Dottie Foote, PhD came to the school as executive director in the Fall of 2008. She holds a PhD in Education and Psychology and a MS in Human Development from The University of Maine and is thrilled to be following in the footsteps of the schools’ founders – advancing the work of alternative education. After spending years in the banking industry, nonprofit leadership, and teaching for UMaine, Dottie worked on issues of social justice, specifically with issues surrounding HIV/AIDS in rural Maine. Her work with adolescents over 10 years prior to coming to The Community Schools was in the development of a cutting-edge social justice program for teens aged 14-19 called the Diversity Coalition (DC). The goal of DC is to stimulate these young men and women to develop a heightened awareness of real-world socio-cultural issues, reflect on their own social positions within these issues (class, race, ethnicity, gender, etc.), and further encourage them to fully engage themselves in the community at large through concrete and public social activism.
Dottie teaches Psychology of Adolescence for The University of Maine and is a Board member of The Restorative Justice Project. Dot also is on Maine’s Shared Youth Vision Council and acts as an adviser to the Commissioner of Education as a member of the Committee on Truancy, Dropout and Alternative Education. And although the gardens need tending and the piano continues to gather dust—she loves to run and ski, and keep an eye to the next new adventure for The Community Schools at Opportunity Farm and Camden. She lives in Rockport with her husband, Charlie, and her own adolescent personal trainers, Andrea 23, Morgan 20, and William 18.
Martha Kempe – Passages Program Director
Martha joined The Community Schools in 2004. Prior to moving to Maine, Martha was Director of Grants and Contracts at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She completed a certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Leadership from the University of Maine Orono. She holds a bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Expressive Therapies from the University of Louisville. Her varied life experiences include directing residential services for mentally disabled adults, coordinating educational programs at Slater Mill Historic Site, coordinating apprenticeships at the Swain School of Design, assisting grantees at the National Endowment for the Arts, and teaching reading to elementary school children. She loves seeing the creative process in action and the way it sheds light on our lives and souls. Martha’s two daughters and husband keep her guessing. Give her good books, dear friends or family scattered across the U.S. and she is happy. If not, she is content to hike Maine, explore new places or bask near any body of water…really, any body of water.
Andrea Itkin – Passages Lead Teacher & Curriculum Coordinator
Andrea has worked for The Community Schools since 2003. She loves the privilege of working one-on-one with young parents, learning everything about them and their children, encouraging them to nurture their own curiosity, and watching them grow as students, as parents, and as citizens. Before landing at the Community School, Andrea wore a variety of hats: in the late ’70’s she started a community day care center in rural Iowa; she worked in a natural food market in Maryland; and after moving to Maine she worked in restaurants, in newspaper production, as a residential counselor in a home for mentally challenged adults, and in several capacities in a domestic violence agency. Andrea earned her writing and teaching degree from Vermont College. She has acted in many plays, written a few, recorded books and conducted playwriting workshops in an after-school program. She loves writing (her own and others’), hiking, boating, playing piano and listening to her granddaughter tell animal stories.
Erica Gates – Passages Teacher
Erica was born and raised in Maine. She attended the University of Maine and has spent many years working with teens in the counseling and education fields as a therapist, classroom teacher, guidance counselor, coach, swimming instructor, and raft guide. Erica has been a teacher for several years but can’t express how excited she is to be working with the staff and students at The Community School. Erica feels this teaching opportunity will give her the opportunity to build a relationship with her students that will allow her to watch each of them grow and succeed. In her free time, Erica enjoys kayaking, hiking, skiing, sewing, and spending time with her family. One of her favorite quotes is: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ~ Dr. Seuss
Heather King – Passages Teacher
Heather has been a teacher at The Community Schools since December 2010. Before Heather came to The Community Schools, she taught English, reading and writing at a community college in Pennsylvania. This is when she recognized her love for working with adolescents! Heather has also waitressed for many years in a variety of restaurants, worked as a home visitor for Head Start and was a Title I teacher. She finished her master’s degree in English in 2008. Heather appreciates working with the students in the Passages Program because each student brings unique strengths from their own life experiences that can be shared with other students and their children. Heather believes that getting to know students on a personal level, along with their children, is what really makes The Community Schools special. In her spare time, Heather adores spending time with her three children, ice skating, waterskiing, tubing, hiking, and reading or even playing taxi driver for their various extracurricular activities.
