The Institute for Civic Leadership is an experiential, eight month, inward journey that enables a leader to develop the skills to lead in a collaborative and facilitative way.
Leadership Maine is a powerful, nine month, outward journey that takes a leader beyond their day-to-day experience and expands their capacity to shape our state’s future.
Policy Leaders Academy is a non-partisan experiential immersion for legislators in the fundamentals of the Maine economy, the factors that drive long-term growth, and how public policy decisions affect investment.
The Realize Maine Network connects regional groups, business, organizations and policymakers to share best practices for attracting and retaining young people to live, work and thrive in Maine.
MDF offers professional development, networking, community service and impactful engagement opportunities to the 1800+ alumni of Leadership Maine and ICL.
MDF is a lead partner in FOR/Maine (Forest Opportunity Roadmap) a cross-sector coalition working to diversify the state’s wood products businesses, attract capital investments, and develop greater economic prosperity for Maine’s rural communities.
MDF is a lead partner in MaineSpark, a 10-year initiative by Maine’s education and business leaders to ensure by 2025, 60% of Mainers hold the education and workforce credentials they need to succeed.
MDF is a key partner in the Maine Alliance for Health and Prosperity which seeks to address and eliminate systemic inequities in health and economic outcomes.
As Maine struggles to recover from the devastation of the pandemic, the year ahead will be critical for our state’s economic stability. MDF President and CEO, Yellow Light Breen, offered perspective and supporting data from the 2020 Measures of Growth Report on the economic outlook for Maine in 2021 as part of a panel discussion on Maine Public’s January 15 “Maine Calling” program.
Other panelists include: Amanda Rector, state economist, Andrew Crawley, assistant professor, School of Economics, University of Maine in Orono, and Gary Vogel, past president, Maine Real Estate & Development Association.
In a comprehensive article, Mainebiz reports on the state’s Economic Recovery Committee, convened by Gov. Janet Mills in May, and the strategies they identified for Maine to rebound financially, while stressing that the federal government has to help immediately or the plan won’t work.
On November 24, the committee released its final report, outlining eight strategies needed for the state to strengthen its economy after the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 38-member committee is chaired by Josh Broder, CEO of Tilson, and Laurie Lachance, president of Thomas College.
Kudos to our Maine Downtown Center community, Gardiner Main Street, for modeling support for small businesses, craftspeople, and artists. Thrilled to see our AmeriCorps Main Street Fellow, Perri Williams, included in the coverage. Read more here.
In celebration of Maine’s Bicentennial and 200 years of leadership that paved the way to make Maine “the way life should be,” members from MDF’s Leadership Maine Baskahegan Class interviewed leaders from around the state. With diverse backgrounds, industries and geographies, they each share deep interest and commitment to the state of Maine and its people. This is the story of Jen Fullmer, U.S. Air Force Colonel, Ret., and her leadership journey. Jen was interviewed by John Manganello.
How she got here from there.
Jen Fullmer began her career as a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadet at the University of Northern Colorado with the goal of becoming an Air Force pilot. She spent her first three years in the Air Force as a human resources officer, attended pilot training, and held many roles on her path from B-1 Bomber pilot, to commander and Air Force senior leader. Jen explains that as a military pilot, flying is only part of the job. The majority of time is spent working in the traditional roles that keep any organization running like human resources, finance, logistics, training, operations, etc. Over the course of her 24-year Air Force career, she moved 14 times and had the opportunity to lead and follow at many levels and in diverse capacities. She says that her time training as a pilot instilled in her the value of accepting and providing constructive feedback and the importance of continuing to learn, improve, and adapt as situations evolve. Her transition from the Air Force to Maine provided another opportunity to apply these lessons as she took on a whole new challenge of building and running a nonprofit organization from concept to sustainability.
Jen officially retired as a Colonel in 2015 and is now dedicated to serving Maine. She and her husband are not originally from Maine but chose to be here and are proud to call Biddeford, Maine HOME. For the past four years Jen has been building and leading a Maine nonprofit called Boots2Roots. Boots2Roots is preparing transitioning active duty military members and their families to hit the ground running in Maine, while providing a pipeline of quality talent for Maine’s workforce. Jen was always taught to grow your replacement and leave an organization better than you found it. That is her personal commitment and charge to Maine’s up-and-coming leaders.
Her advice for young leaders in Maine and outlook for the future.
