<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Together, we create justice.</h2>



Maine Initiatives is run by a creative team of Board members, staff, and collaborators who work collectively to advance justice and equity across Maine.

<h1>Who We Are</h1>

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Martina Leake (she/her) grew up in Carthage, NY and was raised by her mother who emigrated from Panama. Martina stayed in northern New York to complete her BA in Government at St. Lawrence University where she studied Arabic and Spanish, and spent most of her time focusing on sexual violence awareness and advocating for reproductive freedom. After graduating in 2021, she traded rural New York for coastal Maine. 



Martina has several years of experience developing sexual violence prevention education and providing advocacy for survivors. She comes to Maine Initiatives from the Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine where she collaborated with community partners to develop peer support opportunities for survivors in Cumberland and York counties. 



In her free time, Martina enjoys running, hiking, and crocheting. She has felt incredibly grateful for the deep sense of community in Maine and is thrilled to continue working with local organizations as a Program Associate at Maine Initiatives.



email: martina (at) maineinitiatives.org

Martina Leake

Bre (she/her) was raised in a family of ten in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. She spent her days in the woods with her brothers, fascinated by the interconnectivity of the natural world and the relationships of things that grow. 



When Bre was a teenager, her family had to relocate to Southern Maine. Experiencing the shift from being poor in an impoverished community to being poor in an affluent community inspired her to learn about American class and wealth structures. Impassioned, she went on to college to study Sociology with an interest in social justice, social movements, their intersection with the sociology of grief, and how humans relate and react in social change spaces. 



Still captivated by the interconnectivity of the world, Bre then studied relationship and network building for social change. Since then, she has dedicated her life to promoting social equity through community-centered relationship building and collaboration, and is committed to using her privilege to advance racial justice. She has worked and volunteered in the grassroots and nonprofit sectors for over 15 years. Bre is also an End of Life Doula and holds a graduate certificate as a Grief Support Specialist. 



Bre identifies as a white, able bodied, queer, cis gendered woman. She currently lives in Portland with her two daughters and her partner, Sean, along with an adorable but rapidly growing population of very chatty house sparrows.



email: bre (at) maineinitiatives.org

Bre Chamberlain

Lia Wilson (she/ her) grew up in Los Angeles and Chicago, and lived in Santa Fe, San Francisco, and Brooklyn before moving to Maine in 2015. She identifies as a white, cisgender, able-bodied, queer woman.



Lia has&nbsp;worked in non-profit communications and program management across the arts and higher education for over a decade.&nbsp;Prior to joining Maine Initiatives she held positions as the Associate Director of SPACE, the Communications Manager for the Portland Museum of Art, the Assistant to the Chair of the Department of Art and Design Education at Pratt Institute, and the Program Manager for the Architecture Division at California College of the Arts. 



Lia has a BFA in Printmaking from the College of Santa Fe and a MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts.&nbsp;She maintains a love of writing, storytelling, and artist interviews.



Lia lives in Portland with her partner and son, grateful for the roots she has planted and the deep sense of community Maine has taught her.



email: lia (at)&nbsp;<a href="http://maineinitiatives.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">maineinitiatives.org</a>

Lia Wilson

Birdie D’Agostino grew up on her family farm in the Cascade mountain range in Oregon, harvesting native plants for medicine, cleaning chicken coops, and hypnotizing roosters. She fell in love with Maine when she first came to visit her husband’s family. And ever since, she’s dreamed of small-scale farming near the sea, in community with Maine’s beautiful, wild landscape! Birdie is an artist, musician, gardener, and educator. She loves singing old songs in harmony with whomever she can wrangle in, telling stories, and performing ridiculous skits with her daughter. And she loves throwing a big party that brings friends and community together!



The continuous thread in Birdie’s work has been in bringing people together and building community partnerships for creating social justice. She taught elementary and middle school, developed curriculum for connecting to place through garden education at Portland State University, and served as a community organizer around food justice and food sovereignty with the tribes in Oregon. She believes in shifting to holistic, systemic, ecological, and relational ways of teaching and living in community, which requires an understanding of living within the limits of the earth’s natural systems, as well as personal and communal shifts to ways of being and acting that create healthy, balanced solutions to interconnected issues.