Lisa Peavey – Passages Teacher
Lisa has lived in many states but has made Maine her home for the last 25 years. She attended the University of Maine at Farmington. She has taught English in public schools and in a youth development center, as well as many subjects in a day-treatment facility. Emma and Ethan are her two wonderful children. Among her favorite things are encouraging and watching her children participate in their passions of horseback riding and soccer. She also loves reading, laughing, learning new things, practicing yoga, and raising her pug, Dudley.
Joseph Hufnagel – Director of Residential Programs
Since arriving at The Community School in 2008, Joseph has truly appreciated the chance to bring people together and provide opportunities for young adults to learn, grow, and demonstrate the goodness of their hearts. As the director of residential programs, Joseph guides students from the admissions process to graduation, creating real life experiences for students to connect with others, build relationships, achieve personal goals, and positively contribute to local communities. He is driven by the possibility of meaningfully affecting the lives of brave and honest students who are seeking to discover their strengths.
With a BA in Political Science from Boston College and a MS in Environmental Education from Lesley University, Joseph obtained his teacher certification through Teach for America while living on the Texas-Mexico border. From Costa Rica to Nantucket, Texas to Boston, Joseph has held a variety of educational and administrative positions in multiple classroom settings. He has taught every grade, K-12, and while he has taught just about every subject, he remains consistently drawn to issues of social justice and diversity. With a true love of sports and team camaraderie, Joseph has coached basketball, soccer, football, and ice hockey. He has created several after-school programs and served as head of Upper School at the Nantucket New School. Joseph also has a distinct passion for experiential learning and has led groups of high school students on expeditions throughout the U.S. and Canada. When Joseph’s not working, he loves being outdoors and exploring the world with his wife and young daughter.
Margo Fowler – Residential Campus Director
Margo joined The Community School at Opportunity Farm in 2011. Margo has had over 20 years experience working with children and families in crisis. She graduated with a BSW from the University of Vermont and then moved to New York where she worked as an HIV counselor and social worker for at-risk pregnant teens. When her family moved to Maine to be closer to family she worked for nine years in the Gray-New Gloucester public school system. It was there that she met and assisted a blind student for five years, learning Braille and a specific math program specially designed for visually impaired students. Margo loves cooking, especially Spanish foods since both her parents were born in Spain. Her favorite dish to prepare is Paella, a popular rice and seafood meal that her mother and grandmother used to make. She spends her weekends with her wonderful husband who is an avid gardener and 17 year old son who is a long distance runner. Her golden retriever Abbey makes frequent visits to The Community School, matching the energy of a household full of teenagers!
Carrie Braman – Lead Teacher & Curriculum Coordinator
Carrie has worked at The Community School since 2009. Before moving to Maine, Carrie completed her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana, where she taught Freshman Writing Composition. She has also taught at the Centerpoint School in Winooski, Vermont, which served as a strengths-based educational alternative for at-risk high school students. Carrie began her teaching career in a third-grade classroom at the New Mexico School for the Deaf, where she taught both deaf and hearing students in an integrated classroom. Carrie earned her BA in English from Bennington College in 2003. She has had a life-long interest in alternative education and has attended alternative college, high school, and semester programs. Carrie is obsessed with pie. She has been to Pietown, New Mexico, on several different pilgrimages and wants to write a book of essays about her search for the best slice out there. From this, it should be obvious that Carrie likes to cook, eat, and write. She also loves making maple syrup and aspires to own her own sugarbush one day. She occasionally plays the accordion.
