PMA Magazine

As Officer-in-charge and Keeper of family lighthouses (Monhegan Island Light; Fort Point Lighthouse in Stockton Springs; and Browns Head Lighthouse on Vinalhaven), Ernie DeRaps lived with his wife and children. He enjoyed having his family near, watching the children grow and helping to teach them. Lighthouses attract many visitors and it was always a pleasure for him and his wife Polly to greet these guests and make them feel welcome. After his retirement, he decided to paint every lighthouse on the coast of Maine.

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Farmington, Maine, native Seth Wescott started snowboarding at the age of 10 in 1986. It has since shaped his life and travels, leading him to a 20-year tenure on the U.S. snowboarding team—for which he won gold medals in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics—and traveling from Antarctica to Greenland and many places in between in search of interesting places and amazing mountains to ride on.

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The first female governor of Maine, Janet Mills was sworn into office on January 2, 2019. Governor Mills first entered public service as assistant attorney general. She was elected the first woman District Attorney in New England, co-founded the Maine Women's Lobby, and was elected to the Maine House of Representatives. She also served as Maine’s first and only female Attorney General.

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Muhidin Libah was born in Southern Somalia, grew up in a Kenyan refugee camp, and came to the United States in 2004. He has a degree from the University of Southern Maine and has co-founded multiple nonprofits including the Middle Juba Relief and Sustainability Organization, Somali Bantu Community Association of Syracuse, and Somali Bantu Community Association of Maine. He is a family man who just celebrated the birth of his 10th child.

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Growing up in Alaska, Jessica Leahy has always been curious about the connection between humans and forests. She moved to Maine in 2005 to become a forestry professor at the University of Maine. She researches environmental attitudes and behaviors towards forests, forestry, and other natural-resource management. In her spare time, she and her husband work on their woodlands, which includes the Wicopy Woods Tree Farm in Sebec.

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Kazeem Lawal moved to Maine and became involved more here than in any community he'd lived in before. In 2012, he started Portland Trading Co. At his store, everyone is welcome. His background is in engineering—his dad’s profession. His mother traveled the world sourcing fabrics and bringing them back to Nigeria. Though neither lived a full life, Kazeem strives to achieve all they could not. He wants his story to be told, his voice to be heard, to touch lives.

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Walter Boomsma is author of the book Exploring Tradition—Celebrating the Grange Way of Life. He currently serves as Communications Director for the Maine State Grange. He loves working with children and is a proud member and program director of Valley Grange in Guilford, where they work closely with school districts in the area. They believe that building strong communities means building strong kids and building strong kids means building strong communities.

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Ahmed Abdirahman was born in Somalia in 1981. Due to civil war, he lost his father and two siblings. After fleeing Somalia, he lived in Kenya in a refugee camp until immigrating to the USA. In 2005, he co-founded the Maine Muslim Community Center, where he serves as Executive Director. He is a respiratory therapist at Mercy Hospital, and additionally works as a counselor, where one of his roles is to teach doctors about Somali beliefs and cultural norms.

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Brother Arnold Hadd was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. His interest in communalism led him to the Shaker religious community. He visited the Shakers for three years and eventually joined in January of 1978. Since that time, Brother Arnold has been a farmer, gardener, herdsman, printer, cook, baker, author, editor, historian, Trustee, and Elder.

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Sheila Jans is a development consultant and founder of CultureWorth, a consultancy based in Madawaska that focuses on strengthening communities and the economy. Sheila works throughout the U.S. and Canada, and is currently writing a corridor management plan for Maine’s first cultural byway in the St. John Valley.

Don Cyr is the founder and director of the Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel, a former Catholic Church in the village of Lille along the St. John River, which he has been restoring for the past 35 years. Don teaches history and art at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics.

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Sarah Workneh is Co-Director of Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture.

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Amanda Rector is the Maine State Economist. She conducts ongoing analysis of Maine's economic and demographic conditions to help inform policy decisions. Amanda is a member of Maine’s Revenue Forecasting Committee and serves as the Governor’s liaison to the U.S. Census Bureau. She started working for the state in 2004 and has been State Economist since 2011. Amanda is originally from mid-coast Maine and now lives in Union with her family.

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Imti Hassan identifies as Somali-American and a proud Muslim woman. She is a resident of Portland, Maine, and attends Bates College. She strives to be open-minded and to learn other people's stories. At Bates, she is thinking of majoring in Economics, Psychology, or Politics, and minoring in Chinese. She is thinking of becoming a lawyer or an entrepreneur. According to Imti, “being a Homer Fellow made me realize that there is much you can dissect within an artwork and that powerful dialogues can emerge if you listen.”

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Myron M. Beasley, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Chair of American Studies at Bates College. He is an art critic and curator. His writings explore the intersections of cultural politics, art, and social change. He has received awards and fellowships from the Andy Warhol Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Davis Family Foundation, and Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation.

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Neill De Paoli is a historian/historical archaeologist living with his wife in Kittery, Maine. He earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of New Hampshire. Since 2016, he has been Historic Site Manager at Colonial Pemaquid State Historic Site on Maine’s south-central coast. This National Historic Landmark has prehistoric roots reaching back more than 6,000 years and historic prominence as one of New England’s earliest fishing and trading settlements.

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