 and on the Kimball & Keyser Report (A Caregivers Path) 7/31/13, Weediquette / S2 EP6 (Reefer Rehab) 9/23/16, TODAY’s “Undercovered” series (Can marijuana help wean addicts off heroin and other opiates?) 5/18/17, and most recently in Season 2 of The Sacred Plant (Healing Secrets Examined) 7/18.

In 2011 Catherine joined the board of Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine (MMCM) Trade Association as the Director of Education and in 2015, she became the President of the Board, helping to shape legislation and communication with the overseeing State Departments and Municipalities. She volunteers many hours in the community and at the State House testifying for the medical cannabis program. With the help of many others, they created the largest East Coast Medical Industry Trade Show that has run for the last 7 years. She also sits on the Board of Advisers for New England Cannabis Network (NECANN). Catherine has been educating others with classes and workshops through a variety of industry shows, town hall meetings, fairs and the University of Maine at Augusta (Klahr Center) with MMCM and now at their Learning Center in Winthrop Maine. Enabling people to learn the laws, patient/caregiver rights, business rules, cultivation and preparation of cannabis for better health and natural wellness. Catherine most recently was instrumental in the crafting and recent passing of LD 1539 and LD 238. These two bills will help improve Maine’s Medical Cannabis program, creating a new legitimacy for the businesses within the program.

Michael Dubyak is Chairman of WEX Inc., a leading provider of corporate payment solutions. From 1986 to 2013, Dubyak held executive management positions, including the last 15 years as President and CEO.  His career at WEX spanned the Company’s nine years of venture capital ownership, five subsequent ownership changes and ultimately its Initial Public Offering in 2005. Dubyak has chronicled the story of the founding of WEX, initially known as Wright Express, in his book, The Road to Wexcellence, published by Amazon Digital.

Dubyak’s leadership and vision was instrumental in forming the strategy, infrastructure, and operating philosophy under which the Company continues to excel today. He guided a technological transformation of WEX, developed new market strategies and instituted aggressive growth and market leadership goals. Under Dubyak’s direction, WEX became a publicly traded organization in 2005 with an approximate market cap of $700 million. WEX’s current market cap is $8.13 billion.

Dubyak currently co-chairs FocusMaine, an economic initiative with a mission to create significant job growth across Maine. He has also chaired Educate Maine, a K-16-focused education attainment organization, was Chairman of the University of Southern Maine Board of Visitors, served on the board of the United Way of Greater Portland, the Executive Board of the Maine Chamber of Governor’s Council on Competitiveness and the Economy, the New England Advisory Council of the Boston Federal Reserve, the Center for Grieving Children Board of Directors and co-chaired its Capital Campaign.

Mike has a B.A. from Baldwin Wallace University.  An avid world traveler, hiker, biker and kayaker, Mike and his wife, Denise, have navigated the Colorado River in a wooden dory, hiked 7 days to Machu Pichu, navigated the Antarctica and the Arctic on an ice cutter, and hiked over 75 miles in New Zealand, Patagonia, Ireland, and Bhutan.

Our program this Friday will focus on Maine’s response to the #MeToo movement, the founding of #Maine Can Do, an online resource for employers, managers, investors, board members and workers who have suffered or witnessed workplace sexual harassment. Our speakers will be the founders of this groundbreaking program.

Betsy Peters (above photo) is a business consultant who also launched the first website in the ski industry, conducted a live webcast from the top of K2, developed a program that got 400,000 women in menopause off of pharmaceuticals, and was recognized at the Obama White House for her web-based educational program. Her experience includes serving as an entrepreneur in residence at Maine Technology Institute. She holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and lives in Freeport where she has been a member of the school board.

Melanie Sachs (photo left) is the Executive Director at SARSSM: Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine.  She is a licensed clinical social worker and her experience includes working as the former Executive Director of Freeport Community Services. A cum laude graduate of Bates, she holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. She lives in Freeport where she is Vice-Chair of the Freeport Town Council and a member of Freeport Rotary Club. In her spare time, she serves as a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader, and an Odyssey of the Mind coach.

Stephanie Brock (photo left), is the General Manager of Red Thread Portland, a company that provides furniture, technology, and architectural systems for innovative workplaces. She also teaches Heated Vinyasa Yoga.  She’s from the other Portland where she graduated from high school and studied at Portland State University. Stephanie loves running, craft beers, yoga and spending time with her daughter. She lives in South Portland.

Laura Freid has pursued a career in higher education and the arts, and made this the focus of her work in journalism and film as well.

As CEO and Executive Director of Silkroad for the past decade, Freid initiated the organization’s ongoing multi-year affiliation with Harvard University, established a five-year partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design, and created the first joint venture with the Harvard Business School.

During her tenure, Silkroad spearheaded a yearlong, citywide celebration of the arts in Chicago; focused on the arts and passion-driven learning in work with middle schools, educators and teaching artists across America; and brought together artists and business leaders to influence the emerging field of cultural entrepreneurship. She also served as executive producer of the internationally-acclaimed feature documentary The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.

Prior to joining Silkroad, Freid was executive vice president for public affairs and university relations at Brown University. A magazine journalist and editor, she served as publisher of Harvard magazine and publisher and editor of Bostonia magazine. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and holds an M.B.A. from Boston University, as well as an Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
 

As the Sam L. Cohen Refugee and Human Rights Clinical Professor, Anna Welch oversees Maine Law’s Refugee and Human Rights Clinic and teaches the Immigration Law seminar. She serves as a clinical professor and supervising attorney, as a classroom teacher, and as an advisor to students who are interested in immigration law and human rights.

Professor Welch previously served as a Fellow at Stanford Law School, where she taught and supervised students within Stanford’s Immigrants’ Rights Clinic.

A Maine native, Professor Welch graduated with honors and highest distinction from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she studied journalism and Spanish. She then went to the Washington College of Law at American University. She graduated summa cum laude, order of the coif, and then went to Peru for a year, beginning in August of 2005, as a Fulbright Scholar. In Lima, Professor Welch worked with a non-profit organization to establish a public water management system in Chosica, one of the shantytowns known in the city as “pueblos jovenes.”

Professor Welch practiced at the law firm Verrill Dana in Portland, Maine, from 2006 to 2010. She was head of the firm’s Immigration & Global Migration Group. She also served as a volunteer lawyer for the non-profit Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) in Portland. Professor Welch was instrumental in helping to expand ILAP’s roster of pro bono lawyers for asylum cases. In 2008 she earned ILAP’s “Attorney of the Year” honor. During her time at Verrill Dana, Professor Welch taught immigration law at Maine Law, as an adjunct professor. She also helped supervise student attorneys at the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic. In 2010, Professor Welch spent time in Nairobi, Kenya, where she served as a refugee protection officer at RefugePoint (formerly Mapendo International).
 

