NEW HIRES
Jim Grasky
Jim Grasky has become the director of finance and operations at the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute. Grasky has over 30 years of experience in accounting and finance in companies ranging from Fortune 500 companies to local, family-owned businesses. He also coaches high school and youth hockey in Maine. The Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute is a nonprofit that supports high school girls develop leadership skills.
Joy Moody
Southern Maine Health Care appointed Joy Moody as the associate chief nursing officer. Moody served as nursing vice president at Maine Medical Center since 2017 and previously held other roles in the MMC emergency and inpatient units. She received her B.S. and M.S. in nursing from the University of New Hampshire.
Cris Wescott takes on the role of interim president and chief executive officer for the Maine Credit Union League and Synergent. Wescott has been with the organization for over 36 years as the chief financial officer and member of the senior leadership team. MCUL and Synergent hope to permanently fill the position by early 2024.
Perkins Thompson welcomed Nona E. Gillis as an associate in the firm’s trust and estate practice group. Gillis received her J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law. In 2018, she received the Diana DeJesus Student Bar Association Distinguished Service Award recognizing her commitment to serving her law school community.
PROMOTIONS
Lucy Ditzel
Atlantic Federal Credit Union promoted Lucy Ditzel to chief people officer. Ditzel has over 12 years of experience in human resources and training and development. She joined Atlantic in October 2019 and has been working in the human resources department, concentrating on restructuring the organizational culture.
BOARD APPOINTMENTS
Jim Merrill
N. Joel Moser
Peter Van Hemel
Bernstein Shur elected three new board members: Jim Merrill, N. Joel Moser and Peter Van Hemel. Merrill is a shareholder and managing partner in the New Hampshire office and has had an extensive public affairs career in the state. Most notably, he has advised multiple presidential campaigns over the past two decades, providing guidance in the complex Granite State. Moser is the co-chair of the firm’s environmental and energy practice group and chair of the firm’s property tax and valuation team. He is a nationally recognized lawyer with a J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law, M.A. in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Bowdoin College. Van Hemel is a co-chair of the firm’s real estate practice group, bringing over 20 years of experience in real estate, renewable energy and telecommunications development. He holds a J.D. from Boston University and a B.A. from the College of William and Mary.
Kevin Burns
Bath Savings elected Kevin Burns as its board’s vice chair. Burns has been on the board since 2011. He was a founder of Quality Containers of New England and remains active in the Falmouth community.
ImmuCell Corp., of Portland, has appointed Bryan K. Gathagan to its board of directors. Gathagan is the owner and managing member of Broad Thinking, a management consulting firm, and has over 25 years of animal health experience. ImmuCell creates products to improve the health and productivity of cattle.
RECOGNITIONS
SCORE Maine recognized nine Maine-based small businesses for their success in the past year. SCORE is a national organization that helps build small businesses by connecting mentors with growing businesses.
• Kate Griffin and John Peelen, the founders of Maggie Mae’s won the Hospitality Small Business Award for the work they did with Cooking for Community. Starting in March 2020, they provided 100 meals a week to food-insecure communities in Portland.
• Founder of the Cultivated Thread in Wiscasset, Hilary Crowell, won the Home-Based Successful Business Award.
• The Digital Successful Small Business Award went to Anush Hansen, who started Balanced Card Sorts, a wellness-focused value assessment product for students and employees to help encourage mental health wellness.
• Colleen Hanlon-Smith won the Agricultural Successful Business Award for her leadership of Daybreak Growers Alliance.
• Founder of Cranberry Oysters Lauren Gray won the Aquaculture Successful Business Award for her oyster farm in the Great and Little Cranberry Island community.
• Manasse Shingiro, a Rwandan genocide survivor and founder of Casco Bay Cleaning won the Diverse Successful Business award, after growing his business from two employees to over 100 employees in five years.
• The Women-Owned Successful Business Award went to the Founder of Bijou Build Amanda Lacey in Camden.
• Founder of Kelson Marine Toby Dewhurst won the Innovative Small Business Award for its international environmental protection engineering projects.
• The Bangor Public Library and Digital Librarian Hannah Cyrus received the Partner Success Award for the webinars it has hosted for SCORE.
Jacki Cone
Jacki Cone was named the Teacher of the Year at Thornton Academy. A 2009 Thornton graduate, she returned to the school as a math teacher after receiving her B.A. in communications and media studies from the University of Southern Maine and M.A. in secondary mathematics education from the Chaminade University of Honolulu. Cone’s passion for teaching was inspired by her family, as she is the fifth generation of educators in her family.
David Goyette
SeniorPlus awarded David Goyette the 2023 Margaret Ross Award for his commitment to volunteerism in his community. Goyette has directly worked with SeniorPlus and Meals on Wheels to deliver meals to and check in with homebound senior citizens. In 2022, he volunteered almost 1,000 hours.
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