Trevor Slater – Lead Teacher
Trevor has worked at The Community Schools since 2011. He comes to the school after teaching in Maine public schools as a therapeutic alternative high school teacher and an autism specialist for elementary aged kids. He got his start in education working with babies and toddlers at the Hampshire College Children’s Center where he also earned his BA Trevor then went on to be an instructor for Outward Bound and took some time off to hike the northern half of the Appalachian Trail with his would-be wife. He is now married and has two beautiful children. He received his master’s degree in Special Education from the University of Southern Maine and has dreamed of working in an alternative high school since becoming a certified teacher. He now revels in being able to share his knowledge and experience with teenagers as he pursues his personal interests in mountaineering, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and CrossFit.
Tom Butler – Art Director and Residential Support Staff
Tom joined The Community Schools in 2010. Tom’s background is in both Art History and Fine Art Practice. He holds a BA and MFA in Fine Art Sculpture and has exhibited internationally. Believing that art is essentially a social activity, he brings dialogues and disciplines both modern and traditional to the table. Alternative methods and approaches are discussed and shared to encourage the students to see things in a new way, with the goal for them to create and believe in their own personal visual language. Tom grew up and went to school in London, England and has recently moved to Rockland with his wife, Kate. He is also a huge fan of ghost stories (though has never seen a ghost) and makes an excellent pasta sauce, if he doesn’t mind saying so himself.
Emily Sapienza – Residential Campus Director
Emily joined the staff in 2010, returning to the Midcoast area after a year in Washington, D.C. Emily grew up just outside of Boston, and has worked for The Department of Defense, The Obama Campaign, National Public Radio, WRFR-LP Community Radio (93.3 Rockland & 99.3 Camden), VillageSoup and The Penobscot School. She has also worked at language schools and elementary schools in Italy, Boston, and New York. Emily lives in Rockland and loves kayaking, fine cheese, and practicing her favorite dance move. Her heroes include Julia Child, Jean Piaget, and Shel Silverstein.
Cathy Ames-Cruz – Residential Living Skills Coordinator
Cathy has been working at The Community School since 2000. Cathy was born in Camden, attended Camden Rockport High school, and later, studied English and Education at The University of Maine Augusta. Cathy has four children, and in 2009, she became a proud grandmother! Cathy loves working at The Community School because she loves kids and believes everyone needs a chance in life. Cathy’s mission at The C School is to help give kids the tools to be successful, and also to help make sure they are eating more than Raman Noodles when grow up! Cathy lives in West Rockport, and when she’s not at the school, she can be found cooking, baking, or camping and swimming in the outdoors.
Diantha Bovey – Residential Overnight Counselor
Diantha first joined The Community School in 2010 as a Social Work Intern with The University of Maine. Upon completion of her internship, Diantha joined the staff as Residential Overnight Counselor. Diantha grew up in many places all over the United States; a few years ago she chose Belfast as her hometown where she sets up indie-rock shows and grows organic vegetables. Diantha is an artist and a musician, most noted for her art-rock band Full Contact Kitty. She has performed all over the East Coast as well as in India. She will graduate from UMaine with her Masters in Social Work in 2012 and hopes to practice music therapy with teenagers and young adults.
Maureen El-Hajj – Residential Overnight Counselor
Maureen worked for seven years at Home Counselors, Inc. before joining The Community School in 2009 as a Residential Overnight Counselor. Maureen was born in Washington D.C, as the second of eight children, and later moved to Maine, where she attended Hamden Academy and Bangor Community College. Maureen studied liberal arts and early childhood education in college, and has run her own cleaning business for the past 18 years. Maureen has three children; Ryan, Kristofer, and Lauren, and lives in Rockland. In her down time, Maureen’s favorite activities are hiking, kayaking, dancing and camping. She loves working at The Community School because she loves teenagers and wants to see them succeed in life.
