Featured Bloggers

| Penny Kern | Eileen Buzzello | Anne Schink | Patricia Kimball | Michael Aiguier | Matt Robinson | Jane E Haskell | Daniel Martinage | Laura Rog |

Penny Kern

Penny Kern recently retired from Abnaki Girl Scout Council (now Girl Scouts of Maine) as Membership Program Manager. For 17 years, she was responsible for recruiting, placing, training and supporting about 250 adults annually for the Girl Scout programs in Aroostook County. She has designed a variety of learning opportunities for adults and has been a facilitator of adult learners for a program for the State of New Jersey, International Paper and the American Red Cross since 1976. She is married to a retired Air Force Sergeant. She has four grown children, 5 (soon to be 6) grandchildren and a great grandchild. Originally from Pennsylvania, Penny and her husband decided to settle in Maine after 26 years of moving all over the world.

Eileen Buzzello

Disaster Services AmeriCorps VISTA
Eileen Buzzello joined the Commission in November 2010 after retiring from an active trial law practice. In her role as an AmeriCorps VISTA she will be working with communities and community agencies to develop a coordinated response to emergencies through the use of volunteers. In addition, she will conduct legal research on Maine laws that govern volunteerism.

Anne B. Schink

Anne Schink is a consultant in volunteer management, training, and facilitation offering services to nonprofit organizations, public entities, and faith-based organizations. From 1995 to 2009 Anne was the Program/Training/Disability Officer at the Maine Commission for Community Service. During that time she worked directly with AmeriCorps program directors, staff, and members to strengthen programs through training and technical assistance. She organized conferences, training events, and small meetings. Anne has also provided professional coaching support to program directors and staff on grants management, program design, goals, objectives, and evaluation. As the Disability Coordinator she supported programs to recruit, retain, and include individuals with disabilities in all parts of the AmeriCorps programs.

Anne previously worked as a large group facilitator in public policy, worked in a public policy consulting firm, and provided leadership in many nonprofit organizations. She also serves on the InforME Board which was created to support the State of Maine’s development of e-government and e-commerce. Anne continues her volunteer activities with the League of Women Voters, Jump Start, and her church. She has two grown daughters and lives in South Portland.

Patricia Kimball

Patricia Kimball is the owner/founder of Ideactive Solutions, a newly launched organization that offers grant writing and consultation services to help nonprofit agencies, small businesses and budding entrepreneurs turn their ideas into action. Prior to founding Ideactive Solutions, Patricia was employed as the Director of Community Development by Volunteers of America Northern New England. Patricia has worked in the not-for-profit world for over 20 years, in diverse capacities and with a variety of populations. She has an undergraduate degree in English, a Master’s in Human Services Administration and a Master’s degree in Community Economic Development. Patricia lives in Georgetown with her husband and two faithful animal companions.

Michael Aiguier

Michael Aiguier is an AmeriCorps VISTA with the VolunteerMaine Project serving at the United Way of Eastern Maine. He has received certificates in sound engineering and religious studies. He lives in the Bangor area with his wife Jenn and their two dogs, two rabbits and cat. They also enjoy spending time with their horse, Snowflake, a retired Standard bred race horse.

Matt Robinson

Matt Robinson is an education consultant with KIDS Consortium (www.kidsconsortium.org), where he designs and delivers service-learning professional development, and collaborates with school district and community leadership teams as they develop policies and supports to integrate and sustain service-learning.  Matt also coordinates Project Citizen in Maine with the national Center for Civic  EducationMatt joined KIDS Consortium after teaching students at the middle and high school levels in alternative and regular education settings. He approaches the work of an education consultant as a classroom  practitioner of service-learning. Matt earned a B.S. degree in Education from the University of Maine at Farmington and a M.Ed from the University of Maine.  He lives in Saco with his wife and daughter.

Jane Haskell

Jane is an Extension Educator with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. She brings over 20 years of experience in the design and implementation of experiential community development programs for youth and adults. Over the years she has launched several innovative Extension programs, from Voices, a school-based enrichment program for teens, to the Mid-Coast Home-Based Business Conference, the first statewide conference for home-based business owners in Maine, to producing and hosting Doing Business, a live, public affairs radio show. As a result of her community facilitation work, her latest innovation is the collaborative creation of Strengthening Your Facilitation Skills, Levels 1 and 2. The Training Series is designed to help local citizens as well as professional staff learn how to get work done more effectively and efficiently in group meetings. Jane is working collaboratively to research the societal impact of having skilled community facilitators, Extension customers’ perception of focus groups, and meeting the learning styles of New England’s fishermen. She is a member of the International Association of Facilitators and the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals.

Daniel Martinage

Daniel Martinage founded and leads the firm Association Coach, LLC. Daniel is a Certified Association Executive (CAE) with 32 years of experience. The former Executive Director of the International Coach Federation, he is also on the faculty of The Center for Nonprofit Advancement, and is a Judge/Reviewer for The Washington Post Award for Excellence in Nonprofit Management. To learn more about Daniel, visit his website at www.assocationcoach.com

Laura Rog

Laura Rog is the Director of Training and Technical Assistance for generationOn. Her team works with educators and nonprofits to inspire, equip, and mobilize youth to make their mark on the world. Laura began her career as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Albion Central School District in New York. After a successful year of service, Albion Central School District hired her to coordinate federal grants and run the Finger Lakes Service Learning Institute where she provided service-learning training and programming across the region and state. In addition, she has worked with K-12 students, supervised elementary student leadership councils, facilitated weekend enrichment classes for middle school students, and taught after-school and night school classes at the senior high level. Laura’s interests include adolescent development, nontraditional learning environments, and youth voice, which have led her to international work with Tanzanian students to document water needs in their schools, as well as teaching abroad in Japan in the year prior to joining generationOn.