Meet Our Board of Directors

Emily’s career spans four seafood companies, where she has been involved in managing processing facilities, developing new seafood products, expanding export markets, coordinating all company international logistics and documentation, and developing generic programs and workshops for foreign buyers.

Her areas of expertise include project management, writing and communication, collaboration across sector nonprofits, business and government entities, and international market cultivation and promotion. She has successfully executed networking, partnering, and consensus-building across segments of the marine industry in Maine and at the federal level, and has managed complex initiatives with multiple stakeholders. 

She is currently a contractor with the Maine Center for Entrepreneurs as a seafood and aquaculture specialist, helping companies to grow their businesses and expand distribution regionally and nationally.  She also develops educational webinars, seminars, and seafood marketing literature for Food Export USA Northeast.

Emily received a Bachelor of Arts English Literature from University of New Hampshire.

She has held positions of leadership on many municipal, state and federal boards and councils, including the Island Institute, Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, Maine Lobster Dealers Association, Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s seafood sustainability project, and the Maine Aquaculture Focus Group.  She currently co-chairs the board of Maine Seafood Promotional Council.

Prior to her current freelance practice, Beth worked at the Colby College Museum of Art as Lunder curator of American art (2008–22) and as head curator (2022–25). During her tenure, she organized more than sixty exhibitions, authored and edited multiple publications, and was instrumental in strengthening the museum’s collection and partnerships.

Beth spent the first chapter of her career in New York, where she worked at the Whitney Museum of American Art and subsequently at the Drawing Center, where she was assistant curator and then curator.  She also undertook freelance projects for various arts organizations,  including the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, the Fifth Floor Foundation, and the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno in Valencia, Spain.

Beth holds degrees in art history from the University of California at Berkeley (B.A.) and the Graduate Center, City University of New York (PhD). She participated in the Center for Curatorial Leadership and received an Art Writers Grant from the Warhol Foundation.

Beyond her work in the visual arts, she is an active participant in Maine’s dance communities and previously served on the board of Waterville Creates, an innovative community arts organization.

He began his professional career working in quantitative trading in London, first for D.E. Shaw & Co. and later with Nomura International. He then spent more than a decade working in the tech industry in Shanghai, China as a founder of a number of companies focused on the mobile phone sector, including Smarpay Jieyin Ltd.,  Intrinsic Technology, and Linktone Ltd. (NSDQ: LTON.)

Pat received an AB in English Literature at Harvard University. In his free time, he enjoys printing t-shirts, listening to 1980s records and running.

He previously served as director of the Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston and a member of the faculty. He transformed the museum into an innovative academic museum through the expansion of curricular programs, community outreach, collection projects, new scholarship, publications, and challenging exhibitions.

Prior to Bates, Mark was director of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and a faculty member at the Maine College of Art in Portland. He founded the ICA Education Department, which coordinated all programs through the college and Portland public schools, Project Safe and Smart, and the SALT Institute.

He previously served as director of the Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston and a member of the faculty. He transformed the museum into an innovative academic museum through the expansion of curricular programs, community outreach, collection projects, new scholarship, publications, and challenging exhibitions.

Mark earned an MBA in Public and Nonprofit Management from Columbia Business School, Columbia University, as well as an M.A. in Art History from Hunter College, City University of New York, and a B.A. in Art History at New York University.

He was a Fulbright Fellow at the Sukuma Museum, Mwanza, Tanzania, and has received numerous other fellowships, grants and awards. He is frequently called on to present papers and participate in panels and symposiums on Maine art and artists, has been featured in a variety of art-related publications.

Long active in the community, Mark currently serves as a corporator of Bath Savings Institution, a director of the Pineland Farms Dairy Company, a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, an advisory board member of SPACE Gallery, and the founder and treasurer of the Africa Schoolhouse Foundation.

Prior to assuming her current position in 2020, she was for 14 years the Carolyn Muzzy Director and chief curator of the Colby College Museum of Art, where she founded the Lunder Institute for American Art and doubled both the museum’s collection and endowment. She previously served as the Lunder Curator of American Art at the Colby Museum.

Sharon earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in History of Art  from the University of California, Berkely, where she also served as a faculty fellow. She has a B.A. in Art History from the New College of Florida.

