Board of Trustees

Nick is the Marine Programs Director at the Island Institute, where he spends his days helping fishermen and coastal communities understand emerging issues. Most recently he has been working on understanding the impacts changing ocean conditions will have on fishing communities; including fishermen and coastal communities in ocean planning; helping fishermen diversify their income by starting shellfish or seaweed aquaculture businesses; and leading statewide discussions about ocean acidification. He spent 3 years working for Congresswoman Pingree, advising her on natural resource, working waterfront, and coastal policy issues. He has been a MITA member since 1996 and has paddled much of the Trail, including a 20 day trip in 2008 from Lincolnville to Machias. He is a native Mainer, registered Maine Guide, graduate of Colby College, and has a Masters in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island and a JD from Roger Williams University. He and his wife Meredith live in Camden and enjoy sailing in Penobscot Bay and kayaking to MITA islands.

Janet has spent the majority of her career in the field of human resources management, supporting both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.  She is a former Watch Officer with the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, where she fell in love with Penobscot Bay and the coast of Maine.  Janet grew up surrounded by lakes and sailing in Michigan, and attended the University of Michigan where she majored in Organizational Behavior.  She also holds a graduate degree in education from Harvard University.  Janet enjoys skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, biking, and spending time on the waters of Casco Bay.  She lives in Falmouth with her partner, Kathryn, and their dog, Devon.

Nancy retired from her private medical practice in 2017, and looks forward to more time on both land and sea. She loves to hike, ski, and forage for wild mushrooms when not kayaking or sailing in the waters around Harpswell and Downeast.  She believes getting outdoors is restorative for all of us, and setting oneself physical challenges adds satisfaction. She has been active on the American Cancer Society board as well as the board of a local theater. Home is in Harpswell with her husband, who has been helping the younger of her two sons pursue oyster aquaculture there.

Fiona Gordon is the Associate Director of Philanthropy at the Natural Resources Council of Maine where she works to strengthen and grow NRCM’s major gifts program. Fiona was born and raised in New York and moved to Maine in 2012 after graduating from Boston University. Prior to coming to NRCM, she was assistant coach of the Bowdoin College sailing team and fundraised for the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences.  In 2014 Fiona participated in the Lift360 Emerging Leaders program after which she served two years on the board of Speak About It, Inc. and four years on the board of Portland Ballet.  In 2016 embarked on a year of travel, including cruising round trip from Maine to Labrador and mountain biking through Utah. She now lives in Freeport and spends as much of her summer as possible in South Bristol, Maine. Fiona is an active sailor and sailing coach, an avid powerboat adventurer, and fly fisher. Off the water, she enjoys mountain biking, skiing, and exploring Portland’s delicious restaurants.

Maureen is a Human Resources executive at L.L.Bean where she has worked since 1991. She promotes effective collaboration across all functions and levels in the organization in multi-channel direct marketing and retail sales of outdoor gear and apparel with over $1.5 B in annual sales. She performs strategic planning, program and process development, and leadership of multiple HR functions. She matches L.L.Bean employees to appropriate board service and also serves on retail association boards including the Retail Industry Leadership Association (RILA), Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Council. Maureen co-led a 2019 L.L.Bean campaign contributing over $1 million to the United Way. She is on the Workforce Advisory Board of Maine Outdoor Brands. Living in Maine since middle school, she has never lived more than a couple of miles from the ocean and relishes time on all sorts of boats. Her newest is a Goat Island Skiff that she and her husband are learning to sail. She also loves open-water swimming, kayaking, scuba diving, paddleboarding, hiking, and mountain biking. Maureen has an M.A. in Organization Studies / Corporate Social Responsibility from Skidmore College.

A MITA member since 2018, Eric embraces the spirit of cooperation, stewardship and adventure that is characteristic of MITA. Eric works as an attorney with Eaton Peabody, Bangor, representing businesses and owners in corporate transactions, financings, and contracts of all kinds. Since covid, he has had the pleasure of living and working remotely from a tidal cove at Deer Isle. A kayaker, Eric has explored northern Deer Isle, eastern Penobscot Bay, and the islands off Stonington, and adopts tiny Apple Island for MITA. His first love of paddling was as a canoeist in the Midwest, including an Outward Bound expedition and return trips in the Boundary Waters. Eric is a Deer Isle volunteer ambulance driver and is on the Board of the Maine Conservation Alliance. He is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Michigan Law School.

