Compass Rose (Board of Directors)

Kelli Bailey, Indian Township

My name is Kelli C. Bailey. I attend Calais High School. I am a sophomore this year. I live in Indian Township, Maine. I am 15, turning 16 this year and can't wait!  I have a love for English. I love reading, and writing. Sounds weird to most, but its my favorite class.  I play volleyball, and tennis. I used to work at a local restaurant, called Eagle's Landing.  But unfortunately they closed. So I am looking for a part-time job.  I work very often as a babysitter for many people. In my free time (when I have any) I am on student council at my school, so deeply involved in that. I also just like to relax and hang out with my friends.

Gina Brooks, Pleasant Point

Gary Cook, Campobello Island, NB.
gcsongfish@yahoo.ca

Gary is a 5th-generation fisherman from the Cobscook Bay region who plies his hand-line trade with deepest respect for whole system ecology. This husband and father of two is a powerful singer/songwriter and musician. He started writing his own songs in response to the collapse of the fisheries.

Marilyn Hughes, Trescott TWP

Paul Jans, Whiting

Paul is based, with his family, in Whiting, Maine. His history of travel extends south of the equator and east of the Prime Meridian. Most days, though, he only travels as far as East Machias to attend Washington Academy where he is a junior. At WA, he is a member of the Environthon Club and the Student in Government Club. Playing violin, he is a member of the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestra. Paul volunteers for the CCLC Board of Directors.

Blaine Jones, East Machias - Treasurer

Originally from Pembroke, Blaine returned to Washignton County in 2006 to join Bangor Savings Bank as Branch Manger in Machias and Jonesport.  He holds a BA from the University of Maine in Orono and a MBA from Thomas College in Waterville. Blaine has served on the boards and as an officer of several local organizations.  He is interested in economic development as a means to rebuild sustainible communities in Washington County.  He has been recognized by the Machias Bay Area Chamber of Commerce as Volunteer of the Year and been awarded the Paul Harris Fellowship of Rotary Internataional by the Machias Rotary Club. His interests include outdoor sports, gardening, music, art and literature.  He currently lives in East Machias and Pembroke with his wife Dori and Daughters Natalie and Maria.

Becky McKenna, Marshfield - Vice President

Becky McKenna joined the CCLC Board in 2010 because she is excited about the possibilities offered to Washington County through this unique, exciting, and truly transformational place.  Being invited to the board seemed like a fulfilling opportunity to give back to her community and to keep learning new things and meeting exceptional people. A Lubec native, Becky lives in Marshfield with her family.

Wayne Newell, Indian Township

Wayne is a leader within the Passamaquoddy community.  He serves as Director of Bilingual and Bicultural Program and Curricular Development for the Passamaquoddy schools. Active in politics, education and business, Wayne dedicates his life to inter-human understanding so that human beings of all cultures can work together cooperatively.

Colby Soctomah-Lewey, Pleasant Point

Donald R. Sprangers , East Machias - President

Don was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin and moved to Maine in 1990.  He is a secondary science educator with 25 years of teaching experience; the past 18 years serving students at Washington Academy in East Machias, Maine.  He received his BS in Secondary Science Education in 1982 from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and his MS in Education in 2003 from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Don serves as advisor to the Washington Academy FFA and coaches their Envirothon team.

Don Sprangers is the recipient of the 2002 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching sponsored by the National Science Foundation.  He was also honored in 2007 by The Conservation Fund with the International Paper Environmental  Educator of the Year Award for his creation and implementation of the Washington Academy Sustainable LIFE Curriculum. 

Don also serves as vice president of the Downeast Salmon Federation located in Columbia Falls, Maine.  In his leisure, he enjoys hunting, fishing, camping, and woodworking.

Joe Wolfberg, Portland

                Joseph Wolfberg, M.S. is a practicing gerontologist who has been involved in the lives of Maine’s elderly for the past thirty years.

Staff

Carrie Callahan, East Machias - Director of Education & Programs

Carrie Callahan has finally found her dream job and joined the CLCC as Director of Education and Program.  After many years of navy ship design, including ten years at BIW in Bath, stints in Hawaii, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland & Connecticut, she’s maintained her lifelong passions in the worlds of art and yoga, practicing and teaching both.  When she’s not at work she can probably be found either on a mat or bicycle, messing in her gardens, slapping watercolors about, creating at her printmaking or beading tables, or simply hanging out in East Machias with her partner and herd of kitties.

Alan Furth, Trescott - Executive Director
alan@thecclc.org

Alan came to live in the Cobscook area in 1978. An educator and singer / musician, he has been working on building intentional learning communities throughout his years in education. He is the Director of the CCLC.

