Our Team
Stephen E. Abbott, Director of Communications
Stephen Abbott oversaw communications for the Great Maine Schools Project from 2004–2007 and is now director of communications for the Great Schools Partnership. He has worked as a writer, editor, and communications professional for the past decade, and his writing has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and journals.
Stephen graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a B.A. in literature and literary theory in 2000 and was formerly a copywriter and publicist for Columbia University Press in New York. He is an avid squash player and golfer.
J. Duke Albanese, Senior Policy Advisor
Duke Albanese was senior policy advisor for the Great Maine Schools Project from 2003–2007 and is now senior policy advisor the Great Schools Partnership. His career in education has spanned 36 years, including service as the Commissioner of Education for the State of Maine (1996–2003) and a long tenure as the superintendent of schools for the Messalonskee School District in the Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine. Duke is a nationally sought-after advisor and speaker on educational issues and policies, and a founding director of the Sports Done Right initiative at the University of Maine.
Originally hailing from East Providence, Rhode Island, he attended public schools before earning a B.A. from Bowdoin College and an M.Ed. in guidance and counseling and a C.A.S. in educational administration from the University of Maine. Duke and his wife, Nancy, live in Brunswick, Maine, and have two grown children, Derek and Kelsey, and two grandchildren.
Gerry Crocker, Senior Associate
Gerry Crocker was a senior associate at the Southern Maine Partnership from 2003–2007 and is now a senior associate with the Great Schools Partnership. Gerry coaches several high schools in Maine, works on the development and implementation of the iWalkthrough system, and provides professional development to teachers and administrators, including professional learning community facilitator training. Her professional interests include promoting rigorous and relevant 21st-century learning through experiential and place-based learning, using appropriate technological tools to enhance learning, and developing democratic decision-making models that increase student voice and promote equitable school practices.
Prior to joining the Southern Maine Partnership, Gerry was director of the Information Center at Poland Regional High School and Whittier Middle School. She was also a teacher at Noble High School and Gorham High School in Maine; the director of the Bud Carlson Alternative School in Rochester, New Hampshire; the director of the Live, Learn, and Teach Program; an adjunct faculty member and coordinator for the Education Department at the University of New Hampshire; and a regional content leader for the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Gerry earned a B.S. in hydrology and M.Ed. in secondary education from the University of New Hampshire, and an M.S. in library and information science from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. She lives in Norway, Maine.
Pamela Fisher, Senior Associate
Pam Fisher was director of the Great Maine Schools Project from 2002–2006 and is currently a senior advisor to the Great Schools Partnership. During her four decades in public education, Pam worked as a high school chemistry and physics teacher, a curriculum consultant, a principal, and a superintendent. She regularly conducts seminars on the challenges of leading high school redesign, and her many publications have addressed inequitable structures and practices in today’s schools.
In 1997, Pam co-chaired Maine's Commission on Secondary Education, which produced Promising Futures: A Call to Improve Learning for Maine's Secondary Students. Prior to her role on the Commission, she was the principal of Noble High School during its remarkable transition from a traditional comprehensive high school to a nationally recognized small learning community model aligned with the Coalition of Essential Schools. The story of Noble's journey is documented in Breaking Ranks II. Pam was a member of Maine's Learning Results Task Force and of the steering committee that developed policies for implementing these new learning standards. She is also a frequent advisor on educational policy and design to state, national, and international organizations and institutions. Pam earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of New Hampshire, an M.S. in secondary education administration from the University of Southern Maine, and a certificate of advanced study in teaching, curriculum, and learning environments from Harvard University. She lives in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, with her husband.
Darlene Hart, Business Manager
Darlene Hart oversaw administrative management for the Southern Maine Partnership from 1996–2007 and is now office manager for the Great Schools Partnership. Darlene has 18 years of experience in administrative and financial management for educational institutions, including many years at the University of Southern Maine and the College of Education at the University of Central Florida.
