Who We Are
Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition is a 501(c )3 comprised of neighbors, experts, volunteers, and naturalists—there are several hundred of us. Many are alums of our storied Penobscot Bay Stewards program. Others have joined in through birding, hiking, educational presentations, and other collaborations and projects. We welcome new members, donors, and volunteers.
Executive Committee, Board
Greg Biddinger
President
Greg and his wife Lise Leigh started spending summers in Maine beginning in 2021 and moved to Belfast permanently in 2015. Prior to finally settling in Maine, Greg lived in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, California, Virginia, and Texas. Greg is partially retired, but still dabbling in his consulting business focused on conservation strategies for managing private and working lands. He has worked as an environmental scientist for industry, state government, and in academics. Greg was a member of the 2019 Penobscot Bay Stewards class and because of that experience he has since become active in regional environmental activities as a board member and President of the BBWC, the Friends of Sears Island, and the Friends of Belfast Parks.
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Joy started her career as a Biology Professor. She enjoyed most taking her college students out on field trips to observe and learn more about various ecosystems. After leaving academia, she was in the environmental and safety field for 30+ years as a regulator, manager, consultant, trainer and auditor working with smaller and very large, international companies. She was also the President of an international environmental and safety training organization and taught train-the-trainer courses. In 2021 after Joy retired, she and her husband moved to Belfast to be closer to family. After taking the Penobscot Bay Stewards class, she became re-energized to volunteer her time to research and protection of the environment, especially working again in water quality monitoring.
Joy Bowles
Vice President, Programs
Cloe Chunn
Visionary
​Cloe is a naturalist, outdoor educator, former high school and college teacher, and Registered Maine Guide. Author of Fifty Hikes in the Maine Mountains (W.W. Norton), Cloe has hiked the entire Appalachian Trail and explored wild country as far as Antarctica where she did geological research during graduate school. Cloe’s aim is to highlight and preserve Earth’s natural systems, and to help humans recognize and restore their connections within these systems.
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Cloe is a past president of the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, where she makes trails, leads hiking, paddling, and XC ski outings, and organizes school volunteers. She is also a co-founder of the Maine Master Naturalist Program, the Penobscot River Paddling Trail, and the International Appalachian Trail. She is especially fond of birding, canoeing, cross-country skiing, and Sphagnum bogs.
Kate Hanson
Secretary
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Kate and her husband moved to Belfast almost seven years ago to be closer to their daughter and her family. Being here has offered Kate many opportunities to be involved with the community, including serving on the Belfast Community Co-op’s Board, helping to launch a Co-op history project in collaboration with the Belfast Historical Society, clearing trails as a steward for the Hills to the Sea Trail, and, currently, serving on the BBWC’s Board of Directors. Before heading north, she spent over forty years in southern Maine, working at the University of New Hampshire where she retired as a Professor Emerita of Community Leadership.
Mike Lotito
Vice President, Operations
Mike has spent most of his life on the Eastern end of Long Island, NY. He went to college and earned a BS in Chemistry and MBA in Finance. He took five years off from his formal work to engage in commercial fishing and charter boat fishing as a business. Mike has also spent a lot of his free time photographing and observing a variety of birds in the NE United States, which include backyard feeder birds, shore birds and birds of prey. In his work life, he managed a team of nine people in the role as Commercial VP. In addition, Mike has always loved the outdoors, and his passions have included nature photography, fishing (both commercial and recreational), geology, birding and gardening. Mike believes that now is time for him to give back.
Gene Randall
Treasurer
​In 2015, after completing a career in accounting and finance management, Gene, and his wife Marianne McKinney-Randall, moved from Winter Park, Florida, to Belfast. Gene has become involved with various local activities and became a board member and Treasurer for the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition. Being a member of the BBWC Board is a great opportunity to learn more about the history of Belfast region and how to apply best practices to the issues of conserving natural resources and preserving the environment.
