NEW FACES

• Harrison Hines, Anne-Marie Thibodeau and Tho Nguyen joined Diversified Business Communications:

Hines was hired as a sales representative. Hines previously worked for L.L Bean in Freeport.

Thibodeau was hired as a database analyst. Thibodeau was previously employed with Pinnacle IT in Waterville.

Tho Nguyen was hired as a senior accountant. Nguyen was previously with AutoEurope.

• Dustin Pomerleau, M.D., joined the Retina Center of Maine. Pomerleau completed fellowship training in medical retina and vitreo-retinal surgery at Duke University and the University of Alabama.

• Jonathan Leahy joined Benchmark Real Estate in Portland as an associate broker. Leahy has nearly five years of real estate brokerage experience. He was previously an associate broker with CBRE|The Boulos Co.

• Austin Hamann joined Winxnet as a help desk technician. Hamann has more than four years of technical experience. Most recently, he worked as a customer service representative for ACS Inc.

• Lauren Scribner joined the staff at Cheverus High School. Scribner of Portland was hired to work in the treasurer’s office. She has experience in insurance and retail management.

• Gregory Emmons, D.O., joined St. Mary’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders. Emmons completed his residency in internal medicine at Maine Medical Center and a dual fellowship in hematology and oncology at Baystate Medical Center, the western campus of Tufts University School of Medicine in Springfield, Mass.

• Aileen Tschiderer was hired as an intern at GrowSmart Maine. Tschiderer graduated from Bowdoin College in 2012 with degrees in English and Spanish and will be contributing to GrowSmart Maine’s communications and marketing efforts.

• Sarah Pearson was hired as vice president for college advancement at Bates College. Pearson is currently chief development officer of the Broad Institute of Harvard University and MIT, a leading biomedical research institution.

• Kimberly McKean, D.O., joined St. Mary’s Center for Family Medicine, 15 Mollison Way, Lewiston. McKean was previously a family medicine provider at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic in Manchester, N.H.

• Shawn Marie Higgins, D.O., joined Bridgton Hospital’s Naples Family Practice. Higgins had been operating her own practice in Falmouth. She is board-certified in both family and osteopathic medicine.

• Adrianne Fouts joined Drummond Woodsum as a new member of its litigation and trial services group. Fouts has practiced with another Portland law firm and clerked for the Honorable Ellen Gorman of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

• Vanessa Frey and Catherine Marine were hired by Maine Technology Institute. Frey of Brunswick has worked in the nonprofit and private sectors in Boston. Marine of Camden has more than 25 years of experience in university research, manufacturing engineering and finance.

• Karen Carberry Warhola was hired by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development as director of the Maine Film Office. Carberry Warhola has more than 20 years of hands-on production experience in the film and television industry.

• Angela Woodhead was hired as director of the teen parent school program at The Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers. Woodhead most recently served as a family practice social worker at Winthrop Family Practice.

• Edward Powell was hired as vice president and business banker for People’s United Bank in Portland. Powell has more than 20 years of banking experience. He spent the last 11 years working for a community bank in Northern Virginia.

PROMOTIONS

• Michael R. Baumann, M.D., was named chief of emergency medicine at Maine Medical Center. Baumann joined the hospital in 2000 as an attending physician in the emergency department and became its medical director in 2002. He was named associate chief of emergency medicine in 2003.

• Kelly Barden was promoted to a communications production manager of The MEMIC Group. Barden of Portland joined the firm 14 years ago as an intern.

• Tiffany Edwards, Natalie Walsh and Ilona Romanenko were promoted at Baker Newman Noyes.

Edwards and Walsh were promoted to audit managers. Edwards works in the firm’s Portland office and Walsh works in the Manchester, N.H., office.

Romanenko was promoted to senior manager in the firm’s information technology division.

• People’s United Bank promoted Ann Marie Swenson, Pamela DiPietro Hale and Melanie Chapman.

Swenson was named senior vice president and regional manager of business banking for Maine and New Hampshire. Swenson joined the bank in 2002 as a senior credit analyst, and was a market manager and manager of business banking in southern Maine.

Hale was promoted to market manager for business banking in southern Maine. Hale began her banking career in 1995 in branch management. Previously, she was a senior commercial and industrial lender and business banker.

Chapman was promoted to customer service associate for the bank’s Peaks Island branch.

BOARD APPOINTMENTS

• Will Thorndike, managing general partner of Housatonic Partners, was named the chair of College of the Atlantic’s board of trustees. Thorndike first became a trustee in 2008.

AWARDS and RECOGNITION

• Robert Abrahamsen, M.D., medical director of the Advanced Vein Center, was named a diplomate of the American Board of Phlebology. Abrahamsen — one of only 565 practitioners in the U.S. and Canada to pass the exam — has worked as a vein specialist for 14 years.

• Claude Rwaganje, executive director of Community Financial Literacy, received the Bowdoin Spirit of Service Award. Rwaganje was recognized for his work to improve the lives of others through service.

Bowdoin College also donated $100 to Community Financial Literacy for its mission to provide financial literacy resources to refugees, immigrants and low-income individuals.

• Georges Budagu Makoko of Portland, a property manager for Avesta Housing, was recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development as the 2012 Site Manager of the Year for Housing for the Elderly in Maine.

Makoko “cares deeply for the residents he serves at Village Square Apartments,” according to a news release.

• Bruce Chemelski was recognized by the Maine Administrators of Services for Children with Disabilities as its 2012 Special Education Therapist of the Year.

Chemelski is a senior psychologist for the developmental disability program at Spring Harbor Hospital and clinical director of the Spring Harbor Academy.

• Harvey Melnick, principal coach at Aucocisco Coaching, recently earned certification as a Certified Gestalt Coach by the Gestalt International Study Center. To achieve certification, Melnick completed an extensive training program at GISC headquarters in South Wellfleet, Mass.

RETIRING

• Stephanie Slocum, executive director of the Brunswick Downtown Association, has announced her retirement. She will be leaving her position to care for a family member with serious health issues. She will remain in her role until a replacement is hired, working on several critical economic development initiatives.

GENERAL

• William Cassidy, interim president of Washington County Community College, will remain in the position through the coming academic year.

Cassidy served as president of the college from 2003 to 2009 and returned to the college on an interim basis July 1, when President Joyce Hedlund retired.

The Maine Community College System board of trustees intends to reopen the search in January.

• Jeff Marks was named executive director of the Environmental & Energy Technology Council of Maine, and Cindy Talbot was named operations director.

In 2010, Marks joined the Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security to promote an energy security, environmental quality and economic development agenda.

Talbot has been serving as E2Tech’s interim executive director since March. She is the principal of CJTalbot Services.

• John O’Dea has left his position as CEO at Associated General Contractors of Maine. O’Dea left the trade association to open his own firm, Barracuda East.

• Benjamin Ford of Verrill Dana’s Maritime Group led a team of attorneys and staff at The Compass Project’s Boat Building Festival in July. Over the course of a weekend, the team built an 8-foot-long rowing skiff under the guidance of Compass Project volunteer David Fernald.

• GrowSmart Maine has moved its offices to 415 Congress St., suite 204, Portland. For more information, go to www.growsmartmaine.org.