Find a mentor. The perfect mentor will care about your development, provide advice, and be a sounding board, your biggest cheerleader, and provide candid feedback when it’s hard to hear. It was her mentors along the way that helped shape Jen’s leadership style and taught her that it’s all about the people. Take care of the people and they will take care of the mission.
The characteristics that define great leaders that Jen has worked for or with include a focus on people, trust, and humility. At the core of empowerment is trust and great leaders know it’s not about them. When things go well, they give the team credit for success and when things don’t go well, they accept full responsibility. People who work for great leaders don’t want to let them down.
Maine is a wonderful place to live, work, put down roots, and take a leadership role. Maine needs strong leadership to meet current and future challenges like those addressed in Maine’s Economic Development Strategy 2020-2029. Leadership is easy when you have plenty of people and resources. Leadership is tested when faced with competing priorities and resource constraints. Maine needs effective and inspiring leadership at all levels from the statehouse to the small business owner. We need leaders who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and collaborate to find the best solutions for Maine’s future.
Inspiration from the past.
As we approach Maine’s Bicentennial, Jen is looking forward to the Sailing Ships Festival. In addition to a personal fascination with Maine’s Windjammer fleet, she is inspired by the fact that shipping and ship building have been part of Maine’s fabric for over 200 years and remains a major economic driver today.
She is most inspired by General Joshua Chamberlain and his dedication to Maine, selfless service, and faith. As a young man from Brewer, he worked in the timber industry, then taught at Bowdoin College, served honorably during the Civil War, as Maine’s governor, as Bowdoin’s President, and had a key role in planting the roots of the University of Maine. Jen says that his Maine upbringing and principled service, leadership, and contributions during the Civil War prepared him well to return home, lead, and make lasting contributions to Maine’s future. She is reminded of this every day working with Boots2Roots.
About 50 Hallowell residents and community organizers took part in a Zoom Community Conversation hosted by Hallowell organizations and the Maine Development Foundation.
MDF’s Bri Bowman, Program Director with the FOR/Maine (Forest Opportunity Roadmap) Coalition, was a featured speaker during a lecture entitled “Maine’s Forests” on September 24. The lecture is one in a series of three that explore the importance of preserving nature in Maine, combating climate change, and the challenges we face. Bri outlined ways our forest industry is modifying its practices and products to become more sustainable
Maine Public has partnered with The Nature Conservancy in Maine, as well as the Maine Education Association and the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, to put the lecture series together. They are airing in conjunction with the PBS “Age of Nature” TV series, which will air locally on Maine Public Television beginning on October 14th.
Recently released research commissioned by Maine Preservation in partnership with CEI, Greater Portland Landmarks, GrowSmart Maine, and Maine Real Estate & Development Association (MEREDA) shows that Maine’s historic rehabilitation tax credit (HTC) has had strong, far-reaching impacts on Maine’s economy and quality of life while more than paying for itself. The “Maine Historic Tax Credit Economic Impacts Report,” authored by Charles Lawton and Frank O’Hara, leading Maine-based economists, illuminates that HTC-aided renovations have added over $166 million to local property tax rolls in host communities, including $17 million in new property tax revenue since 2010. The HTC program has become a major local development tool in its own right with an another $19 million in new income and sales tax revenues are estimated to have come into state coffers since 2008. To date, the program has generated $3 million more in state and local tax revenues than it has cost in tax credits and it is estimated that the net economic benefit to Maine state and local governments will double to at least $6 million annually by 2022.
The data reveals that the HTC has generated $525 million in construction investment; rehabilitating 3.6 million square feet of commercial and residential space; and created or preserved 1,911 housing units, of which nearly 1,300 are affordable. The construction spending alone has generated 200-700 full-time-equivalent jobs annually for the past decade. Additionally, nearly 700 new full-time, year-round jobs have been generated by businesses occupying commercial spaces and in building maintenance, generating $13 million per year in ongoing income to families living in these communities. For insight into how local communities benefit from this program, please see the case studies in the report.
More information in the Portland Press Herald article found HERE. You can read the full report HERE.
U.S. Senator Susan Collins visited several small businesses in downtown Skowhegan with Main Street Skowhegan, a nonprofit focused on the ongoing revitalization of historic Skowhegan, to meet with small business owners, employees, and local residents. Read more here.
The Maine Downtown Center is proud to part of this great cohort of Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) grantees, coordinated by Volunteer Maine!