And she&#8217;s thrilled to have connected with such a welcoming community of people in Maine who share values in creating racial, social, economic, and environmental justice!



email: birdie (at) maineinitiatives.org

Birdie D’Agostino

Amanda Langley grew up in Falmouth, Maine, always involved in music and exploring the woods around her home. As an undergraduate at Quinnipiac University, she was exposed to social justice topics and the influence of social systems through her Sociology studies, and her deep passion in making social change was sparked. She worked nearly a decade with the Connecticut Homecare Program for Elders, which exposed her to inadequate health care and health insurance systems rife with inequity. This grew interest in the public health field, and she graduated from the University of New England with her Master of Public Health degree in 2016. From there, she worked with pre-doctoral dental students at UNE College of Dental Medicine, teaching them about public health topics and facilitating their experiences increasing access to oral health care in Northern New England. 



She is thrilled to lead the MaineShare program at Maine Initiatives, supporting the social change work of the MaineShare member organizations. She is committed to using her privilege to bring awareness to systemic injustice and work with dedicated colleagues to advance equity and justice in Maine.



Amanda has volunteered with the Center for Grieving Children and Maine Needs.&nbsp; She teaches undergraduate sociology courses as an Adjunct Faculty at UNE, and loves how her work and teaching inform each other.&nbsp; Outside of work she can be found spending time with her fiance, family (particularly her two nephews), or engaged in outdoor activities like skiing and mountain biking.



email: amanda (at) maineinitiatives.org

Amanda Langley

Ashley Bahlkow (she/her) grew up near where she resides now, on stolen Abenaki territory that is part of the Wabanaki Confederacy now known as North Yarmouth. Ashley cherishes the feeling of connection to place–especially to the trees and mushrooms–and living close to family. She is a nurturer to two-leggeds, four-leggeds and her garden. Ashley spends much of her energy thinking and learning about advancing justice, antiracism and anticapitalism; and will talk about it whenever given the opportunity.



Ashley has supported refugees and immigrants for 10+ years, mostly with a focus on food justice and food sovereignty. Ashley’s recent work has been with the Somali Bantu Community Association, connecting food justice with land justice. Ashley remains an advisor to the SBCA and a board member of the Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons. She continues to learn how to support Wabanaki people, sovereignty, land justice and beyond as a participant in First Light’s work.



email: ashley (at) maineinitiatives.org

Ashley Bahlkow

Jennifer Ceide is a Brooklyn, NY native who, in 2018, moved from New Orleans, LA to Portland, ME. She serves as Faculty and Assistant Director of Workforce Development AT the University of New England. Most of her career has been focused on addressing tobacco use and uncontrolled asthma through health education.



Now for the fun stuff, Jennifer has a love for singing, theater, and traveling.

Jennifer Ceide

Andrea is originally from Tucson, Arizona but was drawn to Maine by her family and cultural connections. As a member of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs she wanted to explore Maine and her ancestral heritage. In 2016 she drove across the country to move to Maine with her teenage son and her dog. As a student at the University of Southern Maine, she has been on the ground floor of the reintroduction of the Native American Student Alliance and an organizer of the Indigenous Student Orientation. Andrea has had the privilege of working on projects involving Maine Wabanaki REACH, Indigenous Policy Issues in Education and the Maine Indian Child Welfare Act Workgroup. Now a graduate of the Master’s of Public Health program, Andrea is a Program Officer at the Maine Health Access Foundation.

Andrea Francis

Jake Grindle joined the MeHAF staff in September of 2015. He currently oversees MeHAF’s Health Equity Capacity-Building program. Jake also has responsibility for several research and communications functions. Prior to this position, Jake worked at Western Maine Community Action, where he served as the Project Coordinator for the Maine Community Action Health Navigator Project. In this role, Jake spearheaded community outreach and enrollment efforts for the statewide consortium of CAP agencies that have been engaged in health insurance Marketplace enrollment. Prior to assuming the Coordinator position, Jake served as the Field Director for the Northeast Archaeology Research Center and the University of Maine at Farmington. He has also worked as a Community Organizer for the Maine’s People Alliance and Maine People’s Resource Center, and was a founding member and organizer for Visible Community in Lewiston. Jake is a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington. He currently lives in Pownal with his partner and two dogs, where he spends his free time tending his garden and small fruit tree orchard.

