University of Maine System welcomes new trustees

Elise Baldacci, Philip Hussey and student William Kemler join the Board, while Owen McCarthy is reappointed for a five-year term

ORONO, Maine - The University of Maine System (UMS) Board of Trustees has welcomed three new members.

Elise Baldacci, Philip Hussey and William Kemler were nominated by Gov. Janet Mills, reviewed and recommended by the Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs and confirmed by the Maine Senate before joining the Board for their first regular meeting this month.

Baldacci, of North Yarmouth, is president of the Maine Credit Union League and previously served as deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Governor. She is a graduate of the University of Maine (UMaine) and the University of Maine School of Law.

Hussey, of Scarborough, is vice President at Chenmark, a Portland-based firm specializing in acquiring and operating small businesses; CEO of Outerland, a 90-person landscape and design building construction company; and a member of the seventh-generation family manufacturing business, Hussey Seating Company. He previously was a marketing specialist for HBX, Harvard Business School's digital learning initiative. He is a graduate of Colby College and Georgetown University, where he focused on rural development.

Kemler is a second-year student at the University of Maine at Machias, a regional campus of UMaine, who is studying marine biology and on the Dean's List. He is a native of East Meadow, New York who graduated from the A+ World Academy in Norway and was a member of the National Honor Society.

He was recommended to the Governor by a council comprised of the leaders of student government and the undergraduate student representative to the Board from each UMS university and will serve a two-year term as a full voting member.

Owen McCarthy, who joined the Board in 2023, was also reappointed by Gov. Mills and confirmed for a five-year term. A native of Patten who now lives in Gorham, McCarthy was a first-generation college student who graduated from UMaine and Harvard Business School. He serves as president of both MedRhythms, a Portland-based digital therapeutics company he co-founded with his UMaine roommate, and the Rural Futures Fund.

The Board of Trustees is the governing and planning body for the statewide system, which is Maine's largest driver of educational attainment and economic development and among its biggest employers. Trish Riley, president emerita of the National Academy for State Health Policy and a graduate of UMaine, is chair. Lisa Eames, criminal division chief for the Office of the Maine Attorney General and a graduate of UMaine, is vice chair.

More information about the Board is available at the Board of Trustees website.

About the University of Maine System

The University of Maine System (UMS) is the state's largest driver of educational attainment and economic development and its seven public universities and law school are the most affordable in New England. Over the past two decades, UMS has awarded 106,362 degrees and spurred and strengthened thousands of small Maine businesses through its world-class research and development activities. For more information, visit www.maine.edu.

Media Contact:

Samantha Warren
Director of External Affairs, University of Maine System
207-632-0389 / [email protected]