Bath Community Partners

Rod Melanson
Director of Sustainability & Environment, City of Bath

Rod has served the City of Bath as Director of Sustainability & Environment since 2022. He previously worked as a planner in the nearby town of Topsham, Maine. Rod’s educational experience includes forestry, park management as well as community planning.

Jenn Curtis
Director of Planning, City of Bath

Jenn began as Bath’s Director of Planning in 2023 after working in Bowdoinham in the same role and with previous planning experience at the Town of Windham. She earned a master’s degree in public policy and management at the Muskie School at the University for Southern Maine, based in Portland.

Debora Keller
Executive Director, Bath Housing

Debora Keller has been with Bath Housing since January 2014. She is a community development leader in Maine with 30 years of experience in non-profit management. She holds a Masters Degree from Tufts University in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning and a Bachelor of Arts from Indiana University. She received the 2016 Stephen B. Mooers award from MaineHousing in recognition of the creation of Comfortably Home. She was the 2010 recipient of the Joseph Kreisler Community Impact Award from Preble Street for her work developing Florence House in Portland.

At Bath Housing, Deb created Comfortably Home, a home modification program designed to offer no-cost home safety checks, minor maintenance repairs, and accessibility enhancements to eligible homeowners. These services enable recipients to continue living safely and comfortably at home. This program created a progressive solution for aging homeowners and housing authorities—as well as the community at large—by establishing a model to address the housing and wellness issues of a growing segment of Maine residents. The model is now replicated throughout Maine and nationally through HUD’s Older Adult Home Modification Program. Keller is a National Association of Home Builder Certified Aging in Place specialist and completed the Home Modification certificate program through the Fall Prevention Center of Excellence at the University of Southern California Leanard Davis School of Gerontololgy.

Keller currently serves on — and Chairs — the City of Bath’s Housing Committee . She is Chair of the Maine Association of Public Housing Authority Directors (MAPHD). She served on the boards of the Maine Affordable Housing Coalition for nine years (as Chair from 2017-2019), the Genesis Fund board of directors from 2014 – 2020, and MaineHousing’s 2015 Affordable Housing Working Group. She was on the RSU1 Facilities Committee and the Building Committee for the new Morse High School. She co-chaired the Maine Council on Aging’s Housing Committee in 2018.

Debora worked at Avesta Housing from 2004 to 2013, serving as Director of Programs. In that role, she oversaw Avesta’s programmatic efforts, including unprecedented real estate portfolio growth from 2007 to 2013 with 21 affordable multi-family construction projects that created 649 new apartments. She also oversaw Avesta’s assisted living facility, Housing Choice Voucher program, and the launch of the new HomeOwnership Center.

Prior to joining Avesta, Deb served as Associate Director of the Genesis Fund, a Maine-based Community Development Financial Institution providing loans to nonprofit organizations. At Genesis, Deb managed the organization’s $3.0 million loan portfolio and was responsible for marketing, underwriting, monitoring, and servicing for all lending activity. She has extensive past work experience with non-profit community development organizations around the country. Deb started her affordable housing career as a VISTA Volunteer in Iowa where she created a security deposit loan program for low income clients and a breakfast café for the homeless.

Marc Meyers
City Manager, City of Bath

Marc has been Bath’s City Manager since 2021 after serving as interim manager. Prior to serving as manager, he was Bath’s assistant city manager and before that, he was hired as a community relations coordinator in 2012.

Seth Parker
Director of Real Estate Development, Bath Housing

Prior to joining Bath Housing in March 2024, Seth was a Vice President of Development at Silver Street. He has over 25 years of experience across multiple disciplines of the real estate development process. Previously, Seth led Avesta Housing’s real estate development team, overseeing $125 million in total development costs and the creation or rehabilitation of more than 700 affordable apartments.

Harpswell Community Partners

Jamie Hark
Senior Landscape Designer & Project Manager, VIEWSHED

Jamie has a background in private and public sector landscape design, planning, environmental science and cartography. Living in Harpswell, he is committed to serving Maine communities of all shapes and sizes. As a landscape designer he has played a vital role in all aspects of project design and management, from comprehensive planning and schematic design through construction administration. He is committed to creating landscapes that build on historic and cultural legacies, support healthy biodiversity, and work for the communities of the future. Jamie is specifically passionate about supporting coastal adaptation and resilience efforts as we grapple with the effects of climate change. In his spare time, Jamie is a hand drawn map-maker, aerial photographer, and active participant in Harpswell’s Land Trust and Conservation Commission. You’ll find him exploring the diverse landscapes of Maine by foot, ski, bike or kayak.

Mary Ann Nahf
Chair, Harpswell Conservation Commission

Mary Ann has been a Maine resident for 25 years and a member of the Harpswell Conservation Commission for almost as long. She has also served as a Trustee for the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust for almost 20 years.

Holly Parker
Director, Schiller Coastal Studies Center, Bowdoin College

In July 2022, Holly was named director of the Schiller Coastal Studies Center at Bowdoin College. In addition to her oversight of this marine science field station, Holly is growing the Center’s programs to include the local community, regional and global partners in interdisciplinary approaches to sustainable development.

In an education career that has spanned almost 25 years and the secondary school, higher education, corporate, and non-profit environments, Holly has consistently sought to create accessible pathways for all learners so that they might identify their passions and activate their strengths. Her passion for understanding how education can and must play a role in developing a sustainability literate and engaged citizenry is powered by her time spent in the maritime industry and a lifetime on, in and near the ocean. She holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College, an M.Ed. from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern Maine.

Regional Partners

Curtis Bohlen
Director, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership (CBEP)

Curtis Bohlen is an aquatic and wetland biologist with an interdisciplinary background in ecology, economics, and public policy. Bohlen currently leads the work of CBEP: to seek creative solutions to environmental challenges, support local communities, and improve management of Casco Bay. In recent years, the organization has expanded efforts to assist communities to understand and to prepare for impacts of a climate change. Bohlen has worked as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill, for environmental advocacy organizations, as an environmental consultant, and on the faculty of Bates and Colby Colleges. He holds undergraduate and master’s degrees from Stanford and a PhD from Cornell.

Municipal Climate Action Program Team at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute
L to R: Sienna Zuco, Climate Services Project Manager; Steph Sun, Climate Engagement Specialist; Gayle Bowness, Senior Program Manager

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) develops and delivers collaborative solutions to global ocean challenges. We are dedicated to the resilience of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem and the communities that depend on it. The Municipal Climate Action Program engages and collaborates with coastal communities, combining local knowledge and expertise with scientific data, to envision and build a climate-resilient and thriving future. We value:

• Deep, empathetic, and authentic community engagement grounded in trust

• Meaningful youth participation in community climate planning

• Connections and cooperative collaborations with local organizations

• Scientific data and the research process

• Equity, which we prioritize in all our efforts

GMRI’s Municipal Climate Action Program is small, yet mighty! It includes Gayle Bowness (Senior Program Manager), Steph Sun (Climate Engagement Specialist), and Sienna Zuco (Climate Services Project Manager). The MCAP team has worked with over 30 coastal communities in Maine, co-developing and delivering programming across climate literacy, community science, climate planning, framework development, and capacity building.