Maine Life takes viewers on an exploration of Maine, the state’s most interesting places, off-the-beaten-path discoveries, introduces us to fascinating locals and the stories hardworking Maine people tell.   Host Erin Ovalle highlights all the things that make Maine a special place to live and work.  

Erin is a former morning news anchor on Portland TV stations WGME and WMTW.  She grew up vacationing in Maine and like so many, fell in love with the state. Erin worked in broadcasting in New Hampshire, Illinois, Michigan and Florida, before returning back to be the morning anchor here in Maine.  When not traveling the state, Erin enjoys volunteering in her community, spending time outside with her pup, Baxter, and checking out the many delicious restaurants Maine has to offer.

“I spent a lot of my career covering the news of the day behind the desk but missing the personal stories and people actually shaping Maine and our economy,” says Erin. “Maine Life is not only taking on personal and authentic stories but we’re also engaging with new and existing audiences both on air and online, giving viewers the chance to engage on their terms.”

Now in its third season, Maine Life can be seen Sunday mornings at 11:30am on Channel 6 in Portland and Channel 2 in Bangor.  Past episodes are available online at mainelifemedia.com .

There’s more to the Maine Life and Erin Ovalle story – how she got the idea and what are some of the most interesting episodes to date – as we will hear this Friday.
 

Ford Reiche’s passion for Maine and its history stems from his family’s many generations in the state. A self-made historian, he has acquired and restored several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, including houses, a railroad station, and most notably, Halfway

Rock Lighthouse—a complex, hands-on, extensively researched undertaking. Maine Preservation Association recognized the project with its 2016 Preservation Award, and the American Lighthouse Foundation presented Reiche its 2017 “Keeper of the Light” award honoring his “contribution to the preservation of America’s lighthouses and their rich tradition.” 

Perched on a barren ledge of two acres at the mouth of Casco Bay, Halfway Rock Light Station is a remote, wave-swept beacon, nearly inaccessible and totally exposed to the ravages of Mother Nature. The lighthouse’s 76-foot-tall granite tower and the attached two-story wood structure built of huge frame timbers present a striking image on the water.

Halfway Rock was a fully staffed lighthouse of the federal government from 1871 until 1976, when it was automated and essentially abandoned. The lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, but its deteriorating condition soon earned it recognition on lists of endangered and “doomsday” lighthouses. In 2014, it was deemed surplus federal property and auctioned. Ford Reiche, the winning bidder, acquired the light in 2015.

Reiche has devoted significant energy and resources to preserving Halfway Rock Light Station in what Lighthouse Digest has described as “a miracle restoration in Casco Bay, Maine.”

A former attorney and entrepreneur, Reiche’s background includes founding Safe Handling, a firm that reduced the cost of moving certain goods by eliminating their water so they could be shipped in a dry state to their point of use. He was named a business leader of the year in 2008 by Mainebiz.

A graduate of the University of Maine, Orono, with a JD from the University of Maine School of Law, Ford lives in Freeport with his “quite patient” wife, Karen.
 

In the winter of 1966 a New England family moved from Bermuda to Castine, from green grass to deep snow and cold wind off Penobscot Bay.  One member of the family arrived to become Commandant of Midshipmen.  Another memberwas an 8th-grade boy whose life was changed forevermore by that move.

Bill Brennan, who left Castine in the 1970s for college and a career, returned in 2010 to become the fourteenth president of the Academy (which includes a commission as Rear Admiral in the U.S. Merchant Marine Service). 

Dr. Brennan holds a B.S. in Marine Biology from the University of Maine, an M.A. in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maine.  

His professional career includes senior legislative staff for then-Congressman John R. (Jock) McKernan, Jr.; commissioner of Marine Resources for Governor McKernan; consulting for private and public sector clients in natural resource, energy and environmental areas; administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and, Assistant U.S. Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. 

Maine Maritime Academy is a state college founded in 1941 for the purpose of perpetuating Maine’s seafaring tradition and contributing to the nation’s wellbeing. Maine Maritime has since grown to over 1,000 students, become co-educational, expanded its academic programs, and is widely recognized as one of the best public colleges in America and one of best-value educations available.  Its enviable job placement rate is over 90% within 90 days of graduation.  

What is the future vision for Maine Maritime?  How will it get there?  Learn more about these questions and others this Friday.
 

We are having a unique and unprecedented program this Friday, March 23, at the Holiday Inn.  Five exceptional Maine organizations that serve Maine Veterans will be presenting their work and asking for your support. 

Two of these organizations will be receiving a $1000 gift from the Portland Rotary Club and the members will decide which two.  Each organization will be represented by one of our Rotary members who will speak on their behalf.  When all five presentations are complete each member will receive a ballot to vote for the    two groups they want to see receive one of the gifts.

The five groups nominated by our members this year that will be represented at the meeting are:

     • The Betsy Ann Ross House of Hope, nominated by Roxane Cole

     • Healing Through Horses, nominated by Annie Messinger

     • K9’s On The Front Line, nominated by Mike Robinson

     • Honor Flight Maine, nominated by Bob Traill

     • Veterans Count/Easterseals Military and Veterans Services, nominated by Joe Reagan.

Please make every effort to attend this meeting and have your vote count.
 

Thanks to the 20 of you who responded to last week’s request for reactions to the Board’s suggestions for Program, Song, and Political content of the Club meetings.  Several of you expressed the desire to discuss these matters at the Friday, February 23rd meeting before reaching final decisions.  We will put this at the top of our agenda for that meeting.  All comments are welcome, but I will try to report on the consensus of the 60 messages I received in answer to our two requests for comment.   After discussion on each item, we can take an informal consensus of the Club.  If there is a close division of opinion, we may decide to put the issue to a formal vote at a later meeting.

Before the meeting I would welcome any motions that you would like to be considered by the Club.  That should speed our consideration of matters and sharpen our discussion of them.  E-message those motions to me.

Here are the Provisions of our Club Constitution and By-Laws that relate to the topics.  Amendments of By-Laws require a two-thirds vote.

CONSTITUTION

Article 13 Section 1 “Proper Subjects.  The merits of any public question involving the general welfare of the community, the nation, and the world are of concern to the members of this club and shall be proper subjects of fair and informed study and discussion at a club meeting for the enlightenment of its members in forming their individual opinions.  However, this club shall not express an opinion on any pending controversial public measure.

Section 2. No Endorsements.  “This club shall not endorse or recommend any candidate for public office and shall not discuss at any club meeting the merits or demerits of any such candidate.”

Section 3(a)   Non-Political “Resolutions and Opinions.  This club shall neither adopt nor circulate resolutions or opinions, and shall not take action dealing with world affairs or international policies of a political nature.”

BY-LAWS
Article XII  Duties of the Committees

(d) Invocation Committee  “This committee provides the invocation or opening blessing at each weekly meeting of the Club.

