As the Executive Director of the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA), Jess Maurer leads a broad, multidisciplinary network of more than 135 organizations, businesses, municipalities, and community members working to ensure we can all live healthy, engaged, and secure lives as we age in our homes and community settings, including diverse older Mainers. She leads a dynamic team and an engaged board to initiate and support data-informed policy change efforts through direct advocacy with federal, state, and municipal leaders. Recent successes include increased pay for direct care workers and significantly increased eligibility for the Medicare Savings Program in Maine. She creates shared-learning opportunities for community, social service, policy, and healthcare leaders across Maine and Northern New England. She collaborates with members and partners to convene processes and events geared toward action on issues related to ageism, equity related to all forms of bias, poverty, housing, transportation, food security, social inclusion, workforce, community development, and care across all settings. The MCOA has committed to ending ageism in Maine by 2032 through conversation, education, and action. Jess co-designed the first of its kind initiative called the Leadership Exchange on Ageism, a program that is helping Maine’s leaders take action on ageism. A licensed Maine attorney, Jess worked for 17 years in the Maine Office of the Attorney General. As Executive Director for the Maine Association of Area Agencies on Aging, she co-founded the MCOA in 2012, and became its first Executive Director in 2018. She graduated from the University of Maine School of Law and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Krista George joined the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) in January 2019 as Operations Director, and in 2023 expanded her role to Director of Strategic Initiatives, Culture, and Community. In her role at MCOA, Krista leads member coordination and community outreach, oversees the organizations strategic initiatives, programmatic offerings, management of communications, and aids advocacy and state-wide initiative efforts that support health and economic security of all Mainers. Krista’s passion for caring and advocating for others has driven her career into non-profit management where she has been working the past 15 years within both health care and early education organizations. Krista has many years of direct care experience from assisted living, in home care, and hospice settings. She holds a CRMA, PSS, and Educational Technician certifications and studied Business Administration at the University of Maine. In addition, she currently serves as a facilitator of the Maine Leadership Exchange on Ageism (LEA) and was a graduate of the first cohort of LEA.

Anna Guest joined the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) in November of 2022 as the Project Manager for the Tri-State Learning Collaborative on Aging (TSLCA) and has since transitioned to Communications Specialist for the TSLCA.  An occupational therapist by training, Anna has worked in non-profit community-based organizations for over 15 years, with older adults and people with brain injury.  Most recently she oversaw evidence-based health-promotion and Medicare education programming for older adults, working collaboratively with volunteers to expand program reach and impact.  She’s thrilled to support and contribute to the shared learning and healthy aging initiatives of the TSLCA, and contributing to age-positive culture in Maine and beyond.

Kathy Willette joined the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) in October 2023 as the Project Manager for the Tri-State Learning Collaborative on Aging (TSLCA). Over the past ten years, Kathy worked in non-profit leadership positions for organizations focused on increasing the capacity of Maine families to live healthy and fulfilled lives. This included creating systems to prevent the financial exploitation and abuse of older people, developing high-quality early childhood education programming, and overseeing implementation of family visiting support programs. Prior to these leadership positions, Kathy worked in direct service for several years supporting families and young children both in homes, and in community-based centers. Kathy is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law, the Muskie School of Public Service, and the University of Maine, Orono.

Jess George joined the Maine Council on Aging in the fall of 2023, bringing her experience working in nonprofit organizations and public libraries to the Tri-State Learning Collaborative on Aging (TSLCA) as the Outreach and Education Specialist. She is passionate about being a community connector, acting as the conduit between communities, resources, education, and each other. Her skills lie in community building, community outreach, planning and implementing engaging programming, grant writing, and design and communications. Jess earned her BS at Boston University in psychology with a focus on neuropsychology and her Master’s in Library Science from Florida State University. 

Laurie Gilman joined the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) in 2023. Laurie has spent much of her career at L.L.Bean. Her work included customer satisfaction, grants and community relations, and event coordination in Freeport. Laurie also worked at Maine Audubon as a project and event manager, and at the Harraseeket Inn as sales and marketing manager. Her passion for working with older adults led her to Stroudwater Lodge where she worked in resident engagement. She also volunteers for two town committees, Maine Audubon, and with her chorus, Women in Harmony. (Photo credit: Sharyn Peavey)

Maureen O’Connor joined the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) in November 2023 as Power in Aging Project Director – and as a proud member of the Leadership Exchange on Ageism (LEA) Cohort 8. Having participated in multiple MCOA Summits, membership meetings, and committees since relocating to Maine in 2017, Maureen values MCOA as a catalyst for change. Maureen has served numerous nonprofits since the 1990s, aiming to deploy her expertise for meaningful impact. Most recently she worked as senior grants consultant for Maine’s second largest and most rural health care system, and as director of resource and membership development for Maine’s statewide association of federally qualified health centers. Previously she was president and principal of a successful Chicago-based consulting firm serving nonprofits; director of corporate and foundation relations for the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, a $70 million organization with 33 centers; and development director for Erie Neighborhood House, a $1.5 million community-based social service agency. Maureen is past president of the Association of Consultants to Nonprofits.

