NEW HIRES

Maine College of Art has announced the appointment of Jen Campanaro as director of admissions. Campanaro will be responsible for directing and overseeing all aspects of student recruitment for MECA’s Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts in teaching and Salt Institute for Documentary Studies programs. For more than a decade, she has built a career around admissions leadership, advising, financial aid and recruitment for arts communities and nonprofits. She served both as director of admissions and director of youth enrollment at New York Film Academy after five years at her alma mater, Savannah College of Art and Design. In her spare time, Campanaro can be found exploring Portland’s food scene, taking family bike rides, or patronizing local theater and music events.

The U.S. Army New England Recruiting Battalion welcomed its new commander during a change of command ceremony at Paul A. Doble United States Army Reserve Center in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Lt. Col. Natasha Clarke is the new commander of the New England Recruiting Battalion, the first female and first African-American to serve in this position. In 1997, she enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves while attending North Carolina A&T State University. She later received her commission in the Transportation Corps as a second lieutenant in 2002. Lt. Col. Clarke holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations and a master’s in human resource management.

The First Amendment Museum has appointed Jamie O’Brien as chief development officer. In this inaugural role, O’Brien will oversee development efforts to support a new concept museum that will inspire people to understand and exercise their First Amendment rights. O’Brien joins from the Colby College Museum of Art, where she served as museum development officer and interim director of museum development. Previously, she was the inaugural manager of development and marketing at Ogunquit Museum of American Art, where she achieved significant growth in the museum’s annual fund.

The Maine Monitor added three new staff members in recent weeks, with new reporters covering the State House and energy and environment beats, plus shoring up the Monitor’s web production capabilities.

Kaitlin Cough covers energy and the environment for The Maine Monitor as a 2021 Report for America corps member. She was previously a reporter for The Ellsworth American before becoming the inaugural digital media strategist for The Ellsworth American and Mount Desert Islander. Cough graduated with honors from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College.

George Harvey is the new production editor for The Maine Monitor. He joined the staff as a production assistant in February 2021 and was promoted three months later. He oversees digital and newsletter production, coordinates social media content and shares the work of The Maine Monitor’s staff writers and contributors with media partners around the state. Harvey has written for several publications and previously worked in athletics administration. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Florida Atlantic University.

Andrew Howard joined The Maine Monitor in June, covering state government and politics as a 2021 Report for America corps member. He previously covered politics in Arizona as an intern at two local newspapers. Howard is a graduate of Arizona State University, where he wrote his honors thesis on the future of nonprofit news websites and was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.

AWARDS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

This month the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) celebrated the selection of Jennifer Bailey as the recipient of the 2021 Thomas P. Downing Jr. Award from the Maine Justice Foundation. The award was established in Downing’s memory in 1985 to recognize legal aid staff for their dedication to providing civil justice for vulnerable Mainers. Under Jennifer’s leadership from 2016-2021, ILAP’s Asylum Program grew to include a 175-member pro bono panel of volunteer attorneys representing nearly 200 people each year. During this time, Jennifer also traveled to the southern border as a volunteer attorney and served as a trusted voice in the community and in the media when Portland welcomed a large group of asylum-seeking families in summer 2019.

The Maine Forestry Museum honored four Hall of Fame inductees during their recent Logging Festival Days in Rangeley: Mary Dunham of Avon, Sarah Medina of Dixmont, Patricia Quinn of Norridgewock, and Patty Cormier of Farmington. The 2021 inductees are the first women to receive this honor.

Dunham logged with horses for more than 10 years. She worked with her husband, Bruce Dunham, on woodlots in Avon and the Rangeley area, starting around 1975.

Medina is a 1972 graduate of the University of Maine with a bachelor’s degree in forest management. She was the first woman to pursue a forest management degree at UMaine and the first woman employed as a field forester in Maine.

Quinn has over 30 years of experience in forestry in Maine and currently serves as the harvest and transportation manager for the Three Rivers District of the Weyerhauser Corp.

Cormier is the current Maine State Forester, the first woman to hold this position. She spent 20 years (1999-2019) as a district forester in the Maine Forest Service.

BUSINESS OPENINGS

Partners Bank is proud to announce the opening of its newest bank branch in Kingston, New Hampshire. The branch will provide all the same services, products and facility amenities to its customers as the existing Partners Bank branches. Kelly Hutchinson will be the branch manager, coming to the Partners Bank family with a long history in banking. She started her career in 1995 as a teller supervisor at First Savings Bank of N.H. before working as an assistant manager at Ocean Bank and a branch manager at People’s United Bank.

Please send your submissions to business@pressherald.com.

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