Jake Grindle

10 years in banking,14 years living and working in Mauritania, West Africa, 6 years fundraising for breast cancer. Mother to my 19 year old son entering his freshman year of college, daughter to my 90 year old Dad who now lives with us, wife to my beloved, community worker, member of St. Bart&#8217;s Episcopal Church, believer that change is possible.

Carla Hunt

Shima joined Maine Initiatives in 2017 as a program officer for the Immigrant-Led Organizations Fund. Shima was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and spent most of her childhood in East Africa (Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Comoros Islands). Portland, Maine has been her home for 14 years. Before joining Maine Initiatives, Shima was the coordinator of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, a hub for collaboration and opportunity for the immigrant community in the Greater Portland area.



An AmeriCorps Vista Alumni, she served with The Telling Room as Programs Assistant VISTA through the Goodwill VISTA Partnership in 2016. She joined the Telling Room as Programs Assistant, working on improving our program coordination to meet increased demand and ensure our program quality remains as high as possible. She attended Pennsylvania State University but now is working towards a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration at University of Southern Maine.



She is currently serving on the Board of The Community Development Block Grant, New England Arab American Organization, and The Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center. Shima is deeply invested in community development.



email: shima (at) maineinitiatives.org

Shima Kabirigi

Lauress Wilkins Lawrence is a program officer at the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, in Freeport, ME. Her primary grantmaking interests are community engagement, equity, and environmental wellbeing in Sewall’s Healthy People Healthy Places program. Her grantmaking career began in the early 1980’s at Grants Management Associates, where she worked most closely with the Old South Church Fund which supported community-based organizations and the Foley Hoag Foundation which focused on improving race relations in Boston.



Before moving to Maine in 2014, Lauress taught religious studies at Regis College in Weston, MA, and she was pastoral associate at Saint Katharine Drexel Catholic Church in Dorchester, MA. She has M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees from Boston University, and an A.B. from Smith College. An African-American Hebrew Bible scholar, she serves on the editorial board of the Wisdom Commentary Series for feminist biblical interpretation, and is lead author of volume 36 – Joel, Obadiah, and Jonah (publication forthcoming) – in that series.



She lives in Portland, ME with her husband Mark and their Goldendoodle Teddy.

Lauress Wilkins Lawrence

Kael lives in western York county with his family, and works in the trades as a tile setter. He loves life in rural Maine, and spends a lot of time outside fishing, camping, and gardening with his wife and young child. He is also a founding member of a local volunteer group focused on social justice advocacy and creating opportunities for thoughtful connection and service to our community.

Kael Parker

As a racial justice advocate, David supports communities of Color through his job as Program Director and advocate at Racial Equity &amp; Justice. He connects families, individuals, and students to resources through his work as a social worker. As a consultant, advocate, and DEI training facilitator at Racial Equity and Justice, David combines experimental knowledge, social work education, and clinical problem solving skills to build cross cultural relationships. Gardening is not only a method of healing for David, but a resilient form of supporting and feeding his family &amp; community members.

David Patrick

Joanna Clarke was born and raised on Mount Desert Island, Maine. For the first few years of her life, she was a point of interest for local harbor tours as she swung back and forth over the deck of her family’s houseboat. She left Maine to study Anthropology and Sociology at Rochester Institute of Technology and then pivoted to focus on creating community around food as a pastry chef, first in Seattle and then back in Maine. Through local volunteering, she refocused on direct community involvement and has been working in non-profits since 2016. Prior to joining Maine Initiatives, Joanna was the Director of Operations at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine, where she brought her common sense and problem-solving skills to bear on non-profit finances, HR, and facility management. She is passionately committed to creating equitable and sustainable growth for philanthropic organizations in Maine and focuses on empathy-based administration for non-profit employees. Joanna enjoys baking and cooking in her free time, collecting recipes and ingredients from around the world. She also collects board games with her husband and spends an inordinate amount of time with their cats, Feta and Halloumi.