Don Harden is a founding Board Member of the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) and coordinates the Power in Aging Project, MCOA’s anti-ageism campaign. He is one of the designers of and is the lead facilitator of the Leadership Exchange on Ageism, the first of its kind participatory, peer-learning leadership development experience for executive business, policy, research, and community leaders. Prior to joining the MCOA team, Don worked for Catholic Charities Maine for over four decades, leaving that organization as the Director of Aging Services. He was co-convenor of the Maine Aging Initiative’s Workgroup on Workforce and the Economy, served on the Legislative Commission to Study Long-term Care Workforce Issues, and represents the voice of older workers at the State Workforce Board. He serves on the Southern Maine Agency on Aging Advisory Council, as VP of the Elder Abuse Institute of ME Board, volunteers for the University of New England as Geriatric Experience Mentor for medical students, and as Legacy Scholar at the UNE Center for Excellence in Aging and Health. He served as care partner with his mother who lived in her own home with age-positivity through the age of 101.

Becca Howes is the Development Director at the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) and the Tri-State Learning Collaborative on Aging (TSLCA), a project of MCOA. She is thrilled to have joined the MCOA in 2023 where she will focus on sustainable funding through donor and sponsor engagement and grant tracking, among other fundraising initiatives. Becca has two decades of experience in the development sector. She was lucky enough to be assigned to Jamaica when she joined the U.S. Peace Corps in 2001, where she secured her first grant to fund a student-driven peer mediation program. Her experience as a volunteer in the Peace Corps solidified her passion for community service, and she sought out roles throughout her career to help people and organizations reach their full potential. Becca is a graduate of Tufts University where she majored in International Relations.

Jen Jones joined the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) in 2022 as the Policy and Advocacy Manager. She brings a diverse set of experiences to this role; she is a licensed paramedic having spent over ten years working in Emergency Medical Services, has worked as a care liaison ensuring folks have access to home health and hospice services, and she brings a research background in both anthropogenic climate change and materials and solid waste management. Jen’s primary responsibilities are engaging in building a robust and resilient direct care workforce, and in advancing MCOA’s advocacy agenda within the Maine legislature.

Leslie Roberts joined the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) in January of 2023. Over the span of her more than 35-year corporate communications and marketing communications career, Leslie served in management roles at leading healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, and high technology organizations. Her experience helping her mother to navigate aging in place, followed by serving as her primary in-home care partner for two years, gave Leslie a passion for addressing the challenges Mainers face accessing the appropriate resources to live their lives to the fullest.  She earned a BA in Art History from Wheaton College in Norton, MA.

Kathy Vezina joined the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) in March of 2021 as Advocacy Coordinator and has since transitioned to the project lead for the Equity & Healthy Aging Initative.  This Equity and Healthy Aging Initiative seeks to help aging services providers and community volunteer organizations understand the social health needs of diverse older people in Maine, the barriers diverse older people face in meeting these needs, and to integrate these needs into the Maine Council on Aging’s network of advocacy efforts.  Kathy is a Registered Nurse and a Maine attorney and has worked in leadership roles in a leadership development organization, community behavioral health, reproductive justice, and in private practice in a health law firm.  She is a graduate of the University of Maine School of Law and the University of California San Francisco in Nursing.  She has been active in efforts to promote health equity in Maine and volunteers as a nurse in various organizations.

Libby Edwardson joined the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) in January of 2024 as the project manager for the Creative Aging Project. For the past fifteen years, Libby has worked as a librarian in public and academic libraries in the areas of outreach, media, and youth services. Libby has focused her career on creating engaging programs that support historically underserved communities. Her programs for Appalachian youth earned awards at the national level, and her teen writing group organized the first Pride Parade in Blue Hill, ME, which is now in its eighth year. While many of her programs have catered to children and young adults, she has also brought literacy programs to inmates in prison, older adults living in skilled care facilities, and those who are homebound due to physical or financial limitations. Libby is committed to ensuring all members of the communities she serves see themselves mirrored in the programs she creates. She believes listening to the needs and interests of those communities is the most important part of successful collaboration. In addition to library work, she has worked as an actor, singer, and artist, and is currently writing her first novel. Libby is a graduate of The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland, and earned her BA in English from the University of Maine at Presque Isle.