About Us

 

ABDULLAHI AHMED, 2017: Abdullahi Ahmed is the Principal at Deering High School in Portland. From 2015-2019 he served as Assistant Principal. He taught physical science at Deering High School since 2005 and was the first certified public school teacher of Arabic Language in Maine beginning in 2013. He has also taught math, earth science, alternative education science, chemistry and physics at the middle and high school levels since 2003 in Portland Public Schools. Dr. Ahmed earned a doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Maine where he conducted his dissertation research on Refugee Parental Involvement in Schools. He has his Master of Science in Education from the University of Southern Maine, his teacher certification through the Extended Teacher Education Program (ETEP), and his bachelor’s degree in Mining Engineering from Pakistan. Dr. Ahmed was born and raised in Somalia, a small country in East Africa. He speaks Somali, Arabic, English, and Urdu. He is married and the father of four children.

 

DEBORAH BAROUCH, 2001: Deborah was president of the World Affairs Council of Maine from 2007-2009. Deborah spearheaded the idea of the first World Quest to the Board in 2001 and proceeded to implement it the following year. She was the recipient of the 2009 Bea Chapman Minott award. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a BA in Government and Politics and studied at Santa Clara University in California. She is also a graduate of the Institute of Civic Leadership in 2010. She is a Broker with Keller Williams Realty and has been a realtor in Portland for 30 years.  Deborah grew up in a foreign service/CIA family and spent her childhood in Nairobi and later Tehran. Her father was the first Chief of Mission in Nairobi, and later personal secretary to three CIA directors, and was one of the first 50 members of the CIA. Deborah is married to Sam Barouch, who was President of the Council from 1996- 1999. Their children are very engaged in international work, primarily in the wine and the pharmaceutical sectors. Deborah and her husband live in Yarmouth.

 

BILL BULL, 2021: Vice President of Risk Management, Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) Bill Bull has more 25 years’ experience international development as well as safety and security/risk management, including over 18 years in Africa with the Peace Corps. Prior to joining CIEE, he served as East Africa/East Indian Ocean Safety and Security Officer for the Peace Corps, an organization he has maintained close ties with since he first became a Peace Corps volunteer in 1985. Since 1999, Bill has served in many capacities within Peace Corps including as Associate Peace Corps Director (APCD) for Rural Development and Post Safety Officer in Gabon; as APCD for the Environment and Safety Officer in Madagascar; and as Country Director in Madagascar, during which he received numerous prestigious awards for his work, including the John F. Kennedy Award and a knighthood from the Malagasy Government into the Ordre National de Merit. Bill has served on various school boards and nonprofit boards both nationally and internationally. Bill holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Lafayette College and a master’s degree from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.  From his work on historical farms, Bill is a former certified Master Gardener, Master Boiler and oxen trainer, and enjoys landscaping with his wife in Falmouth.

 

ABIGAIL CARROLL, 2014: Abigail owns and operates Nonesuch Oysters, an award-winning, boutique oyster farm in Scarborough, Maine. An industry spokesperson, her speaking credits include a Sea State Lecture at Gulf of Maine Research Institute and a TEDxYouth talk. In 2014, she received a grant from Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center to participate in MCED's TopGun entrepreneur program; she recently launched a marine skincare brand. Prior to becoming an oyster farmer, Abigail spent over a decade living in Paris, France where she traded stocks and worked in the start-up sector. A Maine native, Abigail holds an AB in French and Spanish Literature from Barnard College, as well as an MIA in International Banking and Finance from Columbia University. Former employers include the French Senate (Le Senat), Credit Suisse First Boston, and Church World Services. Abigail has been published in the UK's Daily Telegraph and she wrote features and a current events column ("Talk") for This City Paris. She has lived, studied, or worked in France, Ecuador, Spain, Poland, Germany, and Cuba.

 

JACKIE DENNIS, 2021: A dual British and U.S. citizen, Jackie Dennis is a graduate of Loughborough University, with a degree in Economics and Social Psychology, and holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Reading University. She taught economics, commerce, and English as a Foreign Language at different international schools in Europe, including the International School in Basel Switzerland. She is conversant in French and German, having lived three years in Switzerland, as well as a brief stint in Germany. Since moving to the United States, she has volunteered as an event planner and fundraiser for multiple non-profits, including the Friends of Fort Williams. She has also served on the boards of the Dorset Theatre Festival, Kids in Crisis, and Opera Maine, and joined the program committee for the World Affairs Council in 2019. Jackie has three adult daughters who have also made their home in the United States: a linguist, a marine scientist, and a climate scientist/product developer living in Silicon Valley.