(f) Music Committee  “This committee is responsible for providing music, a piano player and a song leader each week.  Details and schedule will be given to the Club Administrative Coordinator and/or newsletter editor for inclusion in the Club newsletter (Windjammer).  This committee will plan musical programs throughout the year.”

Let me know if you have any questions.  I hope that we are coming to closure on these important issues.

Susan Axelrod is the Managing Editor of Old Port and Ageless Maine magazines and a writer for both Maine Magazine and Maine Home + Design, all imprints of the Maine Media Collective. She also blogs with her husband Ted, a photographer, at Spoon & Shutter.

Susan’s background includes editor positions at the Portland Press Herald, and the North Jersey Media Group where she was Food Editor of the Bergen Herald. She is also the founding editor of the blog Eater Maine, which has been absorbed by Vox Media. Susan describes her work as telling the “stories that highlight the astonishing diversity of this city and state.”

A frequent traveler around the state, she enjoys meeting fascinating people and learning about everything from sustainable seafood to design thinking. Before becoming a writer and editor she was a chef and owner of a busy restaurant and catering business. 

Susan lives in an 1840 farmhouse at Rainbow Farm in Yarmouth where she and her husband write about food, living in Maine, and travel.
 

Bob MacKenzie is a 29-year veteran of law enforcement, currently serving as Chief of Police with the Kennebunk Police Department. Chief MacKenzie began his law enforcement career in 1988 with them and rose through the ranks, being promoted to Chief of Police in 2008.

Chief MacKenzie is a graduate of the 243rd FBI National Academy in Quantico, VA, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice through Husson University. Chief MacKenzie is the producer of the “Point of No Return,” a 30-minute movie which depicts the consequences of underage drinking and has been shown in 34 states. Chief MacKenzie is a Past-President of the Kennebunk Rotary Club in which he has served for the past ten years and is the Chair of the Rotary District 7780 Recovery Initiative.
 

We are fortunate to have Peter Van Allen as our speaker this week. Since becoming Editor of Mainebiz in April 2014, Peter has racked up thousands of miles traveling around Maine, visiting scores of businesses, and talking with hundreds of business people in all corners of our large, diverse state. What stories he could tell about those places, people and the things they are doing. This Friday we will hear about the view of Maine from a business editor’s desk.

Peter has spent the past 29 years writing and editing newspapers and magazines. Prior to joining Mainebiz, he was with the Philadelphia Business Journal for 15 years. Previous to that, he was both editor and reporter for such publications as Vanguard, American Banker, the (Gary, Ind.) Post Tribune, the (Camden, NJ) Courier Post, as well as writing for the NewYork Times and Philadelphia Inquirer. An avid waterman who has gotten to know many of the Casco Bay islands by sea kayak and standup paddle board – he also likes to sail, surf and row – it is no surprise that he has also contributed to Rower’s Digest, Rowing News, and Liquid Salt. 

Peter graduated in 1988 from Goddard College with a BA in non-fiction writing. He and his family reside in Yarmouth. Peter said of the decade before moving to Maine in 2014: “My family and I have been lucky enough to spend our vacations in Midcoast Maine. My younger daughter summed up our love of Maine this way, ‘It was one week of vacation and 51 weeks of waiting.’” After experiencing record snowstorms and memorably frigid temperatures in recent years, we expect the Van Allen family understands how winters imbue us with hardiness while spending many weeks waiting for summer weather.
 

The current General Manager for Spectra at the Cross Insurance Arena, formerly known as the Cumberland County Civic Center, is Matt Herpich. Matt was born in upstate New York, and graduated from Canandaigua Academy, then went on to receive his AS in Sports and Tourism Management from FLCC before graduating with his BS in Sports and Entertainment Management from USC. 

Throughout Matt’s career he has held many different roles with Spectra (formerly known as Global Spectrum) a management company headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. He began as an intern during his junior year at South Carolina, in the marketing department at the Colonial Life Arena, which lead to full-time employment during his final year at USC as the box office coordinator for the same venue.  Upon completion of his degree, Matt moved to Aiken, SC, a satellite University in the USC system, where he began as the events and Operations Manager and finished as the General Manager. Matt moved on to manage the Wolstein Center, a 14,000-seat venue and 10,000-sq. foot conference center at Cleveland State University. Matt was one of four Spectra managers presented to the Board of Trustees, of the CCRC during the transition in early 2015 – ultimately chosen to run the newly-renovated Portland venue – he relocated in March of 2015.

Spectra by Comcast Spectacor is a food, venue and sponsorship management company that has over 400 accounts in the US and Canada. In the northeast region, Spectra manages the CIC in Bangor, the LMA and Tsongas Center in Lowell, MA, the Mullins Center at UMASS Amherst, as well as venues in CT, RI, NJ, NY and PA. Spectra was brought in to manage the Cross Insurance Arena, when the Trustees and the County decided that after renovation, it was time to go from an in-house operation to an operation with regional, national and international resources. Spectra’s original term of the contract was three years, plus an additional two-year option for a term date of March 8th, 2020. However, with the introduction/purchase of a hockey team by Comcast Spectacor, the Spectra agreement has been extended to March 9th, 2025, with additional years at the option of both parties.

Matt and his wife, Rachel, (a New Jersey native) have settled on Pine Street in Portland’s west end. They enjoy the wonderful food scene here, finding many “go to” spots within walking distance of the arena and their home.  
 

Jennifer Hutchins became the Executive Director of the Maine Association of Nonprofits (MANP) in July 2016, where she leads a member network of more than 900 charitable nonprofits and 150 private partners. 

Prior to joining MANP, Jennifer was Executive Director of Creative Portland, where she led the City of Portland’s efforts to strengthen the creative economy. She is a co-author on the seminal 2004 report published by the University of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Service on Maine’s Creative Economy conducted for Governor Jon Baldacci. She was the Director of Communications and External Affairs at the USM Muskie School for nine years and Marketing Director at Portland Stage Company from 1995-2000. Her career got its start at organizations in Washington D.C. and abroad before returning to Maine and deciding it was the best place for her to make a difference. 

She holds a master’s degree in public policy and management from the USM Muskie School and lives in Portland with her husband and two daughters.
 

James D. Herbert, Ph.D., serves as the University of New England’s sixth president. He assumed the position on July 1, 2017, immediately following the 11-year tenure of Danielle N. Ripich.

Dr. Herbert arrived at UNE via Drexel University in Philadelphia, where he had served most recently as executive vice provost and dean of the Graduate College. Before that, he had held a variety of administrative positions at Drexel, including interim provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, head of the Department of Psychology, interim head of the Department of Biology, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, director of the Anxiety Treatment and Research Program, director of the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology, and president of the University Faculty.

Dr. Herbert’s educational background is in psychology; he holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include cognitive behavior therapy — including newer mindfulness and psychological acceptance-based models of behavior therapy, anxiety, mood, and eating disorders, remote Internet-based treatment, and the promotion of evidence-based practice in mental health.

