November 2014 | view this story as a .pdf

These Mainers have plenty of moxie and dare to be different.

1. Going South – Deborah Walters, Social Activist

She’s dared to put her paddle where her dreams are, kayaking 2,500 miles to Guatemala for the children of Safe Passage.

Interview by Colin W. Sargent

How far would you go for your favorite charity? For Dr. Deborah Walters, 63, it’s over 2,000 miles as she navigates the dangerous coast from Portland to Guatemala, raising funds for Safe Passage, which provides education and health programs for children living in and around the vast Guatemala City dumps. (Visit Safepassage.org.) We caught up with Walters early in her trip (at press time she’s still out there, off Rock Hall, Maryland, southeast of Baltimore, north of Annapolis.)
Dr. Walters has a Ph.D. in Neurocommunications. According to her official bio, “a cognitive scientist and professor, she’s served as dean, provost, and senior vice president at University of North Carolina; University at Buffalo, and Unity College in Maine.” She lives in Troy, Maine.

As we ask you this question, you’re gliding off the coast of New Jersey, having just passed Manhattan. What was it like paddling a tiny kayak in front of the skyscrapers, and where did you pull up your kayak?

Pier 40. What was different was seeing New York City on the horizon for days before I got there. The bridges make great landmarks to make the navigation easy. The best views of the city are from the water, which makes a little kayak the best way to arrive.   The challenge is the big ships!

Did you bump into Derek Jeter? Did you consider a Broadway show? Which show would you have chosen had you stayed longer?

I was seven nights in NYC. I gave talks about Safe Passage and the expedition on five nights. One night I was invited to a VIP reception at the Lincoln Center as part of world peace day. No time for a show or sight seeing! With more time I’d have attended the Paul Winter concert.

Tell us three surprises so far:

First, I’ve been fed so well [by Rotarian hosts who’ve stepped up along the way] that despite paddling 500-plus miles, I’ve gained weight! I am enjoying this gypsy life where ‘I rely on the kindness of strangers.’

Second surprise is how generous yacht clubs and marinas have been in looking after my kayak.

The third surprise is how generous people are in donating money for the Safe Passage school. With just 20 percent of the distance covered, over 40 percent of the funds have already been raised to convert 3rd and 4th grades from after-school programs to day-long school. [The school is near the dump in Guatemala City and serves students from 2 to 21]. Maybe I can raise money for 5th and 6th grades as well!

Please describe five pieces of disturbing trash that you’ve slipped past, along with marine life sightings.

Trash: The worst is large beams traveling five knots with the current and able to take out a kayak! Funniest trash: golf ball. Most welcome: the identical brand, model, color,  and size hat I lost during a kayak expedition years ago in Nova Scotia. So happy [to have pulled it out of the water], as they haven’t made that canvas and leather model for years! Worst comment I’ve heard: Someone compared all the items tucked on the deck of my kayak to the huge garbage gyres of the Pacific Ocean. Garbage dumps: I’ve passed lots of landfills that have been turned into lovely parks after millions of dollars of remediation. I compare these to the huge garbage dump in Guatemala City where the Safe Passage children and families live on the landfill after very little remediation.

Animals: In Maine north of Portland, I see seals and porpoises and whales a lot. South of Portland I have not had a single sighting, despite paddling through the same waters where a great white shark attacked two kayakers a few days after I left. My best animals so far have been a four-foot sturgeon and tons of menhaden. Worst marine life: some really crazy jet skiers!

What was it like to paddle around Sandy Hook and then go along the Jersey Shore? It would be hard not to think about Hurricane Sandy.
I went inside Sandy Hook and tomorrow will head out along the Jersey Shore. I’m not looking forward to the big surf! This may be my dumping day. Stay tuned. Sandy has been a constant companion since entering Long Island sound. Everyone along the shore tells me their Sandy stories (and 9/11 stories). I still see lots of visible damage as I paddle past. The expensive vacation homes have all been raised and repaired. The ones left damaged are the small homes. Immense sums have been spent on private seawalls trying to protect homes.

Has a swell or wave flipped your kayak yet?
I’ve never been flipped on any of my many kayak expeditions. Yet. I am a very cautious paddler, but accidents can always happen. I hear some folks have a betting pool on the first day I will flip.

What are your most dangerous 30 seconds so far?

It’s a toss-up up between accidentally surfing on a wave–almost being turned sideways and flipping but correcting it with a strong low brace–9.1-knot top speed! Or, hearing “I am authorized to shoot you” from a military guy all dressed in black. I could have sworn I’d passed the last security zone buoy before I heading across the shipping channel. Or, thinking it was a large ship [looming] far away, coming at me when I crossed the shipping channel at Newport [only to realize] it was a fast medium-sized ship much closer. I paddled for all I was worth and managed to get out of the way, setting a new speed record (without current) for this slow kayak of over seven knots.

