2025 Board of Directors

 

Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition is led by a volunteer Board of Directors who bring their unique backgrounds and skillsets to support the stewardship of Belfast Bay.


Greg Biddinger

President

Greg and his wife Lise Leigh started spending summers in Maine beginning in 2021 and moved to Belfast permanently in 2015. Prior to finally settling in Maine, Greg lived in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, California, Virginia, and Texas. Greg is partially retired, but still dabbling in his consulting business focused on conversation strategies for managing private and working lands. He has worked as an environmental scientist for industry, state government, and in academics.  Greg was a member of the 2019 Penobscot Bay Stewards class and because of that experience he has since become active in regional environmental activities as a board member and President of the BBWC, the Friends of Sears Island, and the Friends of Belfast Parks.

Joy Bowles

Vice President

Joy started her career as a Biology Professor. She enjoyed most taking her college students out on field trips to observe and learn more about various ecosystems. After leaving academia, she was in the environmental and safety field for 30+ years as a regulator, manager, consultant, trainer and auditor working with smaller and very large, international companies. She was also the President of an international environmental and safety training organization and taught train-the-trainer courses. In 2021 after Joy retired, she and her husband moved to Belfast to be closer to family. After taking the Pen Bay Stewards class, she became re-energized to volunteer her time to research and protection of the environment, especially working again in water quality monitoring.

Kate Hanson

Secretary

Kate and her husband moved to Belfast almost seven years ago to be closer to their daughter and her family. Being here has offered Kate many opportunities to be involved with the community, including serving on the Belfast Community Co-op’s Board, helping to launch a Co-op history project in collaboration with the Belfast Historical Society, clearing trails as a steward for the Hills to the Sea Trail, and, currently, serving on the BBWC’s Board of Directors. Before heading north, she spent over forty years in southern Maine, working at the University of New Hampshire where she retired as a Professor Emerita of Community Leadership.


Gene Randall

Treasurer

In 2015, after completing a career in accounting and finance management, Gene, and his wife Marianne McKinney-Randall, moved from Winter Park, Florida, to Belfast.  

Gene has become involved with various local activities and became a board member and Treasurer for the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition.

Being a member of the BBWC Board is a great opportunity to learn more about the history of Belfast region and how to apply best practices to the issues of conserving natural resources and preserving the environment.


Cloe Chunn

Cloe is a naturalist, outdoor educator, former high school and college teacher, and Registered Maine Guide.  Author of Fifty Hikes in the Maine Mountains (W.W. Norton), Cloe has hiked the entire Appalachian Trail and explored wild country as far as Antarctica where she did geological research during graduate school. Cloe’s aim is to highlight and preserve Earth’s natural systems, and to help humans recognize and restore their connections within these systems. 

Cloe is a past president of the Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, where she makes trails, leads hiking, paddling, and XC ski outings, and organizes school volunteers. She is also a co-founder of the Maine Master Naturalist Program, the Penobscot River Paddling Trail, and the International Appalachian Trail. She is especially fond of birding, canoeing, cross-country skiing, and Sphagnum bogs.



Patricia Gladding

Pat has moved around a little. She started on the East coast, then the West coast, the deep South, the Mid-Atlantic, and finally Maine. After a career in Medical Practice Management, she moved into the non-profit sector. In Maryland, she worked with a group protecting and restoring the Anacostia River and its watershed. She also founded and ran a local Farmers Market. Moving to Maine in 2015, Pat learned about the PBS program and has been involved since then. This program definitely makes one aware of Penobscot Bay and its watershed. She is also a member of the Belfast Garden Club and Sears Island. Pat serves on the boards of Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition, Friends of Harriet L Hartley Conservation Area, and Waldo County Climate Action Coalition.  She enjoys kayaking, hiking, gardening, and cooking.




Noah Gilchrist

 

Joshua Goldstein

Joshua moved to Belfast after spending much of his career working in Boston and Washington for Accion, the microfinance provider. As Vice President for Economic Citizenship and Disability Inclusion, he led a global initiative to ensure that persons with disabilities had access to tiny loans with which to build microenterprises in India, Paraguay and other countries. He is also a poet and playwright. Several of his plays were produced in the United States and England, and he taught playwriting to undergraduates at Boston University for twelve years.

He spent summers in Maine for almost fifty years. Since he moved here, he's been a volunteer on the Board of the Game Loft, on the Advisory Council of the Friends of Sears Island, and a volunteer for Restorative Justice. He is a student of natural history and an avid bird watcher. He did volunteer trail work at Great Falls Park in Virginia for a number of years.


Ann Kennedy

In 2018, Ann fulfilled a life-long wish by moving to Maine from Baltimore, Maryland. After taking the Penobscot Bay Stewards program in 2019, Ann joined Cloe Chunn in producing Watershed News, BBWC’s newsletter. She also participated in the Steering Committee for the Steward’s program. Ann joined the Board in 2023 and serves as the Chair of the Communications Committee.

In her working life, Ann was a community organizer for 25 years, working on education, energy, environment, and children’s issues.  She founded and directed the Maryland Citizen Action Coalition and worked for several labor unions. In 1992, she left the political world to become a teacher and librarian in the Baltimore City Public Schools until she retired in 2017.  




Kris Shula

Kris moved to Maine in 1973 from Indiana and transferred from Indiana University to the University of Maine to complete her BS in Nursing. After a stint in the Peace Corps in Colombia, South America, she returned to Maine and moved to the Belfast area. She worked for 43 years at Waldo County General Hospital, most of it as a nursing supervisor. 

Kris is very interested and concerned about climate change and plastic pollution affecting our beautiful Penobscot Bay. She has volunteered on both local and hospital committees to address the use of plastics and has been a team leader for Keeping Belfast Maine Beautiful since its inception.




David Thomas

David Thomas has taught high school science in four public high schools in New York, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Maine for over 23 years. He holds a B.S. in limnology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.S. in science education from Cornell University. Dave worked for four years as an aquatic research technician in the upper Midwest. He has taught marine studies and environmental research courses at the high school as well as UMaine Hutchinson Center and is a co-founder of the Belfast Marine Institute (BMI). He is currently a co-PI on an NSF-grant working to implement technology-infused research and community-based experiences for middle and high school students. The BBWC offers many opportunities for students to support natural resource conservation and stewardship.