He is known internationally for his publications on quackery and pseudoscience in mental health, having authored more than 170 scholarly works on these and other topics. His 2011 book “Acceptance and Mindfulness in Cognitive Behavior Therapy” has been endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who called it “a most beneficial and powerful method for ensuring a healthy mind and heart.” Dr. Herbert is a fellow of the Institute for Science in Medicine, the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health.
 

Justin Lamontagne, CCIM, joined NAI The Dunham Group in 2011 and was named Partner in 2016. He has worked in commercial real estate since 2006 and has successfully brokered transactions in all sectors of commercial real estate, specializing in industrial, office and investment properties. 

In 2013, he was named the Maine Commercial Association Realtor of the Year. In 2015 he earned the prestigious CCIM accreditation, an international membership comprised of the world’s top commercial real estate professionals. In 2017 he earned the Society of Industrial & Office Realtor’s (SIOR) designation becoming only the 5th broker in the state of Maine to carry both CCIM & SIOR honors. Annually, Justin is the author of NAI The Dunham Group’s Greater Portland Industrial Market Survey, a comprehensive study and inventory of the local industrial market.

Today, Justin is active in several Greater Portland philanthropic and professional organizations. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Maine Commercial Association of Realtors as President-Elect, the Rotary Club of Portland, Town & Country Federal Credit Union and the Portland Community Chamber of Commerce. Justin is also an active member of MEREDA and the CCIM New England chapter. 

He has a degree from the University of Rochester (BA ‘02) and an advanced degree from Boston University (MS ‘04).

In his free time, Justin enjoys staying active and healthy. He is an avid water skier, snow skier, hiker, rock climber and plays organized softball. He lives in Portland with his wife, Marycelina, their children Katherine and William and their dog, Fenway.
 

Erik Jorgensen, a member of Portland Rotary, also sits in the Maine Legislature representing Maine House District 41, which includes Deering Center and some of the Portland neighborhoods near USM. Elected to the Legislature in 2012, he has served on the Joint Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs, the legislative body responsible for developing and overseeing the state budget. He has been particularly focused on working to make sure that urban issues, especially Portland’s unique needs, are not forgotten in Augusta.

Erik’s professional career includes more than 25 years working in Maine educational and cultural organizations. He served as director of the Pejepscot Historical Society in Brunswick for ten years, and from 1999-2012 worked for the Maine Humanities Council where he served as the Executive Director for five and a half of those. When the Legislature is not in session, he works on various consulting assignments.

Erik earned his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, and an MPA from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he received the Henry Brooks Public Service Fellowship.

He has served on a number of boards and community groups, at the local, state-wide and national levels, including over 20 years as an active member of Rotary. He has served on the board of directors of the Maine Center for Economic Policy; the board of Good Will-Hinckley, and two charitable foundations. A former chair of the MPBN Community Advisory Board, his activities outside of Maine has included the board of the Project on Civic Reflection, a Chicago-based program that uses literature and history to help provide insight into civic and community issues; and, the Board of Directors of the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

Erik has lived in Greater Portland since the 1980’s, and been a Deering neighborhood resident since 2000, along with his wife, Tamara Risser, and their son, Will, a student in the Portland Public schools.
 

Bob Fowler became the Executive Director of the Milestone Foundation in 2014.

The opioid epidemic in Maine is worsening, with daily deaths being reported in the newspapers. Fortunately, the Milestone Foundation is at the forefront of the battle with critical programs for those at risk at their Portland and Old Orchard sites. Milestone operates Maine’s only specialized substance use disorder emergency shelter. Their Homeless Outreach and Mobile Engagement (HOME) Team is who the police departments call first, as profiled by the Portland Press Herald (pressherald.com/media/gallery/milestone-foundation-home-team/).

The mission of the Milestone Foundation is to provide the best quality of services to empower individuals with substance use and behavioral health disorders to attain stability, dignity, recovery and an enhanced quality of life. The organization offers emergency shelter, medically managed detoxification, and long-term treatment in Portland and Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Their detox program is staffed by nurses and CNAs 24/7 and is overseen by a physician.

Bob has over 25 years of experience in behavioral health treatment and administration. He earned his MSW degree from the University at Albany. He earned a Master’s Degree in Public Policy and Administration, with a concentration in Financial Management, from the Muskie School at the University of Southern Maine, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Vermont. Bob’s professional experience includes various clinical positions, directing a mobile crisis team, and leading a number of nonprofit behavioral health programs throughout the northeast. He served on the Treatment Task Force of the Maine Opiate Collaborative, and was appointed to the Maine legislature’s Task Force to Address the Opiate Crisis in the State. Bob believes that Milestone serves a critical need in the community by providing compassionate, competent care to individuals experiencing homelessness and addiction, and he feels honored to work with Milestone’s staff and clients.

This discussion is not to be missed. The opioid crisis affects every Portland neighborhood and resident, and Bob is perhaps Maine’s leading authority on what is happening, what the future holds, and what we can do to help.

In his spare time, Bob is a guitar player, a master gardener, a beekeeper, and an adjunct professor at USM. 
 

Pam Leo is an early literacy activist, the author of Connection Parenting, the forthcoming children’s book, “Please Read To Me,” and writes the ‘Recipes For Reading’ column in the local Parent and Family paper.

Pam has worked with parents and children for over forty years in the roles of family child care provider, parent educator, childbirth educator, and birth doula. Pam has worked with parents in the workplace, teen parents programs, parents in rehab, and parents in prison. Pam’s enduring love of children’s books, her passion for literacy, and her commitment to empowering parents are combined in her new role as the founder of the Book Fairy Pantry Project.

Pam Leo is a member of Kindred’s International Editorial Advisory Board and a member of the board of directors for Kindred’s parent nonprofit, Families for Conscious Living.

The Book Fairy Pantry Project is a grassroots early literacy project whose mission is: “No child with no books.” Upon discovering the unbelievable statistic that 2/3 of the 15.5 million children living in poverty in the U.S. do not have even one book to call their own, Pam felt compelled to do something about it. 

The number one indicator that children will arrive at school ready to learn to read is growing up with books in their homes and being read to daily from birth. Pam’s focus is providing a pipeline of books for families living in challenged conditions.

To learn more about this project, go to their website or click on the following link: bookfairypantryproject.com
 

Longtime MEMIC Group executive Michael Bourque will take the helm of the Portland-based workers’ compensation insurance provider when its current chief executive retires later this year. Bourque, a former newspaper reporter from Maine who has worked at MEMIC for 22 years, is senior vice president of external affairs. He will replace retiring President and CEO John Leonard, a founding leader of the company.

Charlie Therrien is the president of Mercy Hospital and also serves as a Senior Vice President of Eastern Maine Healthcare System (EMHS).