Emily Keef – Residential Overnight Counselor
Emily first became interested in helping young adults after she graduated from the arts program of music and dance at Portland Arts and Technology High School in 2003, where she tutored and fell in love with alternative education. She then worked with young adults in a variety of positions, including as a live-in caregiver, coworker, tutor, dance teacher and activist. Emily also attended Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado from 2004 to 2008, where she studied dance, education and psychology. She witnessed the impact that self care, personal growth and individually tailored learning plans had on students’ ability to thrive while in a supportive, community-oriented school. Emily is obsessed with dance. She has been choreographing, and performing solo and in dance companies and classes for 12 years, where she truly learned the art of body language and how to communicate with stubborn people, and of course, the power of expressive movement, especially for children and young adults. She is currently a graduate student in Mental Health and Clinical Counseling at the University of Southern Maine, where she hopes to graduate before she is 30, and celebrate her hard work by skipping around Ireland for two weeks. Emily‘s interests include spending time with her three year old son Oliver, art, poetry, gardening, growing and using culinary and medicinal herbs, cooking, riding her bike, music, and making up silly hip hop songs with Oliver and his cousins.
Summer Watkins – Residential Overnight Counselor
Summer grew up in small town Oklahoma hiking the plateaus, exploring caves, and playing basketball. She went to school at the University of Oklahoma where she got her BA in Environmental Studies. Summer has worked with children in one way or another, either through coaching, babysitting, or peer tutoring, since she was 13. She came to Maine on a whim in 2007 to do trail work at Baxter State Park, and fell in love. Summer has a BIG love for The Summer Camp, the all-girls camp where she works for several months each year, and is excited to live and work in Maine year round! Summer really enjoys cooking for other people, sharing stories, wilderness adventures of all kinds, mountain biking, reading, drinking tea, watching baseball, and just general merriment.
Crystal Vacarro – Residential Overnight Counselor
Crystal is overjoyed to be working at The Community School at Opportunity Farm and cherishes the moments she has spent in the presence of her fellow staff and the diverse mix of students. Crystal’s educational path has been varied and exciting. Her high school years were spent at the Meeting School, a coeducational Quaker boarding school run through the process of consensus. She then spent a year at Marlboro College studying theatre and photography. Various employment ensued after her first sojourn into academia, but she missed learning and decided to go back to school. She finally graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a bachelor’s degree in History. Crystal resides in Portland, Maine with her three amazing cats. In her free time she plays roller derby for the Maine Roller Derby Port Authorities and also enjoys a good game of tennis.
Amanda Wogaman – Residential Overnight Counselor
Originally from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Amanda moved to Maine to attend Unity College. She graduated in 2010 with a degree in Adventure Therapy, and joined The Community School in early 2011. During her time at the school she has enjoyed learning from students as they encounter new challenges that provide opportunities for growth. In the summer months Amanda can be found working in the administration of The Summer Camp, which provides a free camp experience for girls from foster care and inner-cities in New England. Amanda also enjoys board games, sourdough bread, and traveling by head lamp.
Natalie Nye – Residential Support Staff
Natalie majored in sculpture earning a BFA from the Maine College of Art and a MFA from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Through the process of teaching sculpture, she enjoys encouraging students to find their voice and acknowledge their own personal strengths by working with them individually and in group settings. As a Maine native who grew up locally on a small farm with a couple horses, chickens, steer, dogs and lots of cats, she takes an interest in exploring the natural elements Maine has to offer. She also enjoys gardening, and hiking, canoeing and kayaking on Maine trails, rivers and lakes. Other favorite activities include listening to traditional Celtic music, cooking, and spending time with family and friends.
