FORT KENT, Maine — The University of Maine at Fort Kent will celebrate its 136th Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 12.
The event will begin at 1 p.m. at the UMFK Sports Center.
Maine’s former director for public health, Dr. Dora Anne Mills, will address the graduates, faculty and guests.
Mills has been a vice president at the University of New England since 2011, and has helped expand clinical interprofessional education and public health programs such as nutrition education and substance use prevention.
She grew up in rural western Maine, and frequently visited her family in Aroostook County, where her mother was born and her maternal grandparents were fourth-generation potato farmers and loggers.
After completing her education and training, she returned to her hometown of Farmington to practice medicine.
She served as Maine’s director for public health from 1996 to 2011, and was the longest serving director in the nation when she left service. She championed policies that created smoke-free public places, the building of a statewide community-based public health infrastructure and pandemic preparedness.
Mills has received numerous state and national awards including an honorary degree from the University of Maine Augusta.