2. Championship Season – Ryan Flaherty, Utility Infielder

It’s been a fast track from Deering High to the Baltimore Orioles to post-season play.

Interview by Robert Witkowski

“The champaign parties in the clubhouse are something else!” says Ryan Flaherty of his post-season adventure trying to help Baltimore reach the World Series. “For me to be here in my third year is pretty special. Some players never get this far.” [Kansas City subsequently kept the Orioles from advancing to the World Series.]

A former Deering High School phenom, this utility infielder landed on third base replacing Manny Machado in July. He immediately impressed the Camden Yards faithful with a go-ahead home run over the flags in right field. From there, the 28-year-old secured his (half-million dollar) position in the Orioles roster, called out by CBS sports as “a bright spot offensively” for his key plays and clutch RBIs in the ALCS battle for a World Series spot against Kansas City.

Ryan’s father, Ed Flaherty, Jr., credits his son’s work ethic. “He won’t leave the Yards–he’s the first one there and last to leave.” A USM Hall-of-Fame baseball coach of 30 years, dad notes, “Ryan’s not as talented as some of the others, so he works hard to be there.”

But Ryan’s drive comes from within. “My dad was never my coach, but he taught me the game,” Ryan says. “He was never the one to ask me to play; he’d wait for me to ask. He told me to have fun playing. It’s a valuable lesson–even more so during this postseason!.”

They agree it’s the most valuable lesson passed from father to son. “It’s a game; it’s fun,” Coach Flaherty confirms, an approach instilled in him by legendary coach John Winkin when Ed went to UMaine. “He never over-coached me, and I didn’t push Ryan.”

He never needed to. “When I was nine years old I‘d tell teachers and my parents I was going to play baseball. They’d laugh,” Ryan says, but only at first. Ed remembers, “He’d get all the kids in the neighborhood playing. He’d play all day long–any position. He didn’t care.”

Ryan says winning the Dr. John W. Winkin Award for Maine Player of the Year as a senior at Deering was “the most personal achievement” of his life. “He meant a lot to me and my family.”

Ryan met a big challenge at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Going from Deering to playing in the Southeastern Conference was the hardest jump on his way to the majors. “It was a lot of competition at a higher level, being away from home–everything. But at every level I’d remember to keep telling myself, ‘this should be easy for me’ [until it was].”

“Sophomore year was when I first knew I could do something with this,” Ryan says. “And I didn’t want a 9-to-5 job.”

Although the Flahertys had already dominated Deering’s diamond for three generations–grandfather Edward J. Flaherty, Sr. (class of ’42); father (’72); and Ryan (’05)–baseball wasn’t always Ryan’s obvious choice. “I love the adrenaline of football, loved the fall season.” Ryan was a triple threat. Beyond lettering in baseball (capturing two state championships and a Nova World Series) and basketball, he also captained the football team as quarterback. “He could’ve been a Division I quarterback,” his father says.

Like a lot of players, Ryan Flaherty has his own formula to win. “I have rituals to get in the zone. Get to the park at the same time, what time I eat–but I’m not superstitious at all, actually. A lot of guys are! If they don’t wear the same socks or something, they don’t feel right.”

But his rituals don’t stop on the field. “I like to do the same things whenever I’m home. I go to Doughboy’s Deli–it’s my favorite place in the world! I’m at Bruno’s almost every night and have to go to L.L. Bean one of the first days I’m home.”

Thankfully, Baltimore crabs haven’t turned his head. “I am still a lobster fan–DiMillo’s, absolutely! I joke that crabs are a poor man’s lobster.”

His rituals also include “hanging out with high-school friends” when he returns home. “They keep me grounded. [I] can be myself. My brother Regan has been part of the most epic battles I’ve ever had. I’m extremely close to him, but I still can’t beat him at video games.”

South Portland High School’s southpaw ace Charlie Furbush is now a relief pitcher for the Seattle Mariners. “He throws lefty, which is hard for me because I’m a left-handed hitter,” Flaherty says about their major-league reunion. “He struck me out both times I faced him…he threw at my head!” A good-natured laugh belies any real acrimony. “He texted me after to apologize. It’s great to play with someone who also comes from Maine–especially Portland. It’d be cool if we were on the same team someday.”

Who is Ryan’s idol?

“If you don’t like Derek Jeter, you don’t value baseball,” says Ryan who played against Jeter in the shortstop’s historic last game in Yankee Stadium. “I admire the way he went about his business and the game. After meeting him and getting to know him a little, you know he’s genuine.”