 

HANS EYSENBACH, 2020: Hans is an attorney at Verrill in Portland, ME. He works on a variety of utility and energy matters before the Maine PUC, FERC, and FCC on behalf of energy, telecommunications, and water utility entities, among others. In his past career, Hans advised international development projects regarding their environmental regulatory compliance obligations to U.S. government donors. After entering Vermont Law School, Hans was an articles editor for the Vermont Law Review and a teaching assistant. Before joining Verrill, Hans served as a law clerk to the Honorable Justice Andrew Mead of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Hans spends much of his free time with his family, biking, skating, paddling, and sailing around Maine. He also enjoys adventure racing to raise funds and build camaraderie. As a near-fluent Spanish speaker, Hans volunteers in public school Spanish classrooms and at local organic farms to swap stories with students and farm workers.

 

CLIFFORD GILPIN, 2000: Clifford Gilpin, PhD was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has a background in human resources. He was on the staff of the World Bank for 22 years and worked with countries in Africa and East Asia. From 1987 to 1992 he managed the Bank's human resources program in Indonesia and subsequently directed the Bank's internal learning and leadership program. He has a special interest in global energy supply and consumption. In 1996, he and his wife moved to Maine. Clifford is a trustee of the Falmouth Land Trust and former President of the World Affairs Council of Maine. He was awarded the Bea Chapman Minott Award in 2014.

 

WILLIAM HALL, 2005: Bill retired from the U.S. Air Force and a subsequent career at Martin’s Point Health Care in Portland. He grew up in Virginia and received a bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton University and a master’s degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia. He was an intelligence officer for the US Air Force, serving on active duty from 1969 until 1999. He spent almost 18 years of that time overseas in both Asia and Europe. Assignments in the U.S. included the National Security Agency in Maryland. Bill served as the Interim Executive Director from 2017-18 and currently serves as the president of the board of directors. Moving to Maine in late 1999, Bill lives on Peaks Island with his wife, Nancy. His international experience continues to be further refined and kept up to date by having a daughter-in-law from Kyrgyzstan and a son-in-law from Japan.

 

WENDY HARLAN, 2021 Wendy is currently Assistant Vice President and Managing Counsel, Investments at Unum: Wendy Harlan has over 25 years of law experience. Most recently, she was associate general counsel at IDEXX Laboratories and a shareholder at the law firm of Bernstein Shur. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Wellesley College, and spent a year studying Economic History and Russian at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Wendy also serves as Vice President of the Board of Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc.  She lives in Freeport, and has two college-age children who share her interests in global events and exploration.

 

ANDREA STANLEY HESTER, 2014: Andrea serves as Vice President of the Council and chair of Academic WorldQuest. She is an instructor at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine as well as President of the Harvard Club in Maine. In her former life, she was an editor/writer for the President of Harvard University and administrator of the International Visitors Program in the Office of the University Marshal at Harvard. In 2017 she was awarded the Bea Chapman Minott Award. Andrea has a bachelor's degree in modern European history from Tufts University and a master's degree in Government from the Harvard University Extension School. Andrea and her husband reside in North Yarmouth with their two daughters.

 

ROSS HICKEY, 2019: Ross Hickey is Assistant Provost for Research Integrity in the Office of Research Integrity at the University of Southern Maine(USM) which has centralized oversight over all areas of university research compliance.  A member of the USM Research Council and Academic Affairs Leadership Team, Mr. Hickey serves as Chair of the Institutional Biosafety Committee and Director of the Maine Regulatory Training and Ethics Center (MeRTEC).  He was educated at the University of Maine School of Law and the University of Maine at Farmington and is admitted to the Maine Bar.