She has appeared in numerous museum and academic publications and has presented papers and lectures and participated in conversations and panels in Maine and around the country. She also has received a number of fellowships and grants from entities that include the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Maine Arts Commission, and the Henry Luce Foundation.

Sharon has served as a trustee of the Association of Art Museum Directors, a mentor with the Center for Curatorial Leadership, and a member of the executive committee of the Maine Arts Commission. Her professional affiliations include the American Alliance of Museums, the Association of American Art Historians, the International Council of Museums, and the New England Museum Association.

Prior to establishing her own firm in 2018, Susan spent more than 30 years at two distinguished institutions: The Menil Collection, Houston, where she served as collections curator from 1985 to 2002, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and its constellation of museums, as senior curator from 2002 to 2017.

She is an authority in the fields of Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art, with an expertise in the art of Robert Rauschenberg. She has been engaged with Rauschenberg’s work since 1990, serving as a curatorial advisor to the artist from 2001 until his death in 2008 and as a board member to the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation from 2009 until 2014.

More recently, she published a monograph on Pop artist Tom Wesselmann’s Great American Nude series and is the editor for the Robert Rauschenberg Catalogue Raisonné, volume 1.

Susan holds advanced degrees in art history from the Courtauld Institute, London, and George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Since 2012 she has served as chair of the vetting committee, 20th century art, for Friezes Master in London, and is a member of several professional associations, including the American Association of Museum Curators, American Association of Museums, ICOM (International Council of Museums), and the International Society for the Study of Surrealism.

Since 1987 until joining his current firm, Ben participated in the New York finance practices of three other international law firms.  When not on Vinalhaven, Ben and his wife live in Brooklyn, New York. 

Ben is also a member of the board of the Vinalhaven Land Trust and the advisory board to Bard Early College, a network of early-college high schools run by Bard College in partnership with the New York City, Newark, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Cleveland and New Orleans public school systems.

Ben received his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1987 and his B.A from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982.  After graduating college until starting law school,  Ben worked in various capacities for the then newly organized New York City Loft Board, the New York City mayor’s office responsible for regulating the integration of previously illegal artists’ live-work loft conversions in manufacturing buildings in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn into the city’s residential rent stabilization system.

From 2010-2023, Sarah served as co-director of the Skowhegan School of Painting &
Sculpture, an artists’ residency located in Madison, Maine, that each summer hosts a
nine-week program for 65 emerging artists and 11 faculty artists.
Over her fourteen years at the school, Sarah developed a strategic vision for the
organization and its educational program, including staffing, marketing, fundraising,
archiving, safety & equity, hiring practices for faculty and staff, and alumni development.
She guided the institution’s approach to teaching and oversaw and selected all
participants, faculty and on-site staff.
Sarah led the boards of governors and trustees to identify programmatic and physical
plant needs and developed partnerships and initiatives to support the local Maine
community and off-campus programs, symposia, publications, and collaborations. In
anticipation of a $25M+ capital campaign and master plan, she led a year-long strategic
plan and oversaw a long-term buildings and grounds assessment.
Sarah has been a visiting critic at Yale University and Boston University and served as
adjunct faculty in the Department of Art and Art Professions at New York University.
She also is a frequent speaker, visiting faculty member, and guest lecturer at leading
colleges and universities, museums and arts symposia throughout the country
Sarah holds a Bachelors in Linguistics and Russian Language and Literature from the
University of Maryland, College Park, and has completed coursework towards a
master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from DePaul University.
Sarah has been honored by the Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center, Foster Pride
and the Colby College Museum of Art, which presented her with the Jetté Award for
Leadership in the Arts in 2024.
While in Maine, Sarah served on the board of the Lake Wesserunsett Association and
its Watershed Conservation Committee and worked directly with Somerset Woods
Trustees, Maine’s longest established land conservancy. She currently serves as a
board member of the Denniston Hill Residency Program, the Buxton School, and
Project EATS, and as vice chair of the board of directors of Recycled Artist in Residency
Program (RAIR).

Carole’s work experience includes serving as director of labor relations and human resources for a large corporation, as well as holding senior leadership positions in a variety of for-profit and nonprofit settings. Her formal education includes a B.S., M.B.A., and advanced studies in the fields of negotiation and contract administration.