Presenters

Anne Adrian

Anne Mims Adrian is the eXtension Social Media Strategist for the Military Families Partnership. Anne holds a doctorate in Management and has worked for Auburn University and Cooperative Extension for 23 years. Most of her online work can be found on her blog—Anne’s Spot, in Twitter–@aafromaa, and in Slideshare. Anne believes that online networks give Cooperative Extension and universities ways to include citizens into collaborative education, opening new opportunities to learn from others and build knowledge with others.

Taylor Bloedon, MS., RD

Taylor Bloedon is a Registered Dietitian with a Bachelor’s Degree in Honors Psychology from the University of Oregon and a Master’s Degree from Oregon State University in Nutrition and Food Management with a graduate minor in Exercise Physiology. Taylor is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at the University of Maine. She has been the HealthyU Employee Wellness Manager for 2.5 years and loves to play outside!

Cathy Elliott, Leslie Forstadt, Jonathan Prichard

Cathy Elliott, Leslie Forstadt, and Jon Prichard are Extension faculty members with a combined 50 years of experience at UMaine. Cathy is our Sustainable Living and Wildlife Specialist, Leslie is our Child and Family Development Specialist, and Jon is an Extension Educator in 4H Youth Development and Community Leadership. They each love facilitating groups of people who are interested in learning more about themselves and how that helps them work better in groups. They enjoyed meshing their individual learning styles to work together on this presentation — can you guess who prefers which style?

Cindy Eves-Thomas

As webmaster for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Cindy manages UMaine Extension’s intranet and Internet sites and provides leadership for the development and management of the organization’s distributed web. She works with staff around the state to conceptualize graphic treatments for digital media. She provides training and technical assistance and assures that all of UMaine Extension’s web pages comply with appropriate policies, guidelines, and laws. Cindy has been with UMaine Extension for 14 years and with the University of Maine for 29 years.

Matt Graham

Matt Graham, Ph.D. candidate, is a faculty member at the UMaine Business School and has considerable experience teaching Management information systems, database design and development, MS Office software and other computer applications at UMaine and other colleges and universities over the last six years. Matt is IC3 (Internet and Computing Core) Certified and an IC3 Authorized Instructor. Matt has also recently been designated an MS Office 2010 Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the MS Office 2010 suite. With this designation, he has assisted Certiport, a Microsoft certification organization, in the development of certification exams for the MS Excel 2010, MS PowerPoint, and MS Word 2010.

Jane E. Haskell

Jane 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. Strengthening Your Facilitation Skills, Level 1 has been used to train hundreds of volunteers and staff from over 30 organizations in Maine and is now being used to train new Extension staff as well as citizens in other states. It has been identified as a curriculum by the National 4-H Learning Priorities to Build Effective Organizational Systems. 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.

Jeff Letourneau

Jeff Letourneau serves as the Executive Director of Networkmaine at the University of Maine System where he is responsible for Maine’s statewide Research and Education Network (MaineREN) which delivers advanced network services via a facility-based optical network to its participants. Jeff serves on the Board of Directors for the North East Research and Education Network (NEREN), the ConnectME Authority Advisory Board, and was formerly a member of the Broadband Strategy Council and the New England Telehealth Consortium (NETC) board of directors. Jeff has been involved with and led many network initiatives in Maine. These initiatives have included Maine’s first-ever Internet connection (the late 1980s), first CATV based broadband network as part of the Bethel Datafication Project (early 1990s), the first in the nation all-inclusive K-12 school and public library network (MSLN) (mid 1990s) and, most recently, Jeff was the catalyst behind and co-author of the $25M Federal BTOP grant called the Three Ring Binder that will create three “rings” of fiber optic infrastructure throughout Western, Northern and Downeast Maine.

Lars Ljungholm

Lars Ljungholm, now in his eighth year at Apple, has been working with computers and personal technology for more than two decades. His introduction to the personal computer started with a BASIC programming class in high school, but his interest quickly grew into a passion the first time he used a Macintosh as a freshman in college… an experience he enjoys describing in full detail. For the last 12 years, Lars has been working to help K-12 schools, colleges and universities across New England integrate technology into the learning environment.

Jennifer Lobley

Jen Lobley has been with Extension for 10 years working directly with the 4-H program in Hancock and Washington Counties as well as acting as the Statewide Program Coordinator for the 4-H program for the past two years. In her new role as Extension Educator for Volunteer Development, she is working to build capacity within our organization across all program areas that engage volunteers by sharing and developing resources, offering workshops and working one-on-one with staff members.

Terry Meisenbach

Terry Meisenbach is eXtension’s Communications & Marketing Leader and is responsible for all aspects of internal and external communications for the initiative. Prior to this role, he served for nearly eight years as the Communications Director for USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) now the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Before joining the Federal government, Meisenbach was at the University of Nebraska for 18 years where he served as an Extension communications specialist and publishing coordinator within Communications & Information Technology. Meisenbach has a Masters degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Journalism and a Bachelors degree in Journalism from Kearney (NE) State College.

Roger Merchant

Roger’s career in natural resource management and community development spans decades. His current rural development work though UM Cooperative Extension centers on rural community approaches to cultural heritage and natural resource tourism. Roger’s program base includes; forestry, environmental and outdoor leadership education, organizational and leadership development, home-based businesses, community tourism and economic development. Roger graduated from the University of Maine-College of Forestry in 1965. He managed forestry operations on a 100,000-acre working forest before pursuing graduate studies at West Virginia University-School of Social Work & Community Development in 1974. His licenses include professional forester and NAI Certified Interpretive Guide. Roger is an occasional musician, as well as an accomplished photographer of nature, forests, railroads and rural life.

Tina Passman (Kristina Passman Nielson)

Tina Passman is an Associate Professor of Classical Languages and Literature and a pioneer in the delivery of online and distance education. She began offering online courses in the early ‘90s and has developed programs and courses for online and distance delivery using a variety of course management systems. She is currently investigating Second Life and other VR platforms for accessible and inclusive delivery of distance education.

Jill Rand

Jill Rand is the Safety Coordinator for Safety & Environmental Management since 2008. She previously worked for Georgia Pacific for 22 years in the Safety & Training Department. Her primary responsibilities are auditing safety training records campus-wide, web site development, computer workstation evaluations, Workers Compensation Injury & Illness Management with Cutler Health, HR, and CCMSI.

David Scheidt

David Scheidt is a Human Resources Officer with the University of Maine’s Office of Human Resources. David also serves as the Office’s organizational development and employee education subject matter expert and coordinates the University’s New Employee Orientation program, Supervisor Development Institute, and OHR Skills Academy.