Nat Shed (Chair) is the Director of Friends Camp, a Quaker youth
camp in South China, Maine. In the past he has served as the Director
of Development for the Family Planning Association of Maine, the
Executive Director for the Boys and Girls Club in Waterville, the
Director of the Foster Grandparent Program in Portland, and as
Director of Camp Ketcha in Scarborough. In addition to his involvement
with the Mid-Maine Global Forum, he serves on several community
boards: the Oak Grove School Foundation, the Maine Youth Camping
Foundation, and the Keller Family Campership Fund. He is a member of
the Vassalboro Friends Meeting, where he serves on the Pastoral Care
Committee and the Finance Committee. Nat has two adult children and
is married to Julie de Sherbinin.
Barbara Spangle (Secretary) is the Assistant Director of the Oak Institute for International Human Rights and the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College. A Maine native, she attended Bowdoin College earning an A.B. in German, and after graduating she became a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Neubukow, Germany. Barb returned from abroad and spent the next eight years in the Boston area. During that time she worked as a Regional Manager for EF Foundation for Foreign Study and then an Admissions Adviser at InterStudy while also completing her M.A. in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University. Prior to her arrival in Waterville, she spent four years as the Assistant Director of International Education at Bentley University. Barb became a member of NAFSA: Association of International Educators in 2005 and joined the board of the Mid Maine Global Forum in fall 2010.
Barbara Woodlee (Co-Treasurer) is the president of Kennebec Valley Community College, a role in which she has served for 27 years. Barbara joined the staff of Kennebec Valley Vocational Technical Institute (KVVTI) in 1976 as Director of Adult Education. She held a number of administrative positions before becoming president in 1984. Over the next two and a half decades, she led the institution through its transition from KVVTI to Kennebec Valley Technical College and, in 2003, to Kennebec Valley Community College. Barbara has held positions with both the Department of Labor and the Treasury Department and has taught Adult Basic Education. Barbara holds a doctorate in higher education administration from Vanderbilt University, a master’s degree from the University of Southern Maine, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine at Farmington, and a two-year degree from Cazenovia College in New York.
Beth Schiller (Registrar) is Registrar at Colby College where she previously served as a Senior Systems Analyst in Information Technology Services. She has been on the board of the Mid Maine Global Forum since 2003. Beth has a Master of Fine Arts degree in Piano from the University of Iowa, and is an active musician in the area. She resides in Waterville with her husband and two teenage stepsons.
Eugene Beaupre is retired from his career in medicine with a special interest in hematology and oncology, as well as medical administration. He is actively involved in personal continuing education, fly fishing and tying, gardening, woodworking, and traveling. A long standing interest in foreign affairs led to his joining the Global Forum board.
Mary Benziger earned a B.A. degree in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts. With that degree Mary (and her husband John) raised four children and has dedicated countless hours to community and international volunteer efforts. Mary designed and implemented an art appreciation program in the Waterville Public Schools that involved dozens of community members sharing art prints in the classrooms (K-8). She is a docent at the Colby College Museum of Art, on the board of directors of the Keller Family Campership Program, the Let’s Talk Language School, and Partners in Health of Maine. Since 2003 she and John have traveled to Nicaragua many times with PIH and has painted 8 murals with the eager help of the Nicaraguan people. In her spare time she enjoys biking, hiking, and traveling—-always up for an adventure and eager to learn about other cultures.
Karl Dornish has been a Winslow resident since 1985, and is retired from a career in paper manufacturing in Maine, Michigan and Alabama. Karl is currently the Management Representative for the Maine Labor Relations Board and Trustee of the Kennebec Water District. Karl is a graduate of Colby College and The Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Jim Fleming is Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Colby College. Jim has held a number of major fellowships, including a Scholar’s Award from the US National Science Foundation, the Lindbergh Chair in aerospace history at the Smithsonian Institution, and a Woodrow Wilson Center policy scholarship. He is a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society, contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR4), founder and first president of the International Commission on History of Meteorology, and series editor of Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. His latest book is Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control (Columbia University Press, 2010), winner of the 2011 Sally Hacker Prize from the Society for the History of Technology and the Louis J. Battan Author’s Award from the American Meteorological Society. He enjoys fishing, good jazz, good BBQ, building the community of historians of the geosciences, and connecting the history of science and technology with public policy. Jim earned his Ph.D. in history from Princeton University.
Patrice Franko, a specialist in development economics in Latin America, came to Colby in 1986 and is now the Grossman Professor of Economics and serves as director of the Global Studies Program. She is the former director of the Oak Institute for the Study of International Human Rights at Colby. Patrice teaches classes in international finance, in contemporary economic development in Latin America, the Transatlantic Divide and in microeconomics principles. She has also been active as a consultant to the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies and the National Academy of Sciences. Patrice earned her B.A. from Bucknell University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Notre Dame University.