Charlie has 37 years of health care experience, working in both physician practice and the hospital environment. Before being appointed President of Mercy Hospital in November of 2016, Charlie served as president and CEO of Maine Coast Memorial Hospital (MCMH).

Before coming to MCMH, Charlie served as president and CEO of Sharon Hospital in Sharon, Connecticut. While with Sharon Hospital, Charlie acted as director of Business Development, Vice President of Operations, and Chief Operating Officer before accepting the position of CEO in September of 2005.

Prior to entering hospital administration, from 1993-1999, he gained extensive experience in physician practice management, including leading a 120-physician enterprise and PHO at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut.

Charlie earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Quantitative Methods from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

He is currently the Chair Elect for the Maine Hospital Association and a Cabinet Member for the United Way of Greater Portland. Charlie lives in Kennebunk with his wife Ellen.
 

Tom Rainey joined the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development (MCED) as the Director in 2016 as the result of a nationwide search. He has wasted no time in propelling MCED forward as the key resource to Maine’s entrepreneurial community.

Prior to MCED, Tom was President of Rainey & Associates; a consultancy specialized in planning and implementing innovation-based development initiatives. Mr. Rainey brings 25 years of experience in building and managing successful business incubators and accelerators for start-up companies in seven states. Mr. Rainey’s experience in rural business development, international trade, aerospace, defense and life sciences combined with a broad national and international business network provides unique capabilities.

Since 1990, Mr. Rainey has been involved in a number of pioneering Defense Adjustment programs, including the decommissioning of a military port in a rural area of California, launching new export assistance programs through the World Trade Center he managed in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, and serving as Director of Business Development for the Defense Adjustment Program in St. Louis in 1993. In 1998 Mr. Rainey was recruited by the State of Florida and Kennedy Space Center to establish a network of six NASA-funded incubators to assist laid-off aerospace workers in the wake of the Challenger disaster. From 2001-2012 Mr. Rainey developed a biotechnology strategy for New Hampshire; plans for a Health Care Institute for Wisconsin; and award-winning incubators at the University of Vermont, Dartmouth College, Northern Arizona University, and the BioInspire accelerator in Phoenix. Mr. Rainey developed business accelerator plans for the cities of Goodyear and Sierra Vista, two rural communities in Arizona affected by major defense industry downsizing.

Mr. Rainey holds a Master’s Degree in Science and Technology Policy from Lund University, Sweden; a Graduate Degree in Social Sciences, from the University of Stockholm, Sweden; and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
 

Dr. James H. Page was appointed Chancellor by the University of Maine System Board of Trustees in March 2012 to lead their repositioning of the University System to meet Maine’s 21st century higher education needs.

Prior to becoming Chancellor, Dr. Page was principal and CEO of the James W. Sewall Company, a national consulting organization founded in 1880 and headquartered in Old Town, Maine, specializing in forestry, natural resources, civil and spatial engineering.

Page is the first University of Maine System Chancellor to be born in Maine or to have been educated at one of the System’s universities. He was born and raised in Caribou, and obtained his BA in History from the University of Maine at Ft. Kent. Subsequently he completed Master’s work in the philosophy of physics from St. Andrews University, Scotland, and obtained his Ph.D. in the philosophical foundations of mathematics from MIT. He taught at several universities before joining the private sector and has served on a number of Boards in the public, private, and NGO sectors.

Chancellor Page lives in Old Town with his family.

Ambassador Laurence Pope is a retired American diplomat and is the author of several books, including François de Callieres: A Political Life (2010), a biography of the first proponent of professional diplomacy. He was previously the U.S. Ambassador to Chad from 1993 to 1996.

In the wake of the tragic murder of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens during a terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton turned to Ambassador Pope to serve as Washington’s man in Tripoli, an appointment that did not require Senate confirmation.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton nominated Pope as ambassador to Kuwait, but his nomination was derailed by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina), Sen. Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) and other conservative Republicans because Gen. Zinni had criticized their support of Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi politician opposed to dictator Saddam Hussein. According to Pope, Helms’s aide Danielle Pletka told him he would not even get a hearing unless he agreed to testify on his advice to Zinni regarding Chalabi. Pope retired from the State Department on October 2, 2000, after 31 years of service rather than expose his confidential advice.

Two years later, during the ramp-up to the U.S. War on Iraq, Chalabi was responsible for supplying the George W. Bush administration much of the false information alleging that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Ambassador Laurence Pope served in the foreign service and diplomatic corps for thirty-one years, in one the most important, and difficult, regions in the world – the Middle East, as well as North Africa, and did so during some of more challenging periods of contemporary history. 

He is considered a top expert in the region. After retirement, he served for several months as the Staff Director in Jerusalem for the International Committee on Middle East Peace, led by former Senator George Mitchell, and after 9/11, he was appointed Senior Advisor for Arab Affairs to the United Nations.

A graduate of Bowdoin College, Pope also had advanced studies at Princeton University and is a graduate of the U.S. Department of State Senior Seminar, a Senior Fellow at the Armed Forces Staff College. He speaks Arabic and French, and resides in Portland, with his wife Betsy. Laurence Pope is the eldest son of Major Everett P. Pope, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1944 for his conspicuous courage at Pelelieu.
 

Lucas St. Clair was born and raised into a subsistence living family in the North Woods of Maine, with no running water or electricity for most of his childhood. He left that lifestyle to attend a boarding school in the Western Mountains of Maine and went on to study abroad, pursuing a Culinary Arts degree at Le Cordon Bleu in London. Lucas worked in the beginning of his career in the restaurant and wine industry in New York City, Maine, and Seattle, WA. 

In 2011, Lucas took over his family’s operating foundation, Elliotsville Plantation, Inc. (EPI). EPI owns 125,000 acres of timberland in Northern and central Maine that they have been purchasing since 1998. They have been managing the land and adding infrastructure for recreation over the last several years. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, President Barack Obama accepted the gift of 89,000 acres of land from EPI and created the newest unit of the National Park Service, Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on Aug 24th, 2016. Lucas and EPI continue to play a role in the development of the region and enhancing the community’s ability to capitalize on the newly realized asset.   

Beyond the restaurant industry and land conservation, Lucas has a strong interest in outdoor pursuits. He has hiked the Appalachian Trail, paddled the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, taken a NOLS semester in Patagonia and has climbed peaks in Alaska, Washington, Peru, Chile and Argentina. He has also worked as a fly fishing guide and helped Eddie Bauer with designing fishing apparel. He has had the great fortune to fish in some of the most beautiful waters in the world.

Lucas lives in Portland, Maine with his wife and two children. 
 

As President and CEO of Dead River Company, Deanna Sherman oversees one of the largest energy companies in Northern New England. Founded in 1909, Dead River Company is family-owned with over 1000 employees serving customers in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and northern Massachusetts. Ms. Sherman joined the company in 1986 and has worked in leadership roles, including District Manager, Region Manager and Vice President of the Energy Division. 

