Jeanmarie Reed Russell, President

Jeanmarie, a graduate of the University of Maine, is a former Castine business owner and co-founder of The Castine Visitors Center. As a former collections committee chair, highlights of her prior service have been growing the collection with the acquisition of the Home and Away sculpture (part of the Maine Sculpture Trail) and local art pieces acquired through the Wilson Museum’s Collecting Castine events. Jeanmarie and her husband Michael Russell reside in Penobscot.

Hans Carlson, Vice-President

Hans is the Executive Director of the Ausbon Sargent Land Preservation Trust. A forest and environmental historian, he holds an MA from the University of Vermont, and a PhD from the University of Maine. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and the State University of New York and is the author of Home Is the Hunter: The James Bay Cree and Their Land and Walking Toward Moosalamoo: A Natural History of Terra Nullius. While at the University of Maine, he helped author parts of the Historical Atlas of Maine, carrying out research on the environmental history and historical geography of this state. In addition to his professional work, he is an avid outdoorsman, woodworker, and boat-builder.

Joceline Boucher, Treasurer

Joceline began serving the museum in 2008, enthusiastically supports its mission, and lives year-round nearby. At Maine Maritime Academy, from which she is retired, Joceline helped found the Center for Student Success and the Accessibility Services department. She is a professor emerita of ocean chemistry, with a doctorate in oceanography and degrees in geological and geophysical sciences.

Steve Shea, Secretary

Steve spent his career working at his family’s business, E.L Shea Inc., until his retirement in 2016. He has served on the Museum’s Building and Grounds Committee since 2015. Steve and his wife Jane live in Ellsworth.

Barbara Cooper

Barbara has been an active supporter of the Museum’s programs for many years. She and her late husband, Justin, discovered Castine in 1988. Now she divides her time between Austin, TX, and Castine where her children and grandchildren enjoy spending their summers.

Starr Kelly

Starr Kelly, an enrolled citizen of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, is a museum professional who has been in the field for over ten years and currently works at the Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine as the Director of Education & Exhibits. Starr is passionate about belonging and access work within museums and positioning museums to be relevant sites of community building. 

Lisa Ladd

Lisa is the Library Director of Buck Memorial Library in Bucksport, and holds a Masters of Science in Library Science from University of Tennessee Knoxville. She took the position in Bucksport in 2021 after retiring after more than 30 years at the library system at Dartmouth, including the Feldberg Business and Engineering Library and the Kresge Physical Sciences library. She also served as a trustee, then President of the public library board of trustees in Thetford Center, Vermont.

Walter Murphy

Walt has been a resident of Castine for four years and has been a volunteer at the Wilson Museum since 2019, serving as a community member on the Building and Grounds Committee since 2020. Walt retired in 2018 after a forty-year career in theater production in New York. He and his wife Peggy moved to Castine from Connecticut soon after. They had been coming to Maine for family vacations since the 1980’s and always planned to move here when they retired.

Linda Simpson

Linda is a resident of Castine and works in the Fiscal Operations department at Maine Maritime Academy. She has a BS in Business Administration from the University of New Haven, and has worked in finance, logistics, training, information technology, and customer service for more than 25 years. This included various roles at Unilever Home and Personal Care, followed by more than a decade at the Riverbrook Regional YMCA in southwestern Connecticut. Linda and her husband moved to Castine in 2021, and she was part of the team at the Downeast Family YMCA’s Blue Hill branch before coming on board at Maine Maritime Academy.