Don’t let the admiration fool you. “I grew up a Red Sox fan pretending to hit home runs over the Green Monster, so Fenway has a distinct meaning in my heart.” He respects his adopted home field as well. “Camden Yards is something special–the field Cal Ripkin, Jr., played on, the Babe Ruth museum is just over left field, and the crowds are back. A lot of opposing team players love the Yards.”

His parent’s defection from Red Sox Nation is also forgivable. “We had to pinch ourselves to be sitting at the first playoff game against Detroit at the Yards with 47,000 cheering,” says Ed Flaherty.

Ryan’s desire is to return to Portland some day, raise a family as he was raised, and even coach Portland North Little League some day. “I miss seeing the love the kids have for the game, out there having fun. The higher you go, it’s easy to lose that.”

3. Creative Administrator – Sheila Hill-Christian, Portland City Manager

She brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm from her home state of Virginia.

Interview by Claire Z. Cramer

The most striking thing is how much more time we have to address quality-of-life issues,” says Sheila Hill-Christian when asked to compare her nearly two-year tenure in Portland–first as a deputy to City Manager Mark Rees and now as acting City Manager in the wake of Rees’s departure in September–to her many years in city management in Richmond, Virginia.

“I often wonder if everyone realizes what a blessing it is that here we enjoy the luxury of delving into philosophical differences on issues such as Congress Square, Deering Oaks pond, and polystyrene. When I first started working in local government in Richmond we were dealing with one of the highest murder rates in the country, drive-by shootings, and other challenges. Fortunately, things [there] have improved drastically since then.”

Most recently before the move to Portland, Hill-Christian, 54, led the Hill-Christian Consulting Group in Richmond, after stints as chief administrative officer to Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder and assistant to his successor Dwight C. Jones. She has also been director of the Virginia lottery and executive director of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Portland’s human resources director told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that he received more than 150 applications from across the country when Maine’s largest city looked to fill the $125,000-per-year deputy city manager position. Hill-Christian “popped up on everybody’s screen…I did further research and people were raving about what a…capable administrator she is.” She received her undergraduate degree in English and History from Virginia Commonwealth University and holds an MBA from Averett University.

Congress Street was just named to the American Planning Association’s list of 10 top city streets in America, a list that includes Broadway in New York and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The APA designation was well deserved recognition for city employees “who take such ownership and great care of our streets,” Hill-Christian says.

Her own favorite landmark on Congress Street? “City Hall is still my favorite…and was from the very first moment. My first visit was right around the holidays, a great first impression–Monument Square was just beautiful! The Pandora lights are such a lovely addition.”

As she prepared to depart Richmond for Portland in February of 2013, Richmond reporter Randy Hallman pointed out to her that she was facing a 12-degree forecast–with snow–in Portland. She laughed. “‘That’s part of the deal. They’re prepared for snow in Portland.’”

Nearly two years later, she says, “I think I’m still fearless and game in the winter. I haven’t been stuck once.” No oh no moment? “The closest…was when I realized that my Virginia method of snow removal from my car, which usually involved a broom, was not going to work here.” Hill-Christian’s more about the oh yes moments. “Every time I visit Fort Allen Park or walk or ride my bike around Back Cove.”

Portlanders are notorious for not doing things tourists come here and pay money to do. Sheila Hill-Christian is not that kind of Portlander.

“I’ve visited Peaks Island about six times and the other islands twice. The Lighthouse Boat [tour] is great! I’ve had many Lobster Shack crab rolls, although the Old Port Tavern does a decent one as well. I watched the Sea Dogs trounce the Richmond Squirrels, and that’s all I should say about that!”

Hill-Christian also finds Portland’s restaurants easy to love. “I’ve had to increase my exercise. Most often, I visit the Green Elephant, Nosh, Zapoteca, Margaritas, and the Corner Room. Anthony’s subs are great at lunch.” Any Southern treats she misses here? “Southern- style potato salad and sweet tea!”

Her secret to success in city management seems to be her sincere enthusiasm for meetings. She’s a meetings freak “because communication is critical. Some are with department heads to get project updates…Topics range from personnel matters…to parking, to…trash, to zoning amendments to traffic studies…evening council meetings, meetings in the community.”

And then there’s the other secret. “I really wanted to be an art major, but my parents wouldn’t pay for it because they thought I’d starve. Now to compensate, you’ll see me doodling in meetings. Being creative helps me to think, and I think being creative makes me better at my job.”

4. The Wright Stuff – Sense of Place – James Walter Schildroth, Architect

Maine’s modernist design visionary.

Interview by Colin W. Sargent

Everyone’s life is a movie. For Wiscasset’s James Walter Schildroth, 74, the Maine architect with the closest ties to the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright, it’s just a little more so.