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Colby College, majoring in Government/Public Policy and French. After attaining her first management position at Dead River Company, Sherman returned to the classroom and received her MBA at the University of Southern Maine.  

Ms. Sherman is active in the community through her present and past Board involvement with United Way of Greater Portland, Educate Maine, Junior Achievement of Maine, the Maine Energy Marketers Association and the University of Southern Maine Foundation.
 

Attorney General Janet Trafton Mills grew up in Farmington, Maine. She earned a B.A. degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and a J.D. degree from the University of Maine School of Law, where she was an editor of the Maine Law Review.

Ms. Mills was an Assistant Attorney General from 1976 to 1980, when she was elected District Attorney for Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford Counties, a position to which she was re-elected three times, with the distinction of being the first woman District Attorney in New England.

From 1995 through 2008, Ms. Mills practiced law in Skowhegan with her brother, S. Peter Mills, in the firm Wright and Mills, P.A.. Ms. Mills was elected to the House of Representatives in 2002, representing the towns of Farmington and Industry. In 2008 she was elected by the legislature to be Maine’s 55th Attorney General, the first woman Attorney General in Maine.

In December 2012, after a change in party control in the legislature, Ms. Mills was again elected Attorney General, and 2014, re-elected to her second consecutive term. The Attorney General is Maine’s chief law enforcement officer and represents the state in legal matters ranging from child support enforcement, civil rights and consumer protection to the prosecution of homicides, felony drug cases and major frauds. The Attorney General is also a member of the Baxter Park Authority, overseeing the 209,000 wilderness acres of the Baxter State Park. She serves on the Criminal Law, Substance Abuse and the Energy & Environment Committees of the National Association of Attorneys General, and was recently appointed Co-Chair of the NAAG Tobacco Committee. 

In years past, Ms. Mills co-founded the Maine Women’s Lobby and was an active member of a number of organizations, including the Margaret Chase Smith Foundation Board. Ms. Mills was married for 29 years to Stanley Kuklinski, who passed away in September 2014. She lives in Farmington and has five stepdaughters and three grandsons.
 

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), ninety-one Americans die every day from an opioid overdose, and the number of overdose deaths involving opioids has quadrupled since 1999. Closer to home, here in Maine, there has been a 265% increase in deaths from prescription opioid overdose in men, and a 400% increase in deaths in women since 1999. Maine has the distinction of leading the nation in the highest rate of prescriptions for long-acting opioids.

These and other statistics have been shared by Gordon H. Smith, Esq., Executive Vice President of Maine Medical Association, as he travels the state meeting with health care providers to explain the opioid law changes that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2017.

Mr. Smith is a Maine native, graduating from the University of Maine with highest distinction in 1973 and from the Boston College Law School, Magna Cum Laude, in 1976. He practiced law privately before coming to the Maine Medical Association as General Counsel in 1981. He is a past Chairman of the American Society of Medical Association Counsel and the AMA/State Medical Society Litigation Center. Mr. Smith has also served as Chair of the Maine Health Data Organization and of the Executive Committee of the Advocacy Resource Center of the American Medical Association. He is also a former Chair of the Board of Quality Counts, a regional quality improvement collaborative and a former board member of the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging. He is a current board member of the Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership. In 2016, he was named by Maine Magazine as one of fifty Mainers influencing public policy and events in the state.

In 2015 Mr. Smith received the President’s Award from the Maine Public Health Association for “exemplary service and commitment to the practice and profession of public health in the State of Maine.” In 2016, he received the President’s Award from the Maine Primary Care Association for “dedication to improving the quality, accessibility and value of health care in Maine.” A frequent lecturer to medical groups on various medical legal subjects, Mr. Smith has served as Executive Vice President of the Maine Medical Association since September 1993 and has had a relationship with the Association dating back to September 1979.

Since Steve and Kate Shaffer launched Black Dinah Chocolatiers from Isle au Haut in 2007, their hand-crafted truffles and gourmet confections have earned a raft of national awards for their flavor and artistry, as well as their sustainable and socially-responsible sourcing.

The company, named for a rocky outcropping near their island home, has been featured in magazines like "Martha Stewart Living and Gourmet." Kate Shaffer has been named one of the nation’s top chocolatiers.

The idea of making gourmet truffles on a wind-swept island off the coast of Maine was just random enough to be appealing in 2007, when Kate started studying chocolate. The idea of opening a funky, slightly urbane café in which to sell them at the edge of a quiet island forest was even more random—and therefore even more appealing. With Steve’s talent at business and creative problem solving and Kate’s gift with food and presentation, it sounded like just the business for them.

Two decades in kitchens from California to Maine has taught Kate lots about food and farms and the power of locally supported agriculture and small business. Mostly it’s taught her that things just taste better when they’re fresher....and Steve has learned that he’s happiest working and thinking in smaller communities.

In June of 2015, the Shaffers moved chocolate production from a 500-square-foot barn on Isle au Haut into a 4,255-square-foot space in Westbrook. While still connected to Isle au Haut, the move to Westbrook has brought 'Black Dinah' truffles, and other goodies, right to the doorstep of greater Portland.  

So “close your eyes, take a bite, and share a taste that’s sweet as Maine.”
 

Ben Waxman is a Portland native, third-generation textile worker, and co-founder of Portland, Maine based company American Roots (AR). Founded in 2015 and successfully launched in the fall of 2015, American Roots is a 100% American made textile and apparel company that specializes in direct retail and business to business sales.

Ben left a 16-year career in American politics and organized labor with the national AFL-CIO in 2013 to begin the process of launching a company that would create good paying jobs in his home town. Ben, along with his fiance, Whitney Reynolds, had the idea to provide good jobs and to make a high-quality clothing product made with 100% American-made materials and to keep it at an affordable price.

With an extensive national network of business, labor, and political organizations, Ben has been able to create a significant sales base. With a focus on sales, workforce development, and significant public relations background, Ben along with the American Roots team, has worked tirelessly to expand the American Roots name in its first year.

Ben is a Portland, Maine native, who attended Portland High School and some college time. Ben was inspired by his mother, Dory Waxman of Old Port Wool and his father Dan to pursue building American Roots and continuing a family tradition of textiles. He is an avid fly fisherman, Red Sox fan and family man.

Whitney left a twenty-year career in the hospitality industry in the spring of 2015 to join Ben in the launching of AR. With a background in finance, customer service and management, Whitney made the adjustment to manufacturing with a set of solid workforce skills. She has a primary focus as the Chief Financial Officer, as well as oversight on production, R&D, product line, vendor relations, and staff development. Whitney is originally from Rochester, New York, and graduated from Fordham University. She is an outdoors enthusiast and used to ski competitively.

