NEW HIRES

• Andrea Nemitz joined the Maine Community Foundation as a communications and marketing specialist.

Nemitz, of Buxton, was a reporter and editor prior to joining the community foundation. She was a senior editor at the Sun Journal in Lewiston and the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. She also managed four weekly newspapers in York and Cumberland counties. Nemitz served as president of the New England Associated Press News Executives Association and was the executive director of the Maine Press Association.

• The following people joined Diversified Communications:

Adam Shaw was hired as an advertising sales representative. He previously worked for Advacare Systems in Chicago.

Roger Crewse joined the firm as a Web support specialist and Timothy Mackay as a database developer.

Sydney Peterson was also hired as a marketing communications administrator. Peterson previously worked for Expeditors International, Peabody, Mass.

• Karen Proctor recently joined Coastal Rehab LLC as a physical therapist.

She will practice in Falmouth and Portland.

• Kyle Johnson will join EMHS as vice president and chief information officer.

Johnson is the current vice president and chief analytics and integration officer of Trinity Health/CHE, based in Livonia, Mich. She will assume her duties as EMHS chief information officer on March 31.

She has more than 30 years of experience in health care.

• Matt Halfmann joined Kennebunk Savings as vice president, banking office manager of its Eliot branch.

Halfmann has more than 12 years of banking experience, most recently serving as mortgage loan officer and branch manager with other banks in the New Hampshire Seacoast.

PROMOTIONS

• Bath Savings Institution has promoted Janine Lipfert to vice president of online and business banking and Marcia Wallace to assistant vice president of its retail loan department.

Lipfert, of Woolwich, joined Bath Savings in 1989. For many years, she was assistant branch manager of the bank’s largest retail office in Bath. For the past 10 years, she has worked as the bank’s business online banking specialist.

Wallace, of Bowdoin, has been with the bank since 2006. She has over 27 years of banking experience. In her new role, she will assist in the day-to-day management of the retail loan department.

• Michael Garan was promoted to chief firearms instructor for the Maine Department of Corrections.

Garan began his work in corrections over 16 years ago at the Maine State Prison. For the past 15 years, he has been as a firearms instructor as both an additional duty, and as a full-time firearms instructor/corporal.

RETIRING

• Bob McKeown, executive director of Quarry Hill, announced his retirement from the Camden senior-living community, effective March 7.

McKeown began his 36-year career with Pen Bay Healthcare, Quarry Hill’s parent organization, in 1978, when he was appointed manager of material services at Pen Bay Medical Center. He served as nursing home administrator at the Knox Center for Long Term Care in Rockland beginning in 1993. In September 2001, he took over as executive director for both the Knox Center and Quarry Hill.

BOARD APPOINTMENTS

• Catherine Longley was elected to the board of directors for Camden National Corporation.

Longley is the senior vice president of finance and administration and treasurer at Bowdoin College in Brunswick. She is a trustee of Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., and the director of Maine Employers Mutual Insurance Company in Portland.

• Tri-County Mental Health Services recently welcomed Crystal Marchessault, Dr. Michele McCormick and Steven Johndro to its board of directors.

Marchessault became a certified public account in 2006, and joined Austin Associates in 2009.

McCormick, a pediatrician in the Farmington area, brings 20 years of experience and a commitment to advancing child and adolescent well-being.

Johndro is the executive director of Healthy Androscoggin. Previously, he served as program director for the Healthy Maine Partnership of Greater Waterville.

AWARDS

• The Portland Water District was recently awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association. The certificate is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting. This is the 16th year in a row that the PWD has met the strict guidelines for achieving this award.

GENERAL

• Maine Home Connection opened a new real estate office at 19 Commercial St. in Portland.

The new company, owned by Laura and Michael Sosnowski, was formally associated with Keller Williams, and before that, RE/MAX.

The company also includes Susan Russell, lead buyer broker; and Julia Langham, administrative assistant.

• Portland Buy Local celebrated the opening of its new office space with a ribbon cutting last week at 306 Congress St.

Portland Buy Local has more than 450 business, nonprofit and individual members.