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

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

<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Together, we advance 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.

About
<h1 class="team">Team</h1>

Team

About

Mission and Vision

Commitments

Employment

Grantmaking

Grants for Change

Immigrant-Led Organizations Fund

Outdoor Equity Fund

The Giving Project

MaineShare

Grantees

Take Action

Donate

Get Involved

Blog

Leslie lives her “Third Chapter” as an African American elder in Maine, retired from college teaching. Her community engagements with Maine philanthropies focus on funding efforts that disrupt legacies of white supremacy, settler colonialism, and racialized capitalism while supporting non-profit organizations whose efforts engage people in reimagining policies, practices, and systems that make it possible for everyone to thrive. Leslie’s enthusiastic support of community organizing prompted her to join Maine Initiatives’ inaugural donor-organizer cohort in The Giving Project.



At both the Maine Women’s Fund and the Sewall Foundation, Leslie has championed trust-based relationship building and grantmaking designed to expand access to power and strengthen collaborations for lasting change.



Recently, her own “community organizing”– with support from the Maine Council on Aging – entailed gathering Black Elders to make their experiences, voices, and resilience as “aging while Black” in Maine visible and heard. She sees our world rich with opportunities to generate cross-class and multiracial engagements and community organizing to build a world where power is shared and everyone can thrive.

Leslie Hill

Born and raised in Portland, OR, Frankie Tran (they/them) joins the Maine Initiatives team with experience as a community organizer with the <a href="http://maineworkers.org">Southern Maine Workers’ Center</a>, a grassroots member-led organization working to improve the lives, working conditions, and terms of employment for working class and poor people in Maine. They are the founding organizer of <a href="http://www.tendertable.com/">Tender Table</a>, a project celebrating Black and Brown community in Maine by connecting and honoring our identities, traditions, joy, resilience, and fight for collective liberation through storytelling and food. Frankie is a Program Associate at Maine Initiatives, supporting the Outdoor Equity Fund and the Giving Project.



email: frankie_at_maineinitiatives_dot_org

Frankie Tran

Alana (she/her) is the Operations Associate at Maine Initiatives. Prior to Maine Initiatives, Alana has worked as a Communications/Operations Manager at a Portland restaurant, adjunct professor at Maine College of Art + Design, and a freelance writer, among other things. She has a BA in Latin American Studies and Spanish from Smith College and a MA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.



Born in Texas and raised in Hong Kong and Houston, she now lives in Portland with her two young children and long-haired tuxedo cat, Bok Choy and currently serves on the board of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance.



email: alana_at_maineinitiatives_dot_org

Alana Dao

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_dot_org

Martina Leake

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_maineinitiatives_dot_org

Lia Wilson

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_dot_org

Amanda Scarpone

Jennifer Ceide is a Haitian-American from Brooklyn, NY. She serves as a Faculty Member in the Graduate Programs in Public Health at the University of New England and oversees the programs&#8217; workforce development and curriculum activities. With over 15 years of experience in the field, Jennifer specializes in public health education and program planning.&nbsp;



She is passionate about the performing arts and believes in its power to inspire and heal. Jennifer can be seen singing with her band Kouchera in the New England Region.

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

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_dot_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

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_dot_org

Julian Rowand

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.



email: phil_at_maineinitiatives_dot_org

Team

Together, we advance justice.

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