 

MAUREEN HURLEY, 2007: Maureen retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2003 in which she served as a human resources and protocol officer. She has resided in the United Kingdom and the Azores, and traveled and/or worked in Argentina, Barbados, Croatia, Dominica, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, and Uruguay. Since returning to Maine, Maureen has been an active volunteer with the World Affairs Council of Maine, Habitat for Humanity/7 Rivers, and the Pejepscot Historical Society in Brunswick. Additionally, she is a member of the Maine Development Foundation and Protocol & Diplomacy International/Protocol Officers Association for which she serves on the Education Committee.  Maureen has served as the volunteer director of the International Visitors Program since 2006, as well as chairing the nominating committee and planning committees for two statewide summits on citizen diplomacy held in 2011 and 2014. She also served on the program, finance, and executive committees, and served one year as President.  She was the 2011 recipient of the Council's Bea Chapman Minott award and, in 2016, was awarded the Global Ties U.S. Outstanding Community-Based Member Programmer of the Year, a national award for her work with the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.  She received her B.A from Hillsdale College and M.Ed. from Vanderbilt University sometime in the last century. Maureen is also a 2012 graduate of the Institute for Civic Leadership and a 2019 graduate of Leadership Maine.

 

ADRIAN KENDALL, 2016: Adrian Kendall is an attorney at Norman, Hanson & DeTroy. He provides strategic and tactical legal counsel to a wide range of business clients, from multi-national manufacturers to individual entrepreneurs requiring hands on guidance in forming and financing startups. Adrian's commercial law practice includes a strong focus on international commercial transactions. He advises both U.S. and international clients on maximizing foreign market opportunities, negotiating domestic and cross-border manufacturing, distribution and licensing agreements, and assuring regulatory compliance. Adrian has served as "Trusted Legal Counsel" to the German Consulate General in Boston since 2000 and in 2007 was appointed as the first Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany to Maine and New Hampshire by German President Horst Koehler. Adrian has advised the governors and international trade organizations of Maine and New Hampshire on official trade missions to Germany and other European countries, and most recently participated in the Gubernatorial Trade Mission to Iceland in 2014. Adrian lives in Cumberland with his two sons, where he has served on the town Board of Assessment and Appeals for 10 years and currently sits on the Central Fire Station Building Committee. Adrian earned his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Maine School of Law in 1992. He chairs the University of Pennsylvania Interview Committee for the State of Maine and is also fluent in German and proficient in French.

 

TONY KIEFFER, 2016: Tony Kieffer has more than 20 years of experience in international management and management consulting. His consulting experience spans the financial services, healthcare, environmental technology, energy, education and information technology industries. Tony is the founding member of ArchSolar LLC, a company commercializing solar integrated clear span buildings, where PV is integrated into the structure itself. Tony has been a principle at MaineAsia, a Portland based consulting firm that helps clients to define and execute their strategies for the Asian market, and the Managing Director for Fair Isaac (FICO) in China, where he led the company’s effort to enter the Chinese market with its analytic modeling and decision management software. In addition to his consulting, Tony has held international business and market development positions covering Latin America, China, Japan and Europe. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Stanford University in East Asian Studies and a Master of Pacific International Affairs (Management Concentration) from the University of California at San Diego. He is fluent in Spanish and Mandarin.

 

AMBASSADOR (ret.) DAVID D. PEARCE, 2021: In his diplomatic and journalistic career Maine native David D. Pearce has always done the hard things in the hard places. As a wire service reporter, he covered revolution in Lisbon, civil war in Beirut, and political and economic change in the Arab world. Joining the U.S. Department of State in 1982, Pearce learned Arabic and served over three decades in 11 overseas posts throughout Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. He was Consul General and Chief of Mission in Jerusalem, Assistant Chief of Mission in Afghanistan and Ambassador to both Algeria and Greece. Pearce served in Washington as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and held senior-level positions in the State Department with responsibility for Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since leaving government in 2016, he has channeled a lifelong passion for drawing and art into an online business, D D Pearce Fine Art, maintaining two websites and working as a watercolor artist in Maine and Southern California. He has been a strong advocate via speaking, writing and social media of the importance of U.S. diplomatic engagement and public service. He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the American Foreign Service Association, DACOR (Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired), the Middle East Institute, the World Affairs Council of Maine and the World Affairs Council of Orange County, California. In addition, he is an associate of the American Watercolor Society and a member of the San Clemente Art Association.

 

DAVID PLUMB, 2021 Director, Latin America Practice and Senior Mediator, The Consensus Building Institute. David Plumb is a mediator, facilitator, trainer, and researcher with experience managing complex development and public policy issues in a variety of environments, including Nigeria’s Niger Delta, northern Chile, and urban United States. David is CBI’s Director for Latin America and co-leads the organization’s Corporate Community Engagement practice. Prior to CBI, he directed the Sustainable Business Practice at Search for Common Ground. He also spent eight years working as a financial journalist and correspondent, mostly for Bloomberg News.  A primary focus of David’s work is assisting communities, companies, and authorities to interact more constructively and engage in productive dialogue. He has particular expertise in energy, environment, and international development issues. In addition, David has assisted NGOs and industry groups to negotiate environmental and social standards for key commodities such as farmed fish. As a trainer, David has worked with community-based organizations to strengthen their capacity to engage in dialogue, with government regulators who need assistance in managing complex public participation processes, and with multinational corporations that need to improve globally their community relations and social performance.  