Darlene resides on a small farm in Buxton, Maine, with her husband. She enjoys carriage driving with her horse, motorcycling, and gardening when she wants a slower pace.
Mary Hastings, Senior Associate
Mary Hastings was a senior associate at the Southern Maine Partnership from 2003–2007 and is now a senior associate with the Great Schools Partnership. Mary coached Fort Kent Community High School for the past four years, and now coaches several Maine high schools taking part in a Smaller Learning Communities Grant. Her professional interests include equity and diversity in secondary education, improving classroom practice through differentiated instruction and layered curriculum, and developing shared leadership in schools.
Mary began her career as a school coach with the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston, where she consulted with K–12 schools across Massachusetts. Mary is also a registered nurse and has worked as a 7–12 science teacher, a middle school principal, and a math and science curriculum leader. Mary grew up in Indiana and earned a B.S. in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in science teaching from Antioch University, and an M.Ed. in administration and supervision from the University of Hartford in Connecticut. She lives in the Willard Beach neighborhood in South Portland, Maine, and has one son, Andrew, who works as a computer-software engineer. She enjoys gardening, birding, hiking, and various forms of exercise.
Craig Kesselheim, Senior Associate
Craig Kesselheim was a senior consultant for Great Maine Schools Project from 2004–2007 and is now senior associate with the Great Schools Partnership. Craig works with schools in Aroostook, Washington, Penobscot, and Hancock counties.
Craig has worked as a middle school science teacher, a K–12 curriculum coordinator, and K–8 principal. He was also director of education at Teton Science School in Wyoming, assistant professor of biology and science education at University of Central Arkansas, and a science facilitator with the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance. Craig earned a B.A. in human ecology from College of the Atlantic, an M.A.T. in biology from Bridgewater State College, and an Ed.D. in science education from the University of Maine. Craig lives in Southwest Harbor, Maine, on Mount Desert Island with his wife and two children, and his hobbies include birding, canoeing, photography, and gardening.
Mark Kostin, Senior Associate
Mark Kostin was a senior associate for the Southern Maine Partnership from 2003–2007 and is now a senior associate with the Great Schools Partnership. He currently coaches several high schools in Maine, works on the development and implementation of the iWalkthrough system in schools and districts, and provides professional development to principals and teachers. Mark's professional interests include collaborative school improvement, the role of schools in a democracy, the educational challenges facing boys, and equitable access to knowledge for all students.
Mark earned his B.Sc. in chemistry and a Dip.Ed. in secondary education from McGill University in Montreal and an M.Ed. in administration and planning and an Ed.D. in leadership and policy studies from the University of Vermont. He has served on local, state, and national boards and has been involved in supporting teaching and learning since 1989, when he began teaching science in a large high school in Toronto, Canada. Mark was also an associate principal at Middlebury Union High School and an assistant professor of secondary education and director of partnerships and field experiences at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. He lives in Yarmouth, Maine, with his wife and three children.
Lisa Plimpton, Research Advisor
Lisa Plimpton has been the director of research at the Mitchell Institute since 2000, and she is also a research advisor to the Great Schools Partnership. Lisa conducts a longitudinal study of Mitchell Scholars and Alumni, while also conducting broader policy-oriented research on secondary and post-secondary educational issues in Maine. Her work has included evaluations of one-to-one laptops at Piscataquis Community High School, distance-learning opportunities in Maine, and two studies of early college in Maine. She was also the principal investigator and primary author of the Mitchell Institute's two Barriers reports, which were released in 2002 and 2007.
From 1997 to 2000, Lisa was a policy analyst on poverty and welfare-reform issues at the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C. She has also worked at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, Abt Associates, and Project Bread—the Walk for Hunger. She earned a B.A. in political science and Russian from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and an M.A. in public policy from Johns Hopkins University. Lisa is a Maine native and a graduate of South Portland High School.