Rob was born and raised in Connecticut and graduated from Middlebury College with a BA in Economics. During the early ’80s he biked, hiked, and worked in New Zealand, Australia, and Southeast Asia before settling into a career as a computer network specialist for Columbia University, Banker’s Trust, and Digital Equipment. After earning his CFP in the mid 90’s, he ran a small financial planning business until 2004. A resident of Kittery Point since 2000, he has been an active volunteer with the Kittery Land Trust and the Mt. Agamenticus to the Sea Conservation Initiative, helping to conserve over 1000 acres in Southern Maine. Rob can most often be found outdoors on the water or veggie gardening during the summer and telemark or cross-country skiing during the winter. His adventures have included mountain climbing in Nepal and Bolivia, summiting Denali, sailing from Hobart to Sydney, and backcountry skiing in Greenland and Iceland. While indoors, he enjoys sipping Italian red wine, making pasta, and strumming his ukulele.

John O’Meara is a cardiologist and an avid blue water sailor who has spent most of his life in Maine.  Born in Ellsworth, John lived in Hancock Point until age 12 when his family moved to New York.  John returned to Maine full-time as soon as he could. John still has a seasonal home in Hancock Point that he frequents in the summer and spends the rest of the year in Falmouth.  In addition to his sailboat, John has a 22-foot center console powerboat.  He is a member of the Portland Yacht Club and a past attendee of the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School.

Victor discovered Maine as a youth on a family canoe trip to the Allagash. Years later, he attended Bates college where he ski raced and earned a BA in Economics. He has lived in Maine ever since raising a family of four (4) daughters with his wife Elizabeth in Cumberland. Professionally, he is a healthcare technology entrepreneur, founding a number of Maine based companies and most recently was a Managing Director of a control-focused private equity fund transacting extensively in North America and Europe. An avid skier, and Wilderness First Responder, Victor spends most of his winter in the backcountry and is AAIRE Level 1 and 2 avalanche certified. He currently lives on Panther Pond, in Raymond, with his wife Elizabeth, dog Baxter and many visiting children, grandchildren and pets. His outdoor pursuits include whitewater kayaking, mountain biking, rowing, Pickleball, fishing and hunting. His family enjoys spending time on Casco Bay on “Dash Between” the family tuna / lobster boat.

Katherine Pope is a retired anesthesiologist and a co-founder of Spectrum Healthcare Partners—Maine’s largest multispecialty, physician-owned group practice. Her undergraduate degree is from Colby College, her medical degree from the University of Vermont, and her residency training was at Maine Medical Center. In addition to clinical practice, Dr. Pope had roles in healthcare management. She has had a long interest in palliative and hospice care, and was a co-founder of Hospice of Southern Maine. She also participated in international medical service, periodically volunteering on medical mission trips in developing countries. She has served on various large and small non-profit community boards. Always interested in nature and the outdoors, Katherine has been a MITA member since 1990. After retiring from a rewarding clinical career, she is delighted to enjoy more time cruising the Maine coast, hiking, skiing, golf, pickleball, as well as some handcrafts and amateur carving

Tim grew up on the coast of Maine, living in Brunswick and spending summers in Pine Point. After several years living out-of-state, he was thrilled to return to Maine to begin a career at L.L.Bean. Tim held a variety of senior leadership roles in marketing and finance over a 20+ year career at L.L.Bean, including running the co-branded credit card program. Most recently as Vice President of Product for WEX, he led a large corporate initiative supporting WEX’s flagship fleet card business.

Tim received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College and his master’s degree from Brown University, both in mathematics. He previously served on the Board of Lift360, helping strengthen Maine communities and businesses by improving the effectiveness of leaders and organizations. Tim lives in Falmouth and enjoys spending time on the Maine coast with his wife Vanessa and three children.