email: joanna (at) maineinitiatives.org

Joanna Robinson-Clarke of Maine Initiatives

Joanna Clarke

After completing a Master of Public Health program, Victoria (she, her, hers) moved to Portland, Maine to practice community organizing at the Maine Women’s Lobby and Maine Equal Justice. After spending some time in global health and electoral politics, Victoria now works in state government. She believes deeply in the power of community, shared knowledge, and movement-building to enact sustainable change. Victoria is grateful to be working towards a system of equitable philanthropy alongside the Maine Initiatives’ team.

Victoria Rodriguez

Julian Rowand (he/him) inhabits a body of color (Black, mixed-raced, abled-body) and resides on unceded land of the Wabanaki Confederacy in a town now called Freedom with his sweetheart, Erika. Julian brings a life-long commitment to collaboration, a passion for creative and embodied practice, and a resolute belief in the need for deep solidarity with those most vulnerable among us.&nbsp;



Julian comes to Maine Initiatives from The Cooperative Development Institute where he focused on organizing affordable housing cooperatives across New England and also served on the Board of Directors. Prior to moving to Maine, and after briefly working with housing cooperatives in Washington, D.C., Julian was an artist / organizer in the Bay Area for many years. Most prominently, Julian was Co-Director for ‘These Walls Speak’, a multi-year, participatory research, documentary project that examines the politics of place, community resistance, and the power of artist expression in the Mission District of San Francisco. Julian feels incredibly nourished by this place called Maine, and is thrilled to begin working with Maine Initiatives.



email: julian (at) maineinitiatives.org

Julian Rowand

Greg Sample is a Maine attorney who retired after practicing nearly 40 years. During his last 24 years as a lawyer, he worked almost exclusively for American Indian tribal governments, housing authorities and tribally-owned businesses, in Maine and elsewhere.

Greg Sample

Ellen Seidman is a nonresident fellow in the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute. She chairs the board of Aeris Insight, sits on the boards of City First Bank of DC and Friends of the Strand Theatre, and is on the National Community Advisory Council of Bank of America. She cofounded and chaired the board of the Center for Financial Services Innovation and was the 2013–14 New York University Stern–Citi Leadership and Ethics Distinguished Fellow.



From 2012 to 2016, Seidman served on the inaugural Consumer Advisory Board of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. From 2012 to 2014, she was a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, where she edited Investing in What Works for America’s Communities; What Counts: Harnessing Data for America’s Communities; and What It’s Worth: Strengthening the Financial Future of Families, Communities, and the Nation.



From 2002 to 2010, Seidman held various positions at ShoreBank Corporation. From 1997 to 2001, she directed the Office of Thrift Supervision. She also sat on the board of directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and chaired the board of directors for NeighborWorks America. Seidman was senior counsel to the Democratic staff of the House Financial Services Committee, was special assistant to the president for economic policy, and held senior positions at Fannie Mae and the US Departments of Transportation and the Treasury.



Seidman received an AB from Radcliffe College, an MBA from the George Washington University, and a JD from Georgetown University.

Ellen Seidman

Philip Walsh joined Maine Initiatives as the executive director in February 2015.&nbsp;



Phil brings to Maine Initiatives a track record of success supporting community philanthropy that engages diverse stakeholders; identifies and mobilizes the community’s human, financial, and social assets; and leverages those assets for social change. He came to Maine with his family in 2011, after working for fifteen years in community organizing and grassroots philanthropy in Latin America, as a program officer with the Inter‐American Foundation, director of the Mexico Program at The Synergos Institute, and leader of Mercy Corps’ civil society strengthening program in Central America.&nbsp;



Phil is a graduate of James Madison University and earned a masters degree from Georgetown University. He lives in Cape Elizabeth with his wife, three daughters, a brood of chickens, and a hive of bees. He is also an active supporter of Maine Adaptive and the Spina Bifida Association of Greater New England.

Who We Are

Together, we create justice.

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