Members of the Board
Emily Berry
Emily was born in Maine and has lived here most of her life. She has a BS from UMO in Ecology and Environmental Science (concentration in Natural History) and a minor in Botany. After graduation, she focused on local and organic foods, working on several organic farms and seasonally at Johnny's Selected Seeds.
As her family grew, she transitioned to working at the Belfast Community Co-op where she is currently the Administrator for the Board of Directors. In 2024, She was introduced to BBWC while participated in the “Be a Naturalist” class. She currently lives in Lincolnville with her husband, daughter, and four dogs with whom she frequently tromps through the forest identifying plants, animals, birds, and scat.
Martha Conway
Martha Conway-Cole came to Belfast in 1995 from Maryland and Louisiana. She has a degree in History from Bryn Mawr College, an M Ed in Special Education and a C.A.S in Educational Leadership from University of Maine, Orono. She has taught Social Studies and English in the Peirce School, George Robertson School, Searsport Elementary School, Capt. Albert Stevens Elementary and Troy Howard for more than 30 years!
Martha particularly loves the THMS garden, hiking on the school trails, finding animal tracks in the snow in the field, watching birds and documenting the native insects. Martha also raises Atlantic salmon fry each year for the local Wescott Stream. She organizes beach clean-up and encourages 7th grade students to join the Keeping Belfast Maine Beautiful community clean-up.
Patricia Gladding
Pat has moved around a little. She started on the East coast, then the West coast, the deep South, the Mid-Atlantic, and finally Maine. After a career in Medical Practice Management, she moved into the non-profit sector. In Maryland, she worked with a group protecting and restoring the Anacostia River and its watershed. She also founded and ran a local Farmers Market. Moving to Maine in 2015, Pat learned about the PBS program and has been involved since then. This program definitely makes one aware of Penobscot Bay and its watershed. She is also a member of the Belfast Garden Club and Friends of Sears Island. Pat serves on the boards of Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, Friends of Harriet L Hartley Conservation Area, and Waldo County Climate Action Coalition. She enjoys kayaking, hiking, gardening, and cooking.
Joshua Goldstein
Joshua moved to Belfast after spending much of his career working in Boston and Washington for Accion, the microfinance provider. As Vice President for Economic Citizenship and Disability Inclusion, he led a global initiative to ensure that persons with disabilities had access to tiny loans with which to build microenterprises in India, Paraguay and other countries. He is also a poet and playwright. Several of his plays were produced in the United States and England, and he taught playwriting to undergraduates at Boston University for twelve years.
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He spent summers in Maine for almost fifty years. Since he moved here, he's been a volunteer on the Board of the Game Loft, on the Advisory Council of the Friends of Sears Island, and a volunteer for Restorative Justice. He is a student of natural history and an avid bird watcher. He did volunteer trail work at Great Falls Park in Virginia for a number of years.
Grace Hayes
Student Representative
Grace is currently a senior at Belfast Area High School and is hoping to further her studies in the Biology Field. Grace loves throwing herself into every opportunity when it comes to science, including science clubs/competitions, restoration efforts, and taking classes that focus on the environment. She loves hiking, swimming, and skiing, as well as just being outdoors and enjoying nature.
Grace has had many great opportunities to plant trees along the Ducktrap River to help with erosion and conservation, and release salmon into the Wescot Stream, a tributary of the Passagassawakeag River. Grace has also worked with the less fun side of conservation, by studying tide and weather data on the Belfast Bay and creating graphs to compare. When it comes to a new opportunity Grace just can’t say no!
Ann Kennedy
In 2018, Ann fulfilled a life-long wish by moving to Maine from Baltimore, Maryland. After taking the Penobscot Bay Stewards program in 2019, Ann joined Cloe Chunn in producing Watershed News, BBWC’s newsletter. She also participated in the Steering Committee for the Steward’s program. Ann joined the Board in 2023 and serves as the Chair of the Communications Committee.