Alana Post, Communications Associate
Alana Post has been Communications Associate for the Great Schools Partnership since January 2010. For more than a decade, Alana has designed and developed websites, collateral, and online communities, and she has worked with such progressive social organizations as the Muskie School of Public Service, Seeds of Peace, the National Academy for State Health Policy, and the Commonwealth Fund. In addition to her work as a designer, she served as a project manager and technical support specialist for several technology-service companies in New York City, and she has shared expertise in numerous discussion panels and publications.
Alana graduated from Bangor High School and is currently enrolled at the Maine College of Art. Her work developing online communities has been recognized by the Maine College of Art Vision Award, and she has receive other honors from Bates College, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.
David Ruff, Executive Director
David Ruff was on staff at the Southern Maine Partnership for 13 years, serving as co-executive director from 2001–2007, and is now executive director of the Great Schools Partnership. While at the Southern Maine Partnership, David directed numerous programs and projects, including the School Quality Review Initiative, which created local accountability systems in Maine; the Partnership Rural Initiative, a curriculum development project that tied Maine's learning standards to local needs and contexts; the Learner-centered Accountability Project, which focused on high school accountability and graduation systems; the school-improvement efforts of more than a dozen Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration grant schools; and the school-coaching support for the Great Maine Schools Project, a multi-year effort to transform secondary education in Maine.
David earned a B.A. in English from Dartmouth University in 1985. He began his career in education as an English teacher at Thornton Academy in Saco, Maine, where he worked for seven years with students of all academic abilities. David was also a member of the Maine Commission on Secondary Education, the task force that crafted Promising Futures, and he has served on the Executive Board of the Coalition of Essential Schools and on the National Foxfire Coordinator Board for the Foxfire Fund. He lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife and two children.
Rebecca Vance, Assistant to the Directors
Rebecca Vance worked for the Great Maine Schools Project from 2004–2007 and is now assistant to the director for the Great Schools Partnership.
Becky graduated with a B.A. in biology from Colby College in 2006. Becky lives in Windham, Maine, with her husband, Brandon, and their three children. She enjoys jogging, cooking, and spending time with her family.
Stephen E. Abbott, Director of CommunicationsStephen Abbott oversaw communications for the Great Maine Schools Project from 2004–2007 and is now director of communications for the Great Schools Partnership. He has worked as a writer, editor, and communications professional for the past decade, and his writing has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and journals.
Stephen graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a B.A. in literature and literary theory in 2000 and was formerly a copywriter and publicist for Columbia University Press in New York. He is an avid squash player and golfer.
J. Duke Albanese, Senior Policy AdvisorDuke Albanese was senior policy advisor for the Great Maine Schools Project from 2003–2007 and is now senior policy advisor the Great Schools Partnership. His career in education has spanned 36 years, including service as the Commissioner of Education for the State of Maine (1996–2003) and a long tenure as the superintendent of schools for the Messalonskee School District in the Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine. Duke is a nationally sought-after advisor and speaker on educational issues and policies, and a founding director of the Sports Done Right initiative at the University of Maine.
Originally hailing from East Providence, Rhode Island, he attended public schools before earning a B.A. from Bowdoin College and an M.Ed. in guidance and counseling and a C.A.S. in educational administration from the University of Maine. Duke and his wife, Nancy, live in Brunswick, Maine, and have two grown children, Derek and Kelsey, and two grandchildren.
Gerry Crocker, Senior AssociateGerry Crocker was a senior associate at the Southern Maine Partnership from 2003–2007 and is now a senior associate with the Great Schools Partnership. Gerry coaches several high schools in Maine, works on the development and implementation of the iWalkthrough system, and provides professional development to teachers and administrators, including professional learning community facilitator training. Her professional interests include promoting rigorous and relevant 21st-century learning through experiential and place-based learning, using appropriate technological tools to enhance learning, and developing democratic decision-making models that increase student voice and promote equitable school practices.
