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WHO WE ARE
The Board of Directors meets quarterly to provide strategic planning and governance of the institute's programs. Our advisors provide valuable assistance and support.
Being a young organization, we are at an exciting and critical phase. The strong partnerships we have developed with Acadia National Park, Friends of Acadia, Flagsuit LLC, NASA, College of the Atlantic, Hancock County Planning Commission, and others demonstrate the need for the programs the Island Astronomy Institute was founded to create.
We are committed to board expansion, diversifying the skill set of our board, and increasing the value and reach of our programs. The members of our board share a commitment to the culture of space science innovation.
If you share our passion for bringing the "feel" of grass roots space exploration to people of all ages, please contact us to learn how you can help!
A passionate observer, writer, and lecturer for over a decade, Peter received his master's degree in Liberal Arts from Stanford University in 2002. His thesis, Dante's Guiding Light: The Astronomy of the Divine Comedy, reintegrates the act of observing the universe within the origins of the classical humanities. Dante's previously unrecognized use of spatial metaphors to structure his epic journey—the astronomical poetry of time and space—inspires the Institute's cultural mission.
A veteran aerospace engineer with twenty years of experience, Peter holds four patents for spacecraft antenna designs, and was the lead systems mechanical engineer for the Sirius Satellite Radio constellation.
Peter and his wife Linda operate a guest cottage at Meadow View Observatory at their home in Tremont. He is currently a consulting Senior Satellite Systems Engineer with Stellar Solutions in Palo Alto, CA.
JAMES W. CORMIER, Vice-President
A communications specialist for Brown's Communications in Ellsworth, Jim is responsible for public safety radio and commercial two-way communications in Hancock County, including police, fire, EMS, federal government, and private sector voice and data wireless systems.
A veteran deep-sky observer and astrophotographer, Jim has been studying, teaching, and "doing" astronomy for well over twenty years. Jim has produced some stunning astrophotography and knows his way around the heavens. Several of his photographs are featured on this site, and he has posted many more at Nightfly Astrophotography.
You can find him out in his observatory under the relatively dark skies of Sullivan, Maine, with his wife Kerri, and two daughters Jacqueline and Maria.
Jim has over fourteen years of experience in public and corporate accounting. Having grown up working in the marine industry, he has since worked in manufacturing, distribution, and service companies in a variety of industries. Prior to rejoining the practice on a full-time basis in 1999, he was the Director of Finance for Martin's Point Health Care in Portland, a physician group with revenues in excess of $50 million.
Jim lives in Southwest Harbor with his wife Susan and two boys.
DWIGHT M. LANPHER, P.E., Secretary
Dwight is a professionally registered electrical engineer working in the fields of lighting, power, acoustics, and computer systems. His primary work consists of lighting and power systems designs for commercial and domestic applications. He designed Acadia National Park's first Dark Sky lighting projects.
Dwight has been involved in the design of several fiber optics data lines. He is experienced in acoustics and does analysis for the treatment of acoustical spaces and designs for high fidelity sound reproduction and sound reinforcement systems.
A native of Mount Desert Island, Dwight is a resident of Northeast Harbor.
(Associate Professor, Maine Maritime Academy; University of Rhode Island, Ph. D., 1996)
Jim's professional interests include natural resource protection and hands-on science education within our national parks. He is an Associate Professor of Marine Biology at Maine Maritime Academy in Castine. He earned his Ph. D. in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography in 1996.
After graduate school he was appointed Assistant Professor of Marine Science at Williams College; he taught for six years at the Williams College-Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Program, a hands-on undergraduate program focused on interdisciplinary ocean studies. During his tenure at Williams-Mystic, Jim served as Associate Director and Acting Director. In 2002 Jim left Williams and spent two years as an independent marine environmental consultant working on bridge demolition and artificial reef and fishing pier projects for the State of Rhode Island.
Jim moved to Maine in 2004, when he accepted a position with the National Park Service as Research and Education Coordinator for the newly-established Schoodic Education and Research Center. Following three years of service with the National Park Service, Jim returned to academia, accepting his current position at Maine Maritime Academy in 2007.