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In her working life, Ann was a community organizer for 25 years, working on education, energy, environment, and children’s issues. She founded and directed the Maryland Citizen Action Coalition and worked for several labor unions. In 1992, she left the political world to become a teacher and librarian in the Baltimore City Public Schools until she retired in 2017.
John Krueger
More than half a century ago, John and his wife Wendy rolled into Liberty in their converted school bus embracing the back-to-the-land movement with open hearts and willing hands. Over the years, John has had the privilege of learning—sometimes the hard way—what it truly means to live close to the earth.
Most of his professional career was spent as a Director of the State of Maine Health and Environmental Testing Laboratory responsible for the State laboratory that tested for Infectious Diseases, Environmental (drinking water and pollutions monitoring) and Forensics (Drugs). That and involvement with civic leadership has helped him gain a deep understanding of the challenges and responsibilities tied to protecting our watersheds and preserving the natural environment we all depend on.
Lynda Munro
Lynda Munro, a Belfast resident, is an active member of her community. She is on the Board of Directors of Waldo Community Action Partners and the secretary of the Waldo County Democratic Committee. She is a retired state of Connecticut trial court judge where she served for many years, including as a Chief Administrative Judge. She has served the legal community as a law instructor, on a variety of state Commissions and as lecturer to the bench and bar. Lynda served her alma mater, Connecticut College for many years as a member of the Board of Trustees and on the Executive Board of the Council of Former and Emeritus Trustees. She is currently an Emeritus Trustee. She is a recipient of the Connecticut College Medal.
Lee Reilly
​Lee Reilly is the author of two nonfiction books and founder of Shannaghe, a residency that hosts writers and environmentalists from across the country. Working freelance, she has made documentaries and co-designed museums; for many years, she wrote for Vegetarian Times, where she answered readers’ questions about tofu, bees, herbs, and whether cows explode when they’re not milked (they don’t). In her full-time working life, she led the tech division of a national marketing agency for a decade, making websites for Harvard, Lions Clubs International, and other nonprofits. She has also helped steer several nonprofits, including Our Chapter, Chicago’s leading organization for women writers. A Penobscot Bay Steward, she is addicted to oceans, coffee, and her two dogs.
Kris Shula
​​Kris moved to Maine in 1973 from Indiana and transferred from Indiana University to the University of Maine to complete her BS in Nursing. After a stint in the Peace Corps in Colombia, South America, she returned to Maine and moved to the Belfast area. She worked for 43 years at Waldo County General Hospital, most of it as a nursing supervisor.
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Kris is very concerned about climate change and plastic pollution affecting our beautiful Penobscot Bay. She has volunteered on both local and hospital committees to address the use of plastics and has been a team leader for Keeping Belfast Maine Beautiful since its inception.
David Thomas
David Thomas has taught high school science in four public high schools in New York, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Maine for over 23 years. He holds a B.S. in limnology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.S. in science education from Cornell University. Dave worked for four years as an aquatic research technician in the upper Midwest. He has taught marine studies and environmental research courses at the high school as well as UMaine Hutchinson Center and is a co-founder of the Belfast Marine Institute. He is currently a co-PI on an NSF-grant working to implement technology-infused research and community-based experiences for middle and high school students. The BBWC offers many opportunities for students to support natural resource conservation and stewardship.
John Tipping
John Tipping is an aquatic entomologist, biologist, and taxonomist with more than 25 years of experience identifying aquatic and terrestrial insects and macroinvertebrates. He performs water quality evaluations for a variety of clients, including the federal government (USGS, EPA), state governments, municipalities and industries. His work is used for a wide range of purposes including hazardous waste investigations, military base closures, the assessment of gross organic enrichment, point and nonpoint sources of pollution, and the assessment of dam effects in association with the relicensing of hydroelectric facilities. John also conducts informational seminars on water quality evaluations and aquatic insects for students and community groups. He is also a member of the Society for Freshwater Science.
Staff
​​Jenni Judkins
Natural Literacy Educator
Parker Richardson
Communications