Prior to joining the Southern Maine Partnership, Gerry was director of the Information Center at Poland Regional High School and Whittier Middle School. She was also a teacher at Noble High School and Gorham High School in Maine; the director of the Bud Carlson Alternative School in Rochester, New Hampshire; the director of the Live, Learn, and Teach Program; an adjunct faculty member and coordinator for the Education Department at the University of New Hampshire; and a regional content leader for the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. Gerry earned a B.S. in hydrology and M.Ed. in secondary education from the University of New Hampshire, and an M.S. in library and information science from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. She lives in Norway, Maine.
Pamela Fisher, Senior AssociatePam Fisher was director of the Great Maine Schools Project from 2002–2006 and is currently a senior advisor to the Great Schools Partnership. During her four decades in public education, Pam worked as a high school chemistry and physics teacher, a curriculum consultant, a principal, and a superintendent. She regularly conducts seminars on the challenges of leading high school redesign, and her many publications have addressed inequitable structures and practices in today’s schools.
In 1997, Pam co-chaired Maine's Commission on Secondary Education, which produced Promising Futures: A Call to Improve Learning for Maine's Secondary Students. Prior to her role on the Commission, she was the principal of Noble High School during its remarkable transition from a traditional comprehensive high school to a nationally recognized small learning community model aligned with the Coalition of Essential Schools. The story of Noble's journey is documented in Breaking Ranks II. Pam was a member of Maine's Learning Results Task Force and of the steering committee that developed policies for implementing these new learning standards. She is also a frequent advisor on educational policy and design to state, national, and international organizations and institutions. Pam earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of New Hampshire, an M.S. in secondary education administration from the University of Southern Maine, and a certificate of advanced study in teaching, curriculum, and learning environments from Harvard University. She lives in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, with her husband.
Darlene Hart, Business ManagerDarlene Hart oversaw administrative management for the Southern Maine Partnership from 1996–2007 and is now office manager for the Great Schools Partnership. Darlene has 18 years of experience in administrative and financial management for educational institutions, including many years at the University of Southern Maine and the College of Education at the University of Central Florida.
Darlene resides on a small farm in Buxton, Maine, with her husband. She enjoys carriage driving with her horse, motorcycling, and gardening when she wants a slower pace.
Mary Hastings, Senior AssociateMary Hastings was a senior associate at the Southern Maine Partnership from 2003–2007 and is now a senior associate with the Great Schools Partnership. Mary coached Fort Kent Community High School for the past four years, and now coaches several Maine high schools taking part in a Smaller Learning Communities Grant. Her professional interests include equity and diversity in secondary education, improving classroom practice through differentiated instruction and layered curriculum, and developing shared leadership in schools.
Mary began her career as a school coach with the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston, where she consulted with K–12 schools across Massachusetts. Mary is also a registered nurse and has worked as a 7–12 science teacher, a middle school principal, and a math and science curriculum leader. Mary grew up in Indiana and earned a B.S. in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in science teaching from Antioch University, and an M.Ed. in administration and supervision from the University of Hartford in Connecticut. She lives in the Willard Beach neighborhood in South Portland, Maine, and has one son, Andrew, who works as a computer-software engineer. She enjoys gardening, birding, hiking, and various forms of exercise.
Craig Kesselheim, Senior AssociateCraig Kesselheim was a senior consultant for Great Maine Schools Project from 2004–2007 and is now senior associate with the Great Schools Partnership. Craig works with schools in Aroostook, Washington, Penobscot, and Hancock counties.
Craig has worked as a middle school science teacher, a K–12 curriculum coordinator, and K–8 principal. He was also director of education at Teton Science School in Wyoming, assistant professor of biology and science education at University of Central Arkansas, and a science facilitator with the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance. Craig earned a B.A. in human ecology from College of the Atlantic, an M.A.T. in biology from Bridgewater State College, and an Ed.D. in science education from the University of Maine. Craig lives in Southwest Harbor, Maine, on Mount Desert Island with his wife and two children, and his hobbies include birding, canoeing, photography, and gardening.
