This fall, five new Island Institute Fellows have joined four returning fellows to work in island and coastal communities from the Downeast region to Casco Bay. The new fellows will work on a variety of projects.
The Island Fellows Program is perhaps the Island Institute’s most visible and valued program. At the request of communities, fellows spend one to two years working on identified projects. They bring expertise, resources and the all-important “extra set of hands” to their hosting communities and organizations.
Brooke Brewer’s home base on Peaks Island will allow her to focus on affordable-housing and economic-development issues on several Casco Bay islands. She will assist affordable-housing projects in development on Peaks Island, and help coordinate community housing efforts on Cliff Island.
Brewer, a Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of New Hampshire, spent the past two years with the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. She has also worked as a farmer and a counselor at Spring Lake Ranch, a nonprofit psychiatric rehabilitation center in Shrewsbury, VT.
Her experience on Nantucket, and her knowledge of the forces pushing those who work in the island’s primary industry — tourism — out of the housing market there, has prepared her well for her fellowship.
“It is apparent that a similar problem is beginning to affect the local Maine coastal islands,” she said. “However, on the Maine islands there seems to still be a strong year-round community and a working coastline, as well as a real desire to maintain island traditions. Because of this, there is a need for careful development policy that respects the history of the islands and maintains and supports its traditions and people.”
Thea Young, the new fellow for the newly incorporated Town of Chebeague Island, will provide GIS assistance to help the community develop land-use and zoning regulations and its first comprehensive plan. She will help develop maps that display and analyze information to identify land-use issues and the implication of land-use policies.
Young is a recent graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a degree in geography who also studied at the University of London and received a Fellowship at Queen’s University Centre for Data Digitization and Analysis in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
“I want the chance to realize my initial ambitions with geography, using it as a tool to study the way in which people connect with the environment around them,” Young said. She believes that this fellowship will allow her to use GIS as a way to directly benefit communities while she gains experience in town planning and natural resource management.
Peter Levandoski, Vinalhaven’s new fellow, will serve as a public health outreach coordinator with Island Community Medical Services on the island. He will help clinic staff expand existing services and initiate new programs, with a focus on such issues as diabetes prevention and awareness, eldercare and healthy habits.
Levandoski graduated from Davidson College with a major in biology, and received a three-year scholarship from the Bonner Foundation for his involvement in community service. He has extensive experience volunteering and working with healthcare organizations, and has also served as a counselor and unit leader for the YMCA Camp of Maine.
He looks forward to synthesizing two skills: critical thinking and the ability to pursue leads that are logical and novel. “As an Island Institute Fellow, I feel that I will gain experience by applying logical methods to enact community development that achieves tangible, beneficial results for all parts of the environment,” he said.
Katie Chapman brings a passion for environmental issues to Swan’s Island, where she will focus on community outreach and education strategies that support the Swan’s Island Electric Cooperative’s investigation of wind power possibilities for the island. She will also help the Island Healthcare Committee explore healthcare needs and develop programs for the Swan’s Island Healthcare Clinic scheduled to open in 2008.
A native of Oregon, Chapman is a recent graduate of Bowdoin College, where she majored in Spanish, was an All-American swimmer and an active member in several college and local environmental groups. She participated in a successful campaign to encourage Bowdoin to buy 100 percent clean energy.
“I am strongly interested in how wind turbines, GIS mapping and other technologies may be integrated with social, economic and cultural concerns and simultaneously preserve the environment,” Chapman said. She believes that the fellows program offers her an ideal opportunity to get hands-on experience in long-term technological and developmental planning.
Morgan Witham’s placement on Isle au Haut will focus on helping the island elementary school develop a physical education curriculum, increase overall technology skills and develop methods of incorporating technology into the classroom. She will also help the Revere Memorial Library organize and digitize its catalog, and develop other activities with the year-round community.
Witham grew up on Deer Isle, studied theater at Grinnell College and returned to Maine to work as an education technician at the Gouldsboro Grammar School and as a docent at the Woodlawn Museum. She earned a master’s degree in American and New England Studies at the University of Southern Maine, where she worked as an archivist at the Glickman Library and as a research assistant.
“I have seen the good and the bad that island life has to offer, and would like the opportunity to return to such a life, with new skills, confidence, and understanding in tow,” Witham said. She sees her fellowship as a way to bridge her academic and prior work experience with her goals of staying in Maine and contributing to the state’s educational and cultural development.
Witham, Chapman, Levandoski, Young and Brewer will join returning Fellows Alden Robinson (Long Island), Anne Bardaglio (Matinicus), David Steckler (North Haven) and Scott Sell (Frenchboro). Returning Fellow Annie Tselikis (Deer Isle/Stonington) will finish her Fellowship in October.