GrowSmart Maine Staff

To contact any of our staff members, please click here.

Alan Caron, President and founder of GrowSmart Maine.  Alan is a lifelong resident of Maine who has been involved in a wide range of initiatives and changes in Maine, both professionally and as a volunteer. Some of those projects include:

• The citizens initiative in 1991 that delayed the widening of the Maine Turnpike and created the nationally significant Sensible Transportation Act in Maine
• The Bath Iron Works modernization, which lead to the removal of the Edwards Dam in the Kennebec River.
• The creation of a Maine Telecommunications Plan that promoted bringing high-speed internet connections to all of Maine's high schools and libraries.
• The creation of Trainriders Northeast, which led to the successful re-establishment of passenger rail from Boston to Maine.
• The creation of the Waterfront Alliance in Portland and a million-dollar revolving loan fund for working waterfronts.
• The rehabilitation of Portland's Merrill Auditorium.

He served for six years as a member and chairman of the Freeport Planning Board.

Alan grew up in Waterville along the banks of the Kennebec River and now lives in South Freeport. He holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy and Management from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. His interests include history, flying, music, gardening, sailing and golf. He fully expects the Red Sox to win the World Series this year.

Deputy Director Lisa Fahay has been with GrowSmart Maine since its inception, having experienced all aspects of this rapidly growing organization. Now Deputy Director, she works closely with President Alan Caron on strategic decisions and staff management. Lisa emphatically embraces GrowSmart Maine's mission of creating sustainable prosperity in Maine without wrecking its special sense of place. As such, she strives to preserve a thriving internal culture, and sustain GrowSmart's 'big tent' spirit to attract the pluck of Maine people to get it done. Lisa lives in South Freeport with her husband, two children and their Jack Russell Terrier.

Maggie Drummond, Advocacy Director.  Maggie's primary responsibilities include developing the organization's legislative policy, working for positive change in Augusta, and engaging our membership and other concerned citizens to create sustainable prosperity and quality places. A Maine native, Maggie grew up in rural Maine and attended Colby College. She has over eight years of experience with policy development and various environmental campaigns prior to joining GrowSmart Maine. Maggie lives in Portland.

Rich Livingston, Project Director for the Governing Maine in the 21st Century report, joined GrowSmart Maine in January, 2008, after a lengthy career as a strategic planning and communications consultant in Maine.  He served four terms as a city counselor in his hometown of Auburn, where he was engaged in a variety of economic development and smart growth projects, and he also served on the Legislative Policy Committee of the Maine Municipal Association.   Rich has been a recipient of numerous awards based on his history of enabling the organizations he's represented to achieve superior levels of communications and collaboration with the partners, customers, and constituents.

Prior to making the lifestyle decision to move to Maine in 1992, Rich was the Chief Operating Officer and marketing partner in a Washington, DC – based advertising agency.   Livingston's clients have spanned the private sector, the public sector, and the third sector of nonprofits, NGOs and others, and have been local, regional, national and international in scope.

Laura Miller, membership coordinator, grew up in Bridgton, Maine where she enjoyed the varied landscape and sense of community of the greater Lakes Region. She earned her BA in environmental studies at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont, where several service learning opportunities through her coursework inspired her interest in working in the nonprofit sector after graduation. Happy to be living in Maine again and getting to know the city of Portland, Laura looks forward to expanding GrowSmart Maine's vital membership base.

Events Coordinator Jesse Baines grew up and attended school in Rockland, Maine and went on to graduate from Saint Mary's College of Maryland in 2004, where she studied English and Journalism. She most recently worked in the worldwide adventure travel industry out of Baltimore, Maryland. Previously, Jesse lived in Edinburgh, Scotland where she helped develop a small, family-owned wool and tartan company. After traveling for several years, she decided it was time to return to her beloved home state. As a fresh addition to Portland, Jesse looks forward to supporting the Red Sox in an exciting baseball season and reacquainting herself with everything Maine has to offer.

Christian McNeil, GrowSmart Maine's Communications Director, grew up in Steep Falls and returned to Maine late in 2006 for the first time since his days at Bonny Eagle High School. In the intervening years, he studied math and economics at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, directed community outreach activities for two REI stores in Houston, and spent several of the colder seasons as a caretaker for Appalachian Mountain Club huts across the border in New Hampshire. He's very glad to be back in his home state and working for an organization that shares his high regard for the place. In his spare time, he enjoys bicycling, urban nature study, and writing (even when it's about himself in the third person).