Mark Kostin, Senior AssociateMark Kostin was a senior associate for the Southern Maine Partnership from 2003–2007 and is now a senior associate with the Great Schools Partnership. He currently coaches several high schools in Maine, works on the development and implementation of the iWalkthrough system in schools and districts, and provides professional development to principals and teachers. Mark's professional interests include collaborative school improvement, the role of schools in a democracy, the educational challenges facing boys, and equitable access to knowledge for all students.
Mark earned his B.Sc. in chemistry and a Dip.Ed. in secondary education from McGill University in Montreal and an M.Ed. in administration and planning and an Ed.D. in leadership and policy studies from the University of Vermont. He has served on local, state, and national boards and has been involved in supporting teaching and learning since 1989, when he began teaching science in a large high school in Toronto, Canada. Mark was also an associate principal at Middlebury Union High School and an assistant professor of secondary education and director of partnerships and field experiences at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. He lives in Yarmouth, Maine, with his wife and three children.
Lisa Plimpton, Research AdvisorLisa Plimpton has been the director of research at the Mitchell Institute since 2000, and she is also a research advisor to the Great Schools Partnership. Lisa conducts a longitudinal study of Mitchell Scholars and Alumni, while also conducting broader policy-oriented research on secondary and post-secondary educational issues in Maine. Her work has included evaluations of one-to-one laptops at Piscataquis Community High School, distance-learning opportunities in Maine, and two studies of early college in Maine. She was also the principal investigator and primary author of the Mitchell Institute's two Barriers reports, which were released in 2002 and 2007.
From 1997 to 2000, Lisa was a policy analyst on poverty and welfare-reform issues at the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C. She has also worked at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, Abt Associates, and Project Bread—the Walk for Hunger. She earned a B.A. in political science and Russian from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and an M.A. in public policy from Johns Hopkins University. Lisa is a Maine native and a graduate of South Portland High School.
Alana Post, Communications AssociateAlana Post has been Communications Associate for the Great Schools Partnership since January 2010. For more than a decade, Alana has designed and developed websites, collateral, and online communities, and she has worked with such progressive social organizations as the Muskie School of Public Service, Seeds of Peace, the National Academy for State Health Policy, and the Commonwealth Fund. In addition to her work as a designer, she served as a project manager and technical support specialist for several technology-service companies in New York City, and she has shared expertise in numerous discussion panels and publications.
Alana graduated from Bangor High School and is currently enrolled at the Maine College of Art. Her work developing online communities has been recognized by the Maine College of Art Vision Award, and she has receive other honors from Bates College, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.
David Ruff, Executive DirectorDavid Ruff was on staff at the Southern Maine Partnership for 13 years, serving as co-executive director from 2001–2007, and is now executive director of the Great Schools Partnership. While at the Southern Maine Partnership, David directed numerous programs and projects, including the School Quality Review Initiative, which created local accountability systems in Maine; the Partnership Rural Initiative, a curriculum development project that tied Maine's learning standards to local needs and contexts; the Learner-centered Accountability Project, which focused on high school accountability and graduation systems; the school-improvement efforts of more than a dozen Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration grant schools; and the school-coaching support for the Great Maine Schools Project, a multi-year effort to transform secondary education in Maine.
David earned a B.A. in English from Dartmouth University in 1985. He began his career in education as an English teacher at Thornton Academy in Saco, Maine, where he worked for seven years with students of all academic abilities. David was also a member of the Maine Commission on Secondary Education, the task force that crafted Promising Futures, and he has served on the Executive Board of the Coalition of Essential Schools and on the National Foxfire Coordinator Board for the Foxfire Fund. He lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife and two children.
Rebecca Vance, Assistant to the DirectorsRebecca Vance worked for the Great Maine Schools Project from 2004–2007 and is now assistant to the director for the Great Schools Partnership.
Becky graduated with a B.A. in biology from Colby College in 2006. Becky lives in Windham, Maine, with her husband, Brandon, and their three children. She enjoys jogging, cooking, and spending time with her family.