American Roots had over 10,000 individual units sold in year one with estimated sales in 2017 of 25,000 units to customers across the country. Ben continues to work to broaden the AR brand and network through his personal connections and targeted marketing tactics along with some affinity marketing models.

Ben and Whitney reside in Westbrook, Maine and are expecting their first child in March.
 

Gregory W. Powell is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Dexter Enterprises, Inc., a wealth management firm owned by the Alfond family and is Chairman of the Harold Alfond Foundation, the largest charitable foundation in Maine.

Since childhood, Powell has personally known Harold Alfond, the founder of Dexter Shoe Company, as a family friend and philanthropist. Working together, Powell and Alfond, created Dexter Enterprises, Inc. in 1996 to manage the Alfond family’s investments, philanthropy and business affairs and to administer the Foundation’s charitable projects in Maine and other states. For over a decade Alfond and Powell worked closely to build the wealth management business of Dexter Enterprises and to design and award charitable grants for education, health care and youth development in Maine and elsewhere. Alfond and Powell deployed Alfond’s business philosophy and acumen to develop a model of philanthropic grant making, emphasizing entrepreneurial solutions, creativity, community engagement and partnership. In 2005, Alfond selected Powell to succeed him as Chairman of the Foundation. At his death in 2007, Alfond ensured that his philanthropy would live on by donating all of his wealth to the Foundation. 

In almost ten years since Alfond’s passing, under Powell’s leadership, Dexter Enterprises has built and managed a fourteen-company investment platform providing access to high quality investment funds world wide. 

During the same period, the Foundation has become the largest foundation in the State of Maine, awarding grants of over $270 million, with an annual grant-awarding budget at $37 million in 2016.

Before founding Dexter Enterprises, Inc., Powell practiced law in Maine for 15 years, concentrating his practice on trial law. Prior to private practice, he served as a clerk to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He is a 1977 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Wesleyan University and a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law, where he served as an editor of the Maine Law Review. Powell was named to Maine magazine’s 2014 list of “50 People Who Have Made a Difference in Maine in Deep and Lasting Ways.”

Greg lives in Cape Elizabeth with his wife, Amy. They have two grown daughters, Molly and Catherine.

For more information on the Harold Alfond Foundation, visit: www.haroldalfondfoundation.org
 

This coming Friday, the final Friday Rotary meeting of 2016, a program in tribute to the holiday season will be presented. Christmas StoryTeller, Russ Burleigh, will be joined by Kathy Grammer as they sing, talk and play piano in a program they’re calling “The Bells of Christmas.” 

Russ has been storytelling for the past 25 years. He got his start when he wrote and recorded stories about Christmas carols and traditions for the radio. That led to his developing Christmas StoryCards which are greeting cards that contain the history and origin of whatever subject was depicted on the front of the card. His cards have been sold at the Smithsonian Museum Shops and Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, at L. L. Bean, Toronto’s largest department store, Bronner’s Christmas World in Michigan and many other stores around the country. For several years, while running his printing business, he used to ship between 10,000 and 15,000 custom-designed StoryCards to a radio station in Massachusetts. 

StoryTelling began as a result of the success of the cards. Russ does these “gigs” every December from four to eight times, visiting various Rotary Clubs in the district, Kiwanis clubs, churches, retirement homes, etc. 

Friday's message is concerned with providing details about the history and origin of Christmas music that contains “bells.” You will hear about “Silver Bells,” “Jingle Bells,” “Jingle Bell Rock,” and several more, including a few surprises, not to mention a number of invitations to the members to join in on the singing.

You will definitely enjoy this program and come away feeling an extra helping of the Christmas spirit! 
 

Kevin Hancock is the President of Hancock Lumber Company. Established in 1848, Hancock Lumber operates ten retail stores and three sawmills that are led by 475 employees. The company also grows trees on 12,000 acres of timberland in Southern Maine.

Hancock Lumber is a multi-year recipient of the ‘Best Places to Work in Maine’ award. The company is also a past recipient of the Maine Family Business of the Year Award, the Governor’s Award for Business Excellence, and the MITC ‘Exporter of the Year’ award. 

Kevin is a past chairman of the National Lumber and Building Materials Dealers Association as well as the Bridgton Academy Board of Trustees. Kevin is a recipient of the Ed Muskie ‘Access to Justice’ Award, the Habitat For Humanity ‘Spirit of Humanity’ Award, the Boy Scouts of America ‘Distinguished Citizen’ Award, and Timber Processing Magazine’s ‘Man of the Year’ Award. Kevin also spent 20 years coaching middle school basketball for the Lake Region school district.

Kevin is a graduate of Lake Region High School and Bowdoin College. He is also a frequent visitor to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In 2015, Kevin published a book about his experiences with the Oglala Sioux Tribe titled, "Not For Sale: Finding Center in the Land of Crazy Horse." The book won the 2015 National Indie Excellence Award, the 2016 Independent Authors Network Award and the 2016 New York Book Festival Award.  

Kevin is an advocate of strengthening the voices of all individuals—within a company or a community such as Pine Ridge—through listening, empowering, and shared leadership.
 

Marjorie (Marge) Barker joined Rotary in November of 2005. She is Past President of the South Portland-Cape Elizabeth Club, served three years as Assistant Governor and two years as past District Rotary Leadership Institute Chair. Marge has been on the faculty of RLI since 2013. She currently serves on several District Committees. Marge is a Paul Harris recipient and a member of the Bequest Society. Prior to serving as Club President, Marge traveled twice to Honduras to work with youth from Cape Elizabeth High School and Rotarians from her club on a water project. She has helped deliver polio vaccinations to the much-needed areas of Ethiopia.

After serving as President, Marge participated in the Friendship Exchange to New Orleans in 2013 and traveled to Guatemala with other Rotarians as part of a service project in 2013. She retired from TD Bank as a Vice President in January 2014 where she had been for over 25 years. She started her career with Junior Achievement as a banker when she was 12. 

Marge has been a SCORE-certified mentor since early 2015. SCORE offers the nation’s largest network of free, expert business mentors. SCORE volunteers help thousands of entrepreneurs start small businesses and achieve new levels of success in their existing businesses. Volunteering at SCORE is a way to give back to your community, connect with fellow business owners, and pass on knowledge and expertise to entrepreneurs in your community.

She is the Past President of a non-profit organization she started – Friends of Kayanet Education Center, where she helped build a preschool in Kesses, Kenya. 

Marge received both a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration with honors (2011) and MBA (Dec 2013) from Husson University.   

She is a widow with two grown children and six grandchildren and has lived in Maine since 1988.
 

Michael Romy Greer is the current Executive Director at Portland Ballet and previously General Manager at Sino-European Recycling Resources in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.