Schildroth was just 19 when he joined the Taliesin Fellowship at the famous designer’s fortress of solitude in Wisconsin. “Wright died in April of 1959, and I landed at Taliesin in September. I was sorry not to have the chance to meet him in person. One of my first jobs was to dust everything in Frank Lloyd Wright’s office and put everything exactly where it was. I walked in. His hat, his cape, his personal things were all over that place. He even had a little place he actually slept in. Five months after his death, his things were still in shock, frozen in time. They thought he’d live forever.

“I apprenticed at the Wright Foundation there until age 21,” Schildroth, a Detroit native, says. And just because Taliesin was absent one mystic didn’t mean another wasn’t at the height of her powers. “Olgivanna Lloyd Wright [1898-1985]”–the great architect’s third wife–“interviewed me.” She is now better known as the bewitching main character on T.C. Boyle’s novel The Women.

“Mrs. Wright didn’t know if everyone was going to stay in the fellowship. There were 90 people at Taliesin when Frank Lloyd Wright was there. After he died, 30 immediately got in their cars and left. One of my friends, a fellow apprentice, was assigned to serve meals to Mrs. Wright. She said to him, ‘Roy, what am I going to do?’”

What to do but come up with some magic of your own? “Some of the apprentices who are there when I was are still there, in their 80s or 90s. There are stories about how they did it and why they did it.” Schildroth produces a black and white photo that looks like an outtake from Mad Men. Half a dozen of the people in this picture are still alive and still there.”

Which makes Taliesin sound a bit like Shaker Village in Maine, though the comparison seems to make Schildroth uneasy:

“I stayed nearly two years and left. I was pressured, but not influenced, to stay on the rest of my life. When you left Taliesin, you were kind of ostracized.” Like Shangri La? “You get 60 people together [as an ensemble cast], it would make quite a novel. I wanted to learn Wright’s principles and see if I could actually do it myself. After two years I felt I could learn that. I was getting a lot of pressure from my family to get a job and make a living. I wanted to see if I could design something away from that influence, all Mr. Wright’s drawings.”

Olgivanna (a former Serbian dancer born in Montenegro–across the Adriatic Sea from Italy) is known for having one foot in the occult and possibly making Wright loopy years earlier than he might have been.

A devotee and student of spiritualist George Gurdjieff (and former nurse to writer Katherine Mansfield before her death at Gurdjieff’s institute in France), “Olgivanna was my second mother,” Schildroth says.

“There I was, 19, full of beans. I regularly got into trouble–I wasn’t evil, I was just trying stuff–and she’d call me in and straighten me out and I’d get back on track. I had one focused goal: to learn to be an architect or learn that I couldn’t be one.” Schildroth pauses. “Others got into Gurdjieff,” who taught that most of us mill about in a state of ‘wakeful sleep,’ veiled from transcendent visions. “Olgivanna had spent 14 years getting into his organization. He was a mystic, and she kind of brought that understanding to the Fellowship. As an example, once a year the Fellowship put together this thing called ‘The Performances’; they were mostly done at Taliesin West. [The apprentices and architecture fellows regularly traveled back and forth from Taliesin, in Wisconsin, to Taliesin West in Arizona.]

“Mrs. Wright and her daughter and Bruce Pfeiffer got together to compose the performances and the music, which were wonderful. The whole Fellowship got involved as actors, but I said, ‘No. I’m here to be an architect.’ Mrs. Wright called me in. ‘Somebody has to do the kitchen work,’ I told her, ‘take the garbage out. You all do the other things.’ I could think about my design work while I was doing the dishes; I couldn’t while I was trying to memorize a part. But that was her interest–philosophy. Dancing was sort of part of the Movement. It was part of Gurdjieff’s way of getting the mind focused. I was not interested in it at all, and they couldn’t force me to do it. I don’t think there was anything sinister about any of it. It was just that Olgivanna was very different from a normal woman you’d run into. She’s from Montenegro–her father was a supreme court justice there. She was in high society.

“But I’m grateful to Taliesin, because it was there I learned to conceive architecture using the principles of Organic Architecture and by living in, rebuilding, and repairing Mr. Wright’s architecture.”

Schildroth’s escape to Maine came by degrees. “After working for Glenn Tsutomu Arai, Architect, of Suttons Bay, Michigan, he was graduated from the University of Oklahoma’s School of Architecture in 1966. Afterword, he evolved his architectural style with stints in San Francisco, Vermont, Boston, and Cambridge, Massachusetts…I married in 1967 and was divorced in 1977 with no children,” he says in his online bio. “I have lived solo since–or you could say, I am married to architecture.”