After beginning his career in real estate development in Boston, Sam brought his family back home to Maine shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began. He is currently leading the redevelopment of the former B&M Baked Bean plant, across from MITA’s Portland offices, as head of operations & real estate for IDEALS (Initiative for Digital Engineering and Life Sciences). Sam and his wife Caitlin have three children, ages three, five, and eight. They are active boaters around Casco Bay and enjoy bringing their kids ashore on the islands for family time and exploration. Sam recognizes the value of public access to Maine’s islands, and thoroughly enjoys giving back to the community through his board service with MITA.

Janet Robinson is an environmental consultant with over 30 years of experience in ecological risk assessment, ecological studies, and hazardous waste site investigation at Woodard & Curran. She has conducted studies at sites nationwide, but is now delighted to be slipping the harness and entering at least partial retirement. A lifelong runner, she loves cycling, backpacking, and paddling, and has over 12,000 miles of bike touring experience, including a solo cross-country trip. She is also a Registered Maine Guide who paddled the Maine coast in 2020, obtaining an intimate knowledge of many of the Trail islands and the slippery intertidal rocks thereon. She is the current president of the Southern Maine Sea Kayaking Network.

Janet enjoys playing guitar and clawhammer banjo and lives in Scarborough with her spouse Evy Newlyn, a retired English professor. She brings particular experience in policy-based governance models, which she helped write and implement as former head of the governing board at the First Parish UU church in Portland. Janet is thrilled to be part of the MITA organization and looks forward to many more skiff rides.

Jeff is a partner at the accounting firm Baker Newman Noyes in Portland, Maine. He is the leader of the firm’s banking practice and Director of the firm’s Quality Control Committee. He also practices in the not-for-profit industry. Jeff was previously the Board Chair and Treasurer for Maine Audubon as well as a board member for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine. He is a graduate of the University of Maine at Orono and lives with his wife, Jamey, and their 3 daughters in Portland. In his free time, Jeff enjoys being outdoors with his family camping, hiking and being on the water.

Meghan has been working in the environmental sustainability field since 2002, with a focus on food, agriculture, and circular economy policy and advocacy. Before she was a policy expert Meghan was a whitewater raft guide and wilderness expedition leader and she is committed to getting people of all ages and backgrounds into the outdoors. She spent her summers sailing in the South Bristol area of midcoast Maine, and moved back to the state full time in 2017. A resident of South Portland, Meghan spends her time sailing, paddling, and skiing all that Maine has to offer. She has a BA from Hamilton College and an MBA from Boston College.

Kim kayaks, sails, and bikes from her home port in Freeport. After a career in law, she worked for the Bicycle Coalition of Maine to start BikeMaine, a week-long bike tour of a different region of Maine each year to promote bicycle tourism as an economic driver for small rural communities. A particularly relevant project of hers was working with a stakeholder group to create the Bold Coast Scenic Bikeway (Maine’s first scenic bikeway), a signed, 211-mile on-road route located along the Bold Coast of Washington and Hancock counties. Kim and her husband, Jeffrey, enjoy exploring Maine by land and sea.

Mark recently retired from a 36-year career in commercial banking where his most recent position was head of commercial credit for the sixth-largest bank in the USA. He has extensive experience in institutional risk and financial management.

Mark’s passion for the coast of Maine began in 1979 on the way to a solo hiking trip in Nova Scotia and he has returned virtually every year since. In addition to their home in southern New Jersey, Mark and his wife have a home in Tremont on MDI from which they sail, powerboat, row, paddle, hike and ski.

Mark has served over 30 years on the board of the non-profit Bridgeton Christian School and is an elder in his church. He was a member of the Risk Management Association where he was a regular speaker and committee chair. Mark graduated with a BS in Finance from Glassboro State College and completed the Advanced Risk Management program at the Wharton School.

Kate grew up in Cumberland, Maine. Much of her childhood was spent cruising on her family’s sailboat on the coast of Maine, or Nova Scotia, or at a cabin on Moshier’s Island. Today she continues to sail with her husband Peter in Maine, and other wonderful parts of the world. In her professional life Kate is a Senior Vice President/Client Advisor for Spinnaker Trust in Portland. She manages investment portfolios for individuals, family and non profit endowments. She is a Certified Wealth Strategist (CWS). Kate previously served on three other nonprofit boards: Chewonki Foundation (Treasurer 12 years), the Morris Farm Trust (Treasurer 9 years) and the YWCA of Maine in the 1990s (no longer an active entity).