Hires, promotions, appointments

The Arts and Cultural Alliance of Freeport has elected Nancy Salmon as interim president of its Board of Directors. Salmon is a founding member of ACAF. She retired from Bates College, where she was assistant director for the Bates Dance Festival and adjunct faculty in the Theater and Dance Department. Salmon directed the Arts in Education Program at the Maine Arts Commission from 1987 to 2002, helped develop the Maine Department of Education’s Visual and Performing Arts Learning Standards and is an author of the “Maine Dance Curriculum Guide.” She also directed the dance program at the University of Southern Maine for 15 years and is now a freelance performer, choreographer and teacher.

Effective immediately, Fr. Kevin Hughes has been appointed parochial vicar at Our Lady of Hope Parish in Portland (St. Joseph Church, St. Pius X Church and St. Brigid School). A New Jersey native, Hughes was ordained to the priesthood on Aug. 8. He is a member of the Society of Jesus, an order of Catholic priests and brothers founded nearly 500 years ago by St. Ignatius Loyola and the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church. Hughes earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from La Salle University in Philadelphia and a master’s degree in biology from Saint Louis University in Missouri. As a Jesuit in formation, Hughes taught math and science at a Rochester, New York, high school, completed a summer immersion trip in China and earned a master of divinity degree from Regis College in Toronto. He has also worked with the deaf community in the Catholic Church during his time in St. Louis, Rochester and Toronto.

Recognition

Chambers USA has selected three Berman & Simmons attorneys to be awarded for their distinguished legal service. Jodi Nofsinger of Portland, Ben Gideon of Freeport and Susan Faunce  of North Yarmouth were recognized as distinguished lawyers in the category “Litigation: Medical Malpractice & Insurance – Maine.” Gideon has been widely recognized for his groundbreaking trial success and client advocacy. He is only the second lawyer in Maine to be admitted to the prestigious Inner Circle of Advocates. He has also been recognized in America’s Top 100 Attorneys, Super Lawyers and US News Best Lawyers in America. Nofsinger is highly regarded for her exceptional work representing plaintiffs in medical malpractice and wrongful death claims. She has been recognized in America’s Top 100 Attorneys, Super Lawyers and US News Best Lawyers in America. Chambers also recognized attorney Faunce as “Up and Coming” for her medical malpractice litigation expertise. She currently leads the firm’s mass tort practice and has been recognized as a Top 25 Mass Tort Trial Lawyer by the National Mass Tort Trial Lawyers Association and in Super Lawyers and US News Best Lawyers in America.

Granted

Maine Community Foundation has awarded a $15,000 grant to the Diocese of Portland’s Office of Hispanic Ministry Sacred Heart/St. Dominic Parish to help support those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds will be used to offer sacramental preparation, including marriage and baptism, faith formation and education on social service support in the state.

Northern Spent Grains in Yarmouth has been awarded $100,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Small Business Innovation Research Program to address technical barriers when turning spent grains from breweries into ingredients for healthy snacks.

Bar Harbor Bank & Trust employees are donating more than $10,000 collected from its employee-driven charitable giving program, Casual for a Cause, to 14 nonprofits serving Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, including Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program in Brunswick.

KeyBank has announced a total of $160,000 in grants to local nonprofits for COVID-19 relief and social justice efforts such as Avesta Housing, Preble Street and the United Way of Greater Portland’s Social Justice Racial Equity Fund. KeyBank also partnered with the Portland Sea Dogs to give local families and essential workers $16,000 in restaurant gift cards.

The Peaks Island Fund at the Maine Community Foundation has awarded more than $50,000 in grants to seven nonprofit organizations that help the island community. Funding for the Fifth Maine Regiment Museum will maintain the museum’s operations due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fundraising events and rentals. Home Start will renovate affordable rental property to improve tenants’ quality of life and Brackett Memorial United Methodist Church will use its grant to complete renovations to make the buildings safer and prepare them to become accessible. The church will also update the generator system to improve winter sheltering.

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