He moved to Whitefield, Maine in 1970. In 1972 he hung up a shingle on Water Street in Wiscasset. Now he’s at 6 Tyler Road in Wiscasset, designing modernist homes that have landed all over the state like shiny spaceships. His compensation is “typically 10 percent of the cost of the project,” though satisfaction on both sides of the equation is what keeps him going.

His closest project to downtown Portland is in Freeport, on the ocean: “The owners are two doctors, Pete Bauman and Carrine Burns. They like Wright’s work, and the work of several other colleagues of mine from the University of Oklahoma, and there’s really no other choice in Maine if you’re looking for that!

“The lot was a field with no trees except on the waterfront. It was narrow. The setbacks were quite severe, only 50 feet. To fit what they were dreaming in that space was quite tricky.” Like all of his work, the result is “very natural-solar oriented.”

Asked where his favorite spot is in the house– where he’d want a guest to be guided naturally–Schildroth says, “Well, I like it all.

“The master bedroom opens onto that great deck that shoots out onto the west, east, and south. That came about because the clients asked for a terrace that was partially shaded so they could sit outside and not always into the sun. The interior is all cherry wood cabinets, wallboarding, even flooring. Some of the floors are granite, as are the countertops.”

Asked what’s next, if highway rest areas now look like watered-down drawings he made in his twenties, Schildroth says, “The majority of architects, in my opinion, are historians. They find something and make something new of it. They don’t get how to understand the site and the clients’ desires and come up with a design. To me, a building ought to respect a client and the economic considerations. Right now, the Chinese and the Arabs are showing off [with fantastic designs not based on their clients’ needs], and in London Zaha Hadid makes a sketch of an artistic concept–just squiggles–then hands it to her staff to design. A design should be the way it is because of function or human needs. And organic will never go out of style because it’s based on need. I could do organic style for Martians. I’d asked the Martians, ‘What are you looking for? Where is your lot? What will you do with the house?’ Organic design is not whimsy.”

Asked what he thinks of Wilhelm Reich’s self-designed laboratory Orgonon in Rangeley, Schildroth says, “Reich needed a laboratory. So his Orgonon responds to that in a way that’s more organic than other structures might have been. Bucky Fuller was like that. A genius. His buildings were designed out of need. Their beauty flows from that.”

5. The Joy of WEX – Melissa Smith – CEO

One of Maine’s biggest companies continues to grow on her watch.

Interview by Olivia Gunn

I have three goals when I think about what I want to do professionally,” says Melissa Smith. “I want to make sure I feel like I’m continuously learning. I want to work with people I like, and I want to feel like the work I’m doing makes a difference.”

As CEO of WEX–Wright Express Corporation, ‘a leading provider of corporate payment solutions’–Smith, 45, seems to have reached these goals and more. Google her name and you’ll find a dozen articles and listings under Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek (who listed her total 2013 compensation at $1.6M), and so on. Smith can explain what her career entails all day long, but it isn’t until we get to her travels and adventures that she breaks from pleasant but stock interview answers.

“I’m very well traveled,” she says. “We have offices in Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand…so I’ve been across the world many times.” And that’s just for work. On her own time, Smith and her husband have safaried in Africa. “That’s the kind of place that gets in your blood,” she says. “It’s amazing. You’re exposed to these animals and it’s like something on a movie set.” Smith describes flying coach around the world to Singapore, then reflects, “Some of the nicest places I’ve stayed at aren’t necessarily my favorite places. I like places with character and a local element.”

Her love of simplicity and home comfort must stem from growing up in the small town of Winn before studying at University of Maine. Perhaps because of her world travels, Smith is even more resolutely a proud Mainer. Her own son, born this past September, is named Baxter after Maine’s state park. Smith lists the best spots in Maine from Katahdin’s summit to the coastal towns before deciding on Bar Harbor and Acadia as her favorites. “I love Acadia National Park. I have a soft spot in my heart for it because you can get outside and be able to have such great views of the ocean.”

For a woman leading over 1,700 employees and a company to globalization, it’s good to hear her express a humble love for her home state. “I love Maine. The more I travel, the more I grow to appreciate where I live. There’s no place like home.”

With two new titles to juggle, CEO and mom, Smith must fly around the world with a cape, but ask her how she feels about being considered one of the “Ten Most Intriguing” and she’ll look over her shoulder for the woman you’re really talking to.

6. Software Strategizer – Ashok Nalamalapu – I.T. solutions pioneer.

In less than 20 years, he’s helped change high-tech in Maine

Interview by Colin S. Sargent

Since Ashok Nalamalapu founded iCST, in his words “a global information technology staffing and software testing company,” in 1996, it’s grown steadily and has a 95 percent customer renewal rate. Nalamalapu, 55, received Maine’s Minority Small Business Person award in 1999 and 2005; he’s on the board of TechMaine and United Way of Greater Portland. Still another dimension: He was an honored speaker this July at Maine Yogafest 2014.