Stephanie Stoddard – Culinary Instructor
Stephanie has worked at The Community Schools since 2011. She was born and raised in Maine, and graduated cum laude from Colby College in 2010 with a degree in Latin American Studies, Anthropology, and Music. She studied extensively in Ecuador, traveling throughout the country while learning Kichwa, the local indigenous language, and eating exotic and extremely spicy food. When Stephanie isn’t cooking at The Community Schools or grocery shopping at the local Hannaford, she works as a full-time AmeriCorps member at Gray-New Gloucester High School. She also plays the tuba, trombone, saxophone, and various other musical instruments, and she believes that music has a central place in life. Stephanie is super enthusiastic about the opening of The Community School at Opportunity Farm, and is excited to see what opportunities the future has to offer!
Laurie Pierce – Finance Manager
Laurie joined The Community School in 2009 as the finance manager. Laurie is a lifelong Maine resident and a longtime foster parent. Laurie attended George’s Valley High School and has many years of bookkeeping experience, most recently for Pen-Bay Christian Schools. She has also served as treasurer for several local nonprofit organizations, and was drawn to The Community Schools because of its positive, community-centered approach. Laurie is a huge fan of chocolate, and lives in Owl’s Head with her husband Don, son DJ and two dogs, Mia and Rosie. Laurie’s other two children have grown and are living outside of Maine. When not at work, Laurie enjoys spending quality time with her family and friends.
Andrea Vassallo – Development Grant Specialist & Event Coordinator
Emma Wilson – Development Donor Relations Specialist
Sharyn Pohlman – Development Office Manager
Sharyn joined The Community School in 2011 and is in the Development group. Sharyn has been involved in development for many years and loves it and the kids it benefits! She really enjoys working with kids and before she joined The Community Schools she worked for a summer camp in Maine with kids from all over the world. She is a California native who has adopted Maine and considers it home. Sharyn lives in Rockport with her husband, son and adopted dog, Barley, and cat, Chloe. Sharyn skis and volunteers at the Camden Snow Bowl, and loves books and volunteering at the Rockport Public Library.
Cynthia Ufkin – Executive Administrator Assistant/Office Manager
Cynthia joined The Community Schools at Opportunity Farm and Camden January 2012. She is the executive administrative assistant/office manager at the Opportunity Farm campus. Cynthia’s passion is children. Although she is in the office most of the time, you will see her at circle times with the kids, cooking dinner, doing dishes, taking walks and just about anything she can do to get to know the kids. Having come from the public school setting as assistant to the principal, substitute teacher, and just about every position you can imagine, she loves spending time with the kids and offering that little extra to get them through the day. When not at work, Cynthia enjoys being with her husband of 32 years and her five children. She loves camping, cooking, making wine and going to movies. After living in California for several years and touring the U.S. with the children in a RV for 13 months, she and her husband decided to move back to Maine, her home state, to raise her children and start a career.
Robert St. Laurent – Building Grounds Manager
Bob has been with The Community School at Opportunity Farm since they opened in New Gloucester and worked at Opportunity Farm for five years. Known as the “Jack of All Trades,” Bob fulfills a number of roles at the school. He is a mentor to the students, teaching them all aspects of his job. Prior to coming to Opportunity Farm, Bob lived and worked in Florida. Bob has two sons, one in Lyman and one in York, and two grandsons. His passions, outside of his work, are buying and selling tractors, building anything and everything, and owning and showing antique cars, for which he has won several trophies. His nickname as a young boy was “The Old Car Kid,” starting with his first car, a ‘36 Plymouth, and his collection has continued to grow.
Tim Anderson – AmeriCorps Intern
Tim is an AmeriCorps intern in Camden. He hopes to make a positive impact on the students at The Community Schools and to continue the tradition that AmeriCorps has laid out. He serves in multiple roles, including weekend staff support, academic tutor, and counselor. He enjoys swimming and making the students listen to his piano playing.
The Community School Staff
” The common sense and the uncommon compassion of the Community School has improved hundreds of young lives and enriched the surrounding neighborhoods.”
– Former U.S. Senator George J. Mitchell