Penny Guisinger, Trescott - Director of Development & Communications
penny@thecclc.org

Penny Guisinger has been working for various Maine nonprofits since 1992. She spent time employed with the Maine People’s Alliance, the Friends of Tom Andrews, the Muskie School of Public Service, Downeast Sexual Assault Services, and the Next Step Domestic Violence Project before coming aboard at the CCLC. Though she was born west of the Mississippi, she was raised here in Downeast Maine and is thrilled to have rewarding, challenging work that allows her to live in this beautiful part of the world. Penny is mom to the two most wonderful, spirited, and talented children in the universe, and is partner to a brilliant teacher and musician. They all live together in Trescott.

Bonnie Lyons, Lubec - Custodian

Pat "Dough" Mallar, Trescott - Finance Manager
pat@thecclc.org

Born & raised in New York, Pat moved to Maine in 1993 where she and her late husband owned and operated the Puffin’ Pig in Whiting. After selling the business in 2000, Pat and her son Michael moved to Trescott, where she continues to reside. She has been with the CCLC since 2007 and serves as Finance Coordinator.

Charley Martin-Berry, East Machias - Passages Teacher/Coordinator
passages@thecclc.org

Charley Martin-Berry is the Lead Teacher and Program Coordinator for Passages at the Cobscook Community Learning Center. She holds a degree in Women’s Studies and Anthropology from the University of Maine at Orono. At UMaine, Charley spent three years coordinating a weekly support and activist group for adolescent girls in the greater Bangor area. Later, she worked in non-profit educational organizations in fundraising and administrative positions before returning to Washington County with her family. Charley currently teaches five young parents in their homes using the Passages curriculum of the Community School. As coordinator of the Washington County Passages program, she works on fundraising and networking with local health, educational, and community organizations, and supervises the second Passages teacher. Charley loves her newfie, Ursa, and wants to learn as much as she can about sailing. You might find Charley humming r. e. bell or Ani DiFranco songs, or quoting her mom.

Kara McCrimmon, Trescott - Community Year Coordinator/Teacher
kara@thecclc.org

Kara’s journey to a CCLC staff member began on a bus. In September 2003 Kara began her third semester with the Audubon Expedition Institute, working towards her MS in Environmental Education. AEI has a long history in Downeast Maine, and her group continued with that tradition by participating in a workday on the CCLC land, when it was still full of trees (and if she remembers correctly, mosquitoes) and free of buildings and infrastructure. With an interest in folk education, and looking for ways to bring her music into her life as an environmental educator, Kara came back to Lubec to finish her fourth semester – an internship – with the CCLC. Kara fully intended to return to her West Michigan homeland to live and work, but the call of the CCLC kept coming back and in September 2004 she heeded the call and moved to Trescott.

Currently Kara serves as a Community Year Teacher for the CCLC. She has also coordinated the Mowry Beach Project, a partnership project between the CCLC, Quoddy Regional Land Trust, and Lubec Consolidated School. She enjoys hiking the beautiful trails of Cobscook Bay with her dog Flurry, going to music sessions and playing Irish whistle (among other instruments) with the Black Socks String Band, and generally enjoying life along Whiting Bay in Trescott.

Michelle Reynolds - Passages Teacher

Michelle Reynolds is one of the Passage teachers here at the CCLC. She graduated from the University of Maine at Machias in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and has spent a total of 12 years in education. She is currently working on a BA in Psychology and Community Studies through the University of Maine. Michelle has spent most of her life in Washington County, which she has always loved and is the place she returns to no matter where she goes
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“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”   Buddhist proverb

Annie Seegmiller - Community Year Teacher

Annie joins the CCLC hailing from the Midwest.  An Iowa native, she holds a BA in Architecture and Art History and Masters of Art Education from the University of Minnesota.  While at the U of M, Annie led outdoor adventure trips.  From dogsledding to ice climbing, the Maine winter hasn’t fazed her yet.

She became interested in intentional communities and designing for social change while spending time in Central Appalachia working for a non-profit home repair program.

Currently, Annie is a teacher for The Community Year.  She enjoys exploring new places, art ‘studio’ time, and a good cup of coffee.

Kevin Thompson, Trescott TWP- Director of Office Systems
kev@thecclc.org

Kevin came to Washington County in 1993 from Southern California to raise his daughter who now lives in Bangor. He joined the CCLC as a volunteer and pottery teacher in 2000. He’s now the director of office systems and IT and still teaches pottery in the CCLC’s studio. Kevin is also the caretaker and lives on campus at the CCLC with his wonderful wife, stepson, dogs and cats. When he’s not working or studying, he enjoys spending time with his family, bonsai, hiking, fishing, reading and so on.

Cora Townsend, Passages Teacher
cora@thecclc.org

I am the Full time Passages teacher here at the Cobscook Community Learning Center in Trescott, Maine.  I graduated from the University of Maine at Machias in 1993 with a major in Education and minor in History.  
I travel Washington County, meeting with my students weekly.
           
I am totally into stones, they are beautiful, natural, inexpensive, and most of mine are free. I collect wherever I chance to see an interesting specimen. Knitting, crocheting, and stone jewelry making are hobbies of mine.

“Life is a highway and each of our roads leads in different directions. If I know you, we have met at an intersection. If we are friends we have lingered at more than one stoplight.”