How would you say your spiritual journey affects  your business? Your leadership?

I founded iCST from a room in my attic. It was able to fund more than $100,000 to Sadhana, a spiritual center I founded in 2010. Volunteering most of my time for Sadhana created challenges at iCST in 2012. Since then, I’ve been striving to balance my time and energy. Since 2013, iCST has grown by 78 percent…

My spiritual journey has helped me maintain equanimity in different situations, reflect more, trust more and delegate more. By practicing yoga and meditation, I’m able to pause, reflect, and not react hastily to situations. It helps me to make requests and not demands.

Recently there’s been a movement to allow yoga classes as alternative physical education in some public schools. Good idea?

I’ve been practicing yoga (Asanas or postures) since 2000. It’s helped me tremendously while going through the peaks and valleys of life, including regaining my voice after losing it completely for one year in 2000–a stress-related vocal-cord paralysis.

In her second year of college, my daughter Denali is taking yoga classes for which she gets Physical Education credit. This helps her rejuvenate after hours spent studying or in the classroom. By practicing yoga, young students gain many benefits in addition to being physically fit. With their improved concentration, they can study better, learn better. My younger daughter, Vishva, has been meditating for few years in middle and high school. Introducing meditation at a young age would be beneficial for other young students as well.

You were a very strong supporter of the initiative to get laptops to every school child in Maine. How important is early access to technology?

I’m glad I testified in front of the legislature and supported the laptop initiative. Senator King and Maine took the leadership by providing laptops. Access to technology at a young age prepares students to be more successful in high school, college, and later on in life. It helps those who can’t afford to buy technology be at the same level as students who can. It’s also opening a big window–an innovative approach to ‘learning outside the classroom.’

What’s so enchanting about Sadhana?

Sadhana’s mission is serving all in realizing happiness and cultivating compassion through spiritual practices. I love Sadhana (sadhaname.com) because it brings people together irrespective of beliefs or economic status. Currently we’re offering devotional chanting by our band and guest artists from around the U.S. and meditation workshops.

How do you push the window open to explore personal interests?

I enjoy singing sacred chants and playing the harmonium. Our band, Swan Kirtan, has talented musicians and plays every other week. I love spending time with my daughters. I enjoy public speaking. I was trained by Dale Carnegie Maine and Toast Master in public speaking. I speak at schools, churches, and festivals on various topics. I’ve served as master of ceremonies at large yoga and chanting festivals in the U.S., including the largest such festival in the world, Bhakti Fest of Joshua Tree, California; Omega Ecstatic Chant Fest of New York; Denver Chant Fest; and Boston Yoga and Chant Fest.

When I lost my voice for a year, I started writing for newspapers and magazines, which I enjoy. Traveling to a new country every year is also one of my hobbies. I practice yoga four times a week, meditate daily for an hour.

Who are your role models?

Swami Vivekananda for his spiritual leadership; Senator Angus King for his people skills; Gandhi and Mother Theresa for their selfless service; presidents Clinton and Reagan for their public-speaking skills; and Ben Franklin and my late father, Seetha Reddy, for their hard work. Through what I learned from my father about hard work and dedication, I’ve settled into a comfortable life–after coming here to the U.S. with only $100 in my pocket. Another role model is Sri Ramakrishna because of his simplicity and message that all religions are good.

What’s one trait you like about yourself?

I strive for compassion–to consider others’ feelings and needs. This helps me to be more empathetic.

How has your personality changed across the years?

I used to be Type-A, aggressive in achieving what I wanted. Now I’m more relaxed and let things take their own course without interfering. I used to work more from my mind. Now I give importance to my heart as well.

Who and what changed your personality?

Swami Vivekananda and his master Sri Rama Krishna made a big impact on me. Losing my voice, having difficult times at iCST, and developing Sadhana have taught me various lessons. Having children and raising them has helped me to be a more loving person.

7. Ogunquit Impresario – Bradford Kenney –  Creative Director

He sets a high standard in Maine’s musical theater scene.

From Staff & Wire Reports

When I got here in 2005, we had a 10-week season,” says Bradford Kenney, Ogunquit Playhouse’s executive creative director. “This year it’s 23 weeks. For 75 years, Ogunquit wasn’t even open in September, and now it’s our biggest month by far–we consistently hit it out of the park. The playhouse once welcomed “40,000 people through the doors per season. We finished over 100,000 this year. We’re the largest arts organization in the state.”

