An interim president, new leadership of the Board of Directors and the election of three board members mark a significant transition at the Maine Community Foundation.
Starting this month, Sterling Speirn, former president and CEO of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the Peninsula Community Foundation, will become MaineCF’s interim president and CEO. He replaces Steve Rowe, who is retiring after nearly six years at MaineCF. A search for a new MaineCF president and CEO will start this fall.
Gregg Collins of Caribou and Adilah Muhammad of Lewiston have been appointed chair and vice-chair of MaineCF’s Board of Directors.
Collins is vice president of S.W. Collins Co., a fifth-generation lumber and building supply dealer with locations in Lincoln, Houlton, Presque Isle, Caribou and Fort Kent. He currently is an advisory committee member of Presque Isle High School Regional Trades Program and the Bicycle Coalition of Maine. Collins joined MaineCF’s Aroostook County Committee in 2006 and was chair from 2012-14. He has a B.S. in business administration from the University of Maine.
Muhammad is the president and founder of The Third Place in Portland and is an independent planning and research consultant. She has served on the Androscoggin County Committee since 2018 and is a current advisor for Indigo Arts Alliance. She is past chairperson of the Lewiston Downtown Neighborhood Action Committee and a former board director of L/A Arts and Raise-Op Housing Cooperative. Muhammad is a graduate of DePauw University and holds a master’s in policy, planning, and management from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine.
The MaineCF Board of Directors welcomed three new members at its June meeting: Julie Mallett, an attorney for Legal Services for the Elderly in Bangor; Claude Rwaganje, founder and executive director of ProsperityME in Portland; and Ben Sprague, vice president at First National Bank in Bangor.
Mallett is also broker and consultant at Mallett Real Estate, LLC. She received her B.A. from Colby College and law degree from University of Maine School of Law. She served on the board of the Center Theatre and as a volunteer with Piscataquis YMCA youth activities. Mallett was an advisor for the MaineCF’s Piscataquis County Committee for nine years, including a term as chairperson.
Rwaganje is serving a three-year term on the Westbrook City Council. He sits on the board of the Portland Chamber of Commerce and United Way of Greater Portland and is a former member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Community Development Advisory Council. Rwaganje holds a master’s in business administration from Phoenix University and is a certified coach and housing counselor through NeighborWorks America.
Sprague is a former member of the Bangor City Council. After graduating with a B.A. in government from Harvard University, he worked for the Boston Red Sox and taught high school diploma and career development classes. He is a member of the Good Shepherd Food Bank board and is the founder and race director for Erin’s Run, an annual road race that raises money for a local domestic violence resource center and the Bangor YMCA.
Headquartered in Ellsworth, with additional personnel in Portland, Dover-Foxcroft, Rockport and Mars Hill, the Maine Community Foundation works with donors and other partners to provide strong investments, personalized service, local expertise, and strategic giving to improve the quality of life for all Maine people. To learn more about the foundation, visit www.mainecf.org.