A native of St. Charles, Missouri, Michael spent the early part of his life at some of the world's most prestigious dance institutions. Graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy as a dance major. Michael also studied at the Joffrey Ballet School, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School, School of American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet school, and The Royal Ballet School in London, England. Upon completing his training, Michael continued on to dance professionally with Ballet West in Salt Lake City, Utah, for six seasons under the direction of Jonas Kage. During this time with the company, he danced many soloist roles.

After retiring from performing, Michael went on to complete a degree in economics with a focus in industrial organization as an Arturo Schomburg Scholar at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He also received an opportunity to continue his economics studies at Stanford University, but chose to gain experience in international business in India as a Gilman Scholar (US State Department). Michael continued to work with companies in both India and China over a nine-year span, managing teams and operations at several multinational corporations. 

Michael will give a brief overview of his time spent in mainland China and some of his personal perspectives on doing business and investing in the region. In particular, the relationship between cultural expectations, regulations, real estate, and the stock market. While Michael is not by any means a China scholar, his eight years living and working in the region allow a unique perspective on the country. 

It's sure to be a delightful program that will put us in the holiday spirit. You won't want to miss it!

When Lonnie Hackett graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Bowdoin college in 2014, he knew he would be spending the next few years of his life establishing a model of health care for poor children in the emerging democracy of Zambia. Lonnie founded Healthy Kids/Brighter Future and gathered a supportive board of directors. He then took his plan to the Rotary Club of Brunswick, Maine and received a standing ovation, as well as a promise of a Global Grant. Lonnie's clear vision for school-based health care for vulnerable children became a reality as a local healthcare clinic and other Zambian healthcare workers trained classroom teachers to recognize and treat common childhood illnesses. A Global Grant for $35,770 was approved in October of 2014. In one year, 90 teachers have been trained and close to 12,000 poor children have been evaluated and/or treated. The program is sustainable and has received the attention of the Zambian Ministry of Health.

It is the time to begin this program in another compound in Lusaka, using all the lessons of the first program and continuing Lonnie's dream of healthcare for all children.

In 1919 Portland Rotary donated $3,500 to create a monument and flagpole paying tribute to Harold Andrews, the first soldier killed in WWI from Maine. The monument is in Andrews Square, right next to the Butler School on Pine Street in the West End. We have been working with the Harold Andrews American Legion Post and the City of Portland to have it refurbished in time for this Veterans' Day. It looks great!

This Wednesday, November 11th is Veterans' Day and we have a special Rotary breakfast meeting planned for members, guests and veterans. After the breakfast program, we will walk/ride up to re-dedicate the monument and then on to the parade at 10:30 a.m. 

Senator Angus King will be our featured speaker!

Help support our Veterans this Veterans' Day!

  Thank you.

Dr. St. Germain was appointed Director of MMCRI and VP for Research at Maine Medical Center in 2009. He received a B.S. degree (magna cum laude) in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1972 and subsequently attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he received the M.D. degree in 1976. He completed his clinical training in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology at University Hospitals of Cleveland in 1980, and subsequently served as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC).

In 1981, he undertook a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Departments of Medicine and Physiology at Dartmouth Medical School where he trained with Dr. Valerie Anne Galton and Dr. Robert Adler. He was appointed to the faculty of Dartmouth Medical School in 1984.

Dr. St. Germain’s research program has centered on investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in the metabolism and action of thyroid hormones, with a particular focus on the developmental and neurological effects of these native compounds. In this regard, Dr. St. Germain and his colleagues have developed and are studying a number of transgenic mouse lines with altered expression of the deiodinase enzymes, which regulate thyroid hormone levels during fetal and neonatal life. 

In addition to his research efforts, Dr. St. Germain was actively involved in teaching and organizing several basic science and clinical courses at Dartmouth Medical School, and was the Director of the Dartmouth Community Medical School public education initiative.  He is a former and current ad hoc member of the NIH Endocrinology Study Section, and maintains a consultative practice in general endocrinology with an emphasis on evaluating patients with thyroid disorders.

Dr. St. Germain served as Interim Chair of the Department of Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School from 2001 – 2003 and was a member of the DHMC Board of Governors from 2008 – 2009.  He is the recipient of the Dean’s Award from Dartmouth Medical School in 2003 for “contributions to our missions of excellence in scholarship, clinical care, education and service” and was awarded the Clinical Sciences Teaching Award from the Dartmouth Medical School Class of 2005.

Since being recruited to Maine Medical Center, Dr. St. Germain has overseen an expansion of research activities across the organization, including the institution of novel programs to support and foster translational and clinical research programs that are benefiting the patients of Maine and strengthening the academic stature and the national visibility of the institution.

The Club has been very busy with numerous projects, events and strategic planning. The strength of Portland Rotary has always been, and will always be, its engaged membership. This Friday, we will hear updates on what we have accomplished and what is planned moving forward.

This is a great opportunity to invite guests. They will receive an overview of our activities locally and internationally.....across a variety of avenues of service.

There couldn’t be a better advertisement for joining our club!!

Please make every effort to attend.

Jess Knox founded Olympico Strategies in July of 2012. Olympico helps companies and organizations create movements, embrace change, and drive innovative processes and solutions. They do this with a system-wide, cross-disciplinary, and relational approach to growth, change and performance. Along with private sector clients, Jess utilizes his diverse background in grassroots community building, government service, legal training and private sector consulting, to build transformational events, initiatives, and programs for public organizations of all kinds.

Since 2013, Jess has assisted Blackstone Accelerates Growth build a movement of intentional communities of innovation across Maine with more than 125 events and more than 6,500 collisions between people, ideas and resources. He also founded Maine’s largest event for innovators and entrepreneurs, Maine Startup & Create Week, that annually brings more than 3000 people from 21 states to Portland, Maine. Beyond helping grow another initiative, StartupPortland, Jess writes a blog for the Bangor Daily News, called Disruptive Growth, focusing on telling the stories of Maine entrepreneurs and innovators.

In 2009, Jess served as a member of the Obama Administration where he was appointed to the Small Business Administration to serve as the Associate Administrator for Field Operations. He managed more than 1000 employees in 119 locations, in every state and US territory, or about half all of the Agency’s employees. During his tenure at the SBA, he also led a ground-breaking effort to re-engineer the Agency’s employee performance system. He built an innovative program that involved and empowered the Agency’s frontline career employees and managers to drive a more informed and sophisticated performance system focused on recruiting, retaining and developing the best employees in the Federal space. By focusing on the end user and the Agency’s ability to deliver tangible on-the-ground value to small business owners, detailed and measurable metrics were developed for the first time in the Agency’s history to properly measure its office’s impact for taxpayers across the country.

Prior to his time in the Federal Government, Jess ran his own grassroots political consulting firm. In that capacity, Jess worked on ballot initiatives and candidate campaigns in more than 30 states.

He has a law degree from the University Maine School of Law. Prior to law school, Jess pursued a Masters Degree in Public Policy and Public Organization Management from the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service, and received a Bachelors Degree from Ohio Wesleyan University.