What Kenney, 50, calls the “shoulder” seasons have grown for York County, too. “The audiences are different. In high summer, the town is mobbed”–meaning many ages and tastes. “The fall audience tends to be more sophisticated, empty nesters with money for a nice hotel and a first-class meal–there are excellent restaurants still open–and they want theater.”

Kenney’s canny selection of musicals addresses this. This summer, he brought back Grease, “the musical that first brought Sally Struthers back into musical theater years ago.” But he strategically saved Struthers for September’s run of The Witches of Eastwick instead. Ogunquit’s production was the perfect combination of funny, sexy, and Sally.

Even in the off season, he keeps in touch with his audiences. Right now on ogunquitplayhouse.org, you can take a survey of new and classic shows you’d be interested in seeing, and you can render an opinion on some of the shows taking shape for the 2015 season.

“I just saw a great new musical production of Ragtime in California,” says Kenney. “I think we’ll definitely produce Ragtime.”

California? “I’m co-directing a new movie-musical there for public television, and that’s all I’ll say for now.” But speaking of Struthers, “While I was there, I escorted Sally to a private screening of a documentary on Elaine Stritch. Many musical theater stars were there–Lily Tomlin, Michelle Lee, Joanne Worley, Robert Morse–they all wanted to talk about Ogunquit. It was so gratifying.”

In December, watch for Ogunquit Playhouse at the Music Hall. “We’re moving our Mary Poppins to Portsmouth and ticket sales are already strong.” And there’s talk about possibly stretching into November in Ogunquit next year.

“Show business is a gamble every time we roll the dice. But I’ve been fortunate.”

8. Trailblazer – Carol Leone – Outdoors Advocate

The Teens to Trails founder believes teens find life lessons by taking to the woods.

Interview by Michelle Twomey

Teens To Trails®–also known as “T3”–is a nonprofit organization based in Brunswick founded by Carol, 63, and Bob Leone, 61. T3 brings excitement to Maine teens through a variety of programs that promote high school Outing Clubs across the state. In 2011, the Leones were honored with an L.L. Bean Outdoor Heroes Award.

Teens to Trails was inspired by your daughter Sara. Is she the driving force behind your work?

Our younger daughter, Sara, was lost in a car accident in July 2005. She is the spark behind Teens To Trails. In her brief 15 years, Sara developed a passion for life kindled by her connection with the outdoors. She was the perfect combination of self-confidence and humility, passion and compassion. Sara personified all that can be learned from nature–if we just look and listen.

What are some family memories from your time with Sara that are important to the Teens to Trails [T3] organization?

We hold dear to all the special moments our family has had together outside…searching for sand dollars, collecting heart rocks, scrambling over rocks to mountaintops, watching a meteor shower, swimming with sea turtles, catching snowflakes on our tongues, camping alone on an island, scuba diving in total darkness. If we can help someone else to find even one such special moment in their life, it will have been worth it.

Why teenagers? Why not elementary school children who can be influenced before bad habits have become natural?

Teens are often ignored by, or have outgrown, other programs that give them outdoor time. At that age, Outing Clubs can be student-driven. Our goal is to see an Outing Club established in every high school in Maine; then high school students can mentor middle school students.

Was there research you looked into to confirm your personal thoughts?

Research directly links the absence of nature in the lives of today’s youth to some of the disturbing trends in childhood obesity, attention disorders, and depression. [The writer] Richard Louv coined the phrase “nature-deficit disorder” to describe the growing disconnect between our youth and their natural world–no other age group suffers more than teens.

Can you describe your first experience with nature that will always stick with you?

My first job with the National Park Service was as a park ranger on Assateague Island–a barrier island in Maryland and Virginia. That’s the first place I ever experienced being alone with nature. I remember being on the beach all by myself. It was really flat and quiet. All these crabs live there, and they dig a hole like ghost crabs. When they’re scared,  they hide in their holes. After I’d been sitting on the beach for quite a while, it was only then the crabs started to come out one at a time. It was so cool. That was the time in my life that I realized it was important to preserve wild places.
What’s the most important message you want to pass along to teens who get involved with our outing clubs and other aspects of T3?

Getting outside helps you find your place in the world. It gives you roots upon which to build your life. At T3, we believe life happens outside! Get involved with your high school’s Outing Club. If there is no Outing Club, get in touch with us and we will help you start one!

9. Pulitzer-Prize Professor – Alan Taylor – Historian

He’s reshaped the way scholars look at Early American history.