Sylvia Jadczak is the Librarian at Messalonskee High School where she coordinates student programming in the arts, cultural & civic engagement, and the locavore movement. Her professional interests include grant writing and adolescent literacy. She enjoys facilitating and participating in school and community book groups. She majored in American Studies at Rutgers University and received her Masters degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina.
Steve Knight is currently an Adjunct Professor of History at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield, Maine, after 36 years of teaching mostly at Lawrence High School, also in Fairfield. After spending part of his high school education living in England, Steve received his Bachelors in History in 1970 from Ithaca College and his Masters in U.S. History from the University of Virgina in 1973. He has led student trips to the Soviet Union, England, France, Thailand and Vietnam, and has traveled extensively in South America, Europe, Africa and parts of Asia.
William A. Lee III is an attorney at O’Donnell, Lee, McCowan and Phillips, LLC, where he specializes in all aspects of litigation, personal injury, estate planning and municipal law. Bill began his practice as an attorney for the Colville Confederated Tribes in Washington state, where he represented the Tribes and individual tribal members in civil and criminal litigation. He relocated to Waterville in 1982, where he has practiced law since. Bill was a member of the Waterville City Council for six years (two as Chairman) and the Waterville School Board for three years. He serves as City Solicitor for Waterville, Town Attorney for Winslow, and legal counsel for several small municipalities, in addition to his role with the Mid Maine Global Forum. Bill is also a part-time professor at Colby College, where he teaches courses in Comparative Law and the U.S. Legal System. He is a graduate of Eckerd College and the University of Florida School of Law. Bill has two adult daughters and resides in Waterville with his wife, Linda. He is an avid runner, golfer, kayaker and bird-watcher, escaping to Baxter State Park whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Dr. Thomas R. W. Longstaff, former Waterville City Councilor, is currently serving in the Maine State House of Representatives. He retired from Colby College in 2002 after 33 years as a member of the faculty. His archaeological experience in Israel began in 1974 and he was the Associate Director of the University of South Florida’s Excavations at Sepphoris from 1983-2003. He is the author (or co-author) of more than 50 books, articles and reviews primarily in the areas of New Testament studies and field archaeology. Tom graduated from Winthrop High School and later earned his B.A. at the University of Maine in Orono, his M.Div. at Bangor Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. at Columbia University. He has done post graduate work at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and spent sabbatical years at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, at the Center for Materials Research in Archaeology and Ethnology at M.I.T. and at the Semitic Museum at Harvard. Tom served in the Maine National Guard and the United States Marine Corps and later as a firefighter and emergency medical technician in Waterville. He is married to Cynthia nee Curtis and is very proud of his five children and five grandchildren. Tom loves musical theater and has appeared on stage more than a dozen times. While writing this brief bio he was humming “There’s no business like show business….”
Kate O’Halloran is the Director of Gift Planning and Major Gifts at MaineGeneral Health. She attended Brown University where she graduated with honors and a double major in Economics and Organizational Development and played varsity ice hockey. In 1998, Kate earned an MBA from Babson College, where she stayed on to become the interim Assistant Dean and the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the F.W. Olin School of Business, as well the Associate Director of the world-renowned Arthur Blank Center for Entrepreneurship. After 15 years of living and working in Boston, Kate returned to Waterville in 2003 and is delighted to have made Maine her home once again. In addition to her work at MaineGeneral and being a member of the board of the Mid Maine Global Forum, Kate serves on the Hardy Girls Business Development committee, is a Corporator of Kennebec Savings Bank, and spends every winter Sunday in a local ice rink where she coordinates the Learn To Play program for Central Maine Youth Hockey.
Sarah Sugden is the Director of the Waterville Public Library. A graduate of Waterville High School, Sarah earned an undergraduate degree in History from Dartmouth College and a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. She lives with her family in East Vassalboro.
Jerry Tipper is one of the founders of the Mid Maine Global Forum and has been a board member since inception, including six years as chairman of the board. A Williams College and Harvard Business School graduate, Jerry is the former owner and CEO of the Cascade Woolen Mill in Oakland, ME. In addition to his involvement with the MMGF, he is also the former chair of the Mid Maine Medical Center, Waterville Boys and Girls Club and the Colby College Leadership Institute. His current volunteer efforts are focused on the environment and specifically on programs to improve the water quality of the Belgrade Lakes, as the founder and current board member of BRCA Youth Conservation Corps and the BRCA Lakes Trust. Jerry has engaged in extensive international travel in addition to his many local volunteer efforts.