In addition to teaching, Jim’s professional interests include marine and coastal conservation ecology; he is currently working on projects developing long-term salt marsh and estuarine monitoring programs for northeast National Park units. Jim lives in Mount Desert with his wife Anne and two children, Caroline and Jake.
Board of Advisors
Craig currently is Senior Consultant to the Great Maine Schools Project, housed at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute in Portland. He advises high schools in Aroostook, Washington, Penobscot and Hancock Counties. Craig graduated from College of the Atlantic and Bridgewater State College, and earned his doctorate in science education from the University of Maine in 1997.
Prior to his present position, Craig has served in a number of positions in public school teaching and administration. He was also the Director of Education at Teton Science School in Wyoming, and Assistant Professor of Biology and Science Education in Arkansas.
Craig lives in Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island with his wife and two children.
ANNE WELLES
A Master Teacher at Pemetic Elementary School in Southwest Harbor, Anne teaches 3rd and 4th grades. In 2005 she was selected as a finalist for Maine's Teacher of the Year Award. Anne lives in Southwest Harbor.
A resident of Tremont, Maureen is retired from the Columbia County (NY) Department of Human Services, where she was Deputy Director for Administration and Fiscal Program Planning for twenty years.
Ruth is Nature Columnist for the Mount Desert Islander, and has authored several books on the natural wonders of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. Her natural history pursuits have taken her up and down the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada, as well as to the rain forests in Central America, the remote hills of the British Isles, and special birding areas in Europe.
A native of Connecticut, Ruth moved to Mount Desert Island in 1972 and is a year-round resident of Bass Harbor. She is also a violinist and violist, and participates enthusiastically in musical activities on MDI, including the Teahouse Trio. She has a B.S. degree in music from Westchester University. LINDA C. LORD
Linda co-founded Island Astronomy LLC in September of 2003. She manages the popular guest cottage at Meadow-view Observatory. Her support and financial sacrifice made possible the founding of the Island Astronomy Institute.
Linda has a long history of accounting and office supervision at such large organizations as the City of Sunnyvale (CA), Stanford University, and Litton.
JOSEPH SNIDER, Ph.D.
Joe received a Ph. D. in experimental physics from Princeton University in 1961. After eight years of teaching and research at Harvard, he joined the Physics Department at Oberlin College in Ohio. He and his students at Oberlin built a solar telescope to measure the sun's rotation rate and spectral effects produced by the Sun's gravity. They also did research at Kitt Peak National Observatory and Mount Wilson Observatory, using equipment that they built at Oberlin.
In 1990 Joe founded a summer astronomy program for college students at Mount Wilson Observatory. He also helped to run summer institutes in astronomy and space science for teachers, in a project funded by the National Science Foundation at the University of California in Berkeley.
In 1999 Joe moved to Southwest Harbor, where he had been a frequent visitor since childhood. He has taught summer courses for teachers at the College of the Atlantic, as well as short courses at the Acadia Senior College. He is particularly interested in developing astronomy demonstration equipment and other teaching aids.
DAVID WESTPHAL
Trained by the United States Marines, David is now an independent film maker and photographer living in Somesville.
Web Manager
JAMIE HAGEDORN
Jamie Hagedorn (D.M., Northwestern University, 1984) is a musician and Web designer who moved to Ellsworth in Spring 2006. Maine's dark skies were a factor in her decision to move here from Chicago. She became involved with the Institute after a board member read her bio in a concert program, where she described herself as an eclipse-chaser (the Caribbean in 1998, the Black Sea in 1999, Zambia in 2001, and Egypt in 2006).
Jamie formerly taught in the Voice & Opera Department at Northwestern University and now teaches piano and voice at home. She is the music director of the Acadia Choral Society, the Acadia Children's Chorus, Somesville Union Meeting House (UCC), and "A la Carte" of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Maine. She performs frequently in concerts, recitals, and musicals in Downeast and Midcoast Maine.
Former Members
JEFF WHITE—Founder
PETER HOMER—Former Advisor | |||
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JIM McKENNA, Ph.D.
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Island Astronomy Institute
P. O. Box 249
Bernard, ME 04612
Ph: 207-244-9477
E-Mail