Interview by Colin S. Sargent

Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes (1996 and 2014) and the Bancroft Prize (1996) for his work in Colonial American and early United States history, Portland native Alan Taylor, 59, has contributed greatly to our understanding of the early years of the United States in general and Maine in particular. He published his first work in 1990 after receiving his Ph.D. from Brandeis 1986: Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: the Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier 1760-1820. Next came teaching at Boston University and University of California, Davis. Just this year, he joined the Corcoran Department of History at University of Virginia. In addition to Liberty Men and Great Proprietors, Taylor has published seven books, including the first volume of the Penguin History of the United States, American Colonies: The Settling of North America.

How does microhistory help keep our understanding of broader trends on track?

Microhistory attempts to get to the experiences of common people, who generally are neglected in the histories of leaders and great public events. By focusing on lesser known people and local places, microhistory enables us to see how societies and cultures worked in the past. But I also need to correct the Wikipedia bio of me which casts me as an exclusive practitioner of microhistory to the exclusion of quantitative or cultural approaches. In fact, I greatly value those other approaches and often include them in my research. And some of my books are not microhistories. For example, American Colonies examines the entire continent of North America over a period of hundreds of years.

How could the contributions of your work best be brought to public schools, and the way history is taught? We’ve heard your Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction is often used in AP classes, but that’s still a small slice of the student population.

AP history teachers sometimes have leeway in choosing texts that most teachers do not have. They have to teach from a textbook chosen by the local school board and then they have to “teach to the test” because of the current mania for testing in this country. That approach works against encouraging deeper thinking beyond mere memorizing of facts.

Your book, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies, sure has an eye-catching title. Can you offer an example that might suggest how these categories affected the future Maine at the time?

The War of 1812 was deeply divisive in New England with the nation’s then opposition party, the Federalists, deeply alienated and often willing to undermine the war effort and to trade with the British in the nearby Maritimes. The dominant Republican Party (not the same R.P. as today) supported the war and hoped to discredit the Federalists by winning that conflict. When the British occupied eastern Maine in 1814, the Federalists cooperated with the occupiers while the Republicans tried but failed to mount a military expedition to reclaim the region. Fortunately American negotiators recovered eastern Maine in the peace treaty.

What was Maine referred to as, most often, before the Missouri Compromise? Were we ever (gasp) Northern Massachusetts?

No one ever called it “northern Massachusetts.” Instead it was “the District of Maine” or “the Eastern Country” or the “Eastern Counties.”

Why couldn’t it have been the Maine Compromise?

Maine’s entry into the union was not controversial once Massachusetts’s state government consented. But northern congressmen made a big issue of Missouri entering the union as a slave state. They sought to require a program of gradual emancipation in Missouri. That enraged southerners. To resolve the crisis a complex compromise had to be crafted of which the admission of Maine was a part, but only a part.

We heard you were committed to wearing historically themed neckties–do you have a favorite?

I wear a historically themed tie that matches the topic of my lecture on a given day or event. So my favorite is whatever offers the best match on that day. Today at the University of Virginia, I am lecturing on American politics during the 1790s, so I am wearing my Alexander Hamilton tie.

10. Equality Champion – Mary Bonauto, Attorney

The brains behind the Supreme Court’s dismantling of DOMA

From Staff & Wire Reports

Mary Bonauto’s name came up in the news this fall because she was named one of 21 recipients of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grants. But Bonauto, 52, was already well known for her role in the years-long battle for marriage equality.

The Northeastern University School of Law graduate has been the Civil Rights Project Director at the Boston law offices of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) since 1990. According to her GLAD bio, she was co-counsel in the 1999 ruling in Baker v. State of Vermont that led to the first civil union law in the country. She went on to be lead counsel in a 2004 Massachusetts case that resulted in that state being the first in which same-sex couples could legally marry. She worked on both of Maine’s ballot campaigns in 2009 and 2012. Slate online magazine called her “the legal architect of the DOMA [Defense of Marriage] repeal” after the 2013 Supreme Court decision.

After the DOMA decision, Bonauto told the Bangor Daily News, “It’s hard to be singled out, because this belongs to all of us.” Having worked on gay rights legal matters since the 1980s, she told the reporter, “Time changed people’s minds.”

Mary Bonauto first moved to Portland in 1987 for a position at the law firm MittelAsen, but she relocated to Boston in 1990 when she joined GLAD. She and her partner Jennifer Wriggins were married in Massachusetts and they returned permanently to Portland in 2002 when Wriggins took a teaching job at University of Maine Law.

They in the Oakdale neighborhood and are raising twin daughters. Among the family’s favorite city haunts are “the farmer’s market at Deering Oaks, Back Cove, the Portland Ice Arena, and the main and Burbank branches of the Portland Public Library.” Beyond Portland, “We like swimming or skating on any pond, Little Cranberry Island, and Gilsland Farm.”