 

CHARLES NORCHI, 2008: Charles is the Benjamin Thompson Professor of Law in the University of Maine School of Law where he teaches and researches international law, maritime law, law and science, international human rights, and international security.  He served as Fulbright Arctic Scholar in Iceland, is contributing editor to Global Geneva, a Fellow of the Explorers Club, a Fellow in the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, a director of the Harvard Club in Maine and co-President of the Arctic Futures Institute.  Dr. Norchi holds university degrees from Harvard College, Case Western Reserve School of Law and Yale Law School. He is a dual national of Ireland and the United States. Among his many national and international honors, Charles is also the 2021 recipient of the Bea Chapman Minott

 

DR. TIMOTHY J. RUBACK, 2021 is Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science.  He has previously taught at Dartmouth College, Smith College, and Arizona State University (where he earned his Ph.D.).  Professor Ruback is also directing the Maine Model United Nations Program (MeMUNC).  He joined the staff at USM in 2015. Professor Ruback teaches courses on international politics including courses on the United Nations, Introduction to International Relations, Border Politics, US Foreign Policy, Global Terrorism, International Theory, and The Global Politics of Soccer. He has a PhD and M.A. from Arizona State University, as well as being a graduate of Bates College.

 

KATHLEEN SUTHERLAND, 2008: Kathleen was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, where her father was dean of the American University. She has conducted research in Egypt, Morocco, and Pakistan on women’s status in these countries and served on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Association of Cairo. She holds a PhD from Indiana University and a BA from Western College for Women in Ohio, and is Associate Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, and teaches at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at USM. Kathleen served on the OLLI Board at USM from 2007 to 2013, and teaches classes and gives talks there on topics such as immigration to the U.S. and the politics of demagoguery. Kathleen is a long term member of the World Affairs Council of Maine, and served as the Council's president from 2016 to 2019. In 2012 she was awarded the Bea Chapman Minott Award. She is interested in watercolor/oil/pastel painting, drama, writing, and her family.

 

AMBASSADOR MICHAEL WYGANT (ret.) , 1991: Mike Wygant and his wife, Lee, moved to Maine in 1990 after a 31-year career in the US Foreign Service. They served on three continents, and in the Micronesian islands, including a two-year assignment at the US Embassy in Moscow, 1968-70. Since coming to Maine, Mike has been active with the World Affairs Council and has done much public speaking in Northern New England. He developed a second career with the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), having accepted numerous OSCE assignments, mostly of short duration, in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe. Mike was awarded the Bea Chapman Minott Award in 2007 for his exemplary service to the Council.

 

ALEXANDRA WOOD, 2017: Alexandra Wood is a Program Manager in Global Corporate Accounts at IDEXX. Prior roles include Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) and Visiting Assistant Professor at New York University, where she received a Ph.D. in International Education. Dr. Wood also managed NYU’s Multinational Institute of American Studies, a six-week program for visiting international scholars funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of Teaching and Learning and in the Department of Applied Statistics, Social Science, and Humanities at NYU Steinhardt. Dr. Wood holds a Bachelor's degree in Japanese and Interdisciplinary Studies, and a Master's degree in International Affairs, from the University of Pittsburgh.  

 

Staff

Interim Executive Director

 

ALLISON BETH HODGKINS:  Allison comes to the Council from the American University in Cairo, where she was a member of the faculty in the School of Global Affairs. Before that, she was Resident Director for CIEE's Amman, Jordan Study Center, and Academic Director for the School for International Training's Peace and Conflict Studies Program in Jerusalem. Allison has a PhD in International Affairs from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Boston Consortium for Arab Region Studies. She is also a regular contributor to the Cairo Review of Global Affairs and serves on the Board of the New England Arab-American Organization and the Editorial Board for Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad.  Allison has more than twenty years' experience living, working, and learning in the Middle East, which means she has reasonable fluency in Arabic, some Hebrew, and a significant attitude when it comes to hummus.