John Rosenblum, Chair
John is Dean Emeritus of the Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. John began his academic career at the Harvard Business School and was Dean of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond after his tenure at the Darden School. He currently serves on the board of directors of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo and Company, Chesapeake Corporation, The Providence Journal, and Thomas Rutherfoord Companies. In addition, John is a trustee for a number of nonprofit organizations including Landmark Volunteers, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Inc., Tredegar National Civil War Center, The Farnsworth Art Museum, and Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra. John has an A.B. degree from Brown University, an MBA and a DBA from Harvard University. He lives in Crozet, Virginia with his wife Carolyn. They summer in St. George, Maine.

Julian D. Fischer, Vice Chair
Judd is a resident of Port Clyde, where he lives with his wife Tanya. Judd learned to sail at Tabor Academy's summer program, first as a camper, and later as an instructor. Education, marriage to Tanya, and children followed. He graduated with a BFA from Boston University in 1965, and then he and Tanya spent the following four years in Rome, Italy, where he worked as a sculptor. "We settled on a hilltop farm in Vermont upon our return to the good old USA. There we raised turkeys, chickens, beef cattle, pigs, dogs, cats and children." They also gradually resumed sailing, and eventually began sailing on the Maine coast. With the kids grown and flown, Judd indulged his interest in History by enrolling in a PHD program at the University of New Hampshire. There he studied and taught colonial history with an emphasis on shipbuilding and navigation. Judd and Tanya discovered Port Clyde while cruising, and, as fortune smiled, moved to Maine in 1987. Judd was gradually seduced by the positive energy of the apprentices and the reality of the community they created, and he became involved.    

Tatiana Pertzoff Fischer, Treasurer

While living in Vermont, Tanya worked with Peter Coburn (AC’s former Treasurer) on the board of The Revels. A few years after relocating to Maine in 1987, Peter asked Tanya if she would be interested in taking on the books for Lance Lee’s newest venture: the Apprenticeshop of Nobleboro. With some trepidation she took on the task in 1993, a year before the ’Shop moved to Wharf Street in Rockland. She has continued to offer her accounting knowledge, in one capacity or another, since then. In 1998 she dropped back to doing only AC payroll as she had taken on the accounting for an investment management firm & its affiliates in Portland - a job she continues to have.

Tanya lives with her husband Judd, 2 dogs, and several chickens in Port Clyde amidst beautiful gardens (one of her passions). She and Judd are the proud parents of 3 beautiful daughters, aged 36 to 43, and grandparents to 4 delightful grandchildren. They are fortunate to have all of them living nearby. She also entertains herself by studying classical piano and keeping up with her first language, Russian.

C. Russel Hansen, Jr., Secretary
Russ is a business lawyer and a strategic and legal advisor to management, boards, committees, stockholders and other board constituencies. He is also a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Board Leaders, a business organization of directors dedicated to board excellence. Previously, he was President and CEO of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Vice President and General Counsel of two public companies and Corporate Senior Partner of Hale and Dorr (now Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering Hale and Dorr). Mr. Hansen currently serves on the Corporate Governance Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association and on its Task Force on Director Liability. He also serves as Cochairman of the Corporate Law Committee of the Boston Bar Association. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Russ and his wife, Pamela, live in Waldoboro and enjoy cruising and racing one design and off shore classes.

Jeff Armstrong

Jeff graduated from Winchester High School in 1969, built many small boats from plans, and spent summers in Friendship, Maine on Muscongus Bay. He worked on the islands as a caretaker and sailed every day. After two years at the University of Maine-Orono he taught sailing in Rowayton, Connecticut, hung around boat yards, and raced on the Long Island circuit. He then went in search of the sun and ended up working at Old Town Canoe. Missing the coast, he went to work for Pierce Marine in Boothbay. Jeff attended numerous schools in the outboard trade and worked for several boat yards before settling here in Thomaston, Maine in 1976 working for Anchorage Marine. After a few years he went into business with a partner, then eventually renamed the business Jeff’s Marine, which he's owned and operated since 1982. In the midst of all of this, he bought a 1955 Cayman Island wooden ketch in the West Indies and explored the islands for 10 years during the off season. He eventually settled down and now has two children—Kathryn (20) and Gordon (13). Jeff is presently a member of the Harbor Committee, the Zoning Board, and numerous charitable committees.
He considers himself a master outboard mechanic with over 30 years experience. His passion is fishing, and he's enjoyed numerous trips in many parts of the world, buy mainly in Alaska and the Great North. Other pastimes include sailing, boating, snowmobiling, and enjoying the four seasons. Jeff has been happily married to Nancy for 24 years, and says they never travel enough.

Francis I. Blair

Frank is currently president of IEG Venture Management, Inc, an entrepreneurial venture capital firm in Chicago specializing in Midwest technology-based startups. Before founding IEG in 1983, he worked for another venture firm, Heizer Corporation. His public service career has included serving as Chief of Staff at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, and as a fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy from 1966-71.

Frank received his Bachelors Degree from Yale and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School. Frank has a long time association with Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, both as a staff member and trustee. He also has served as a trustee of Fourth Presbyterian Church, Planned Parenthood, University of Chicago, and Redmoon Theater. Frank is an avid sailor, kayaker, and cross country skier, is a commercial pilot, Coast Guard licensed ship master, and registered Maine Guide. He is currently building a wooden “fast cruising fusion schooner Farfarer” in Nova Scotia to sail around the world with his son and other friends in 2005-2006. Frank is a resident of Chicago, Illinois where he lives with wife, Margo.

Neil B. Colan, Ed.D.
Neil is a psychologist with over 20 years of experience providing psychological services and organizational leadership to the educational and behavioral health care fields. His expertise lies in the areas of meeting the behavioral health needs of children, youth and families and in providing top level fiscal, program and operational leadership and management to organizations.

Dr. Colan is a licensed psychologist who received his Doctorate from Boston University in 1988. He has previously held several major positions in significant organizations including Associate Director of the Center on Work and Family at Boston University, Clinical Director for Child and Family Services at the Kennebec Valley Mental Health Center and Managing Partner at the Winthrop Family Pediatrics Center. He has published several professional articles and presented at numerous conferences.

At present, Dr. Colan is Chief Executive Officer at Good Will-Hinckley, responsible for overall financial, physical plant and program operations. Good Will-Hinckley is a comprehensive residential progam meeting the needs of youth and families who have experienced trauma, abuse and neglect. In addition, he is President of the Lincoln Group, a private practice which provides consultation and psychological services.

Dr. Colan has extensive experience with Outward Bound. He became Watch Officer at the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in 1977. Following that he served as Senior Course Director and Director of Recruiting until 1982. In addition, he was Project Director from 1985 to 1988 on a national study of the effectiveness of Outward Bound in substance abuse treatment. More recently, he has been working with Admissions departments across all of Outward Bound to develop a psychological screening protocol.

Jim Cuthbertson
Jim developed his love of being on the water while growing up in Dayton, Ohio and sailing with his father on small lakes in the area. After earning a BFA at Ohio Wesleyan University he worked in Manhattan in advertising for a short time, returning to school to earn his MFA at Rutgers University. He and his wife Kathy moved to Thomaston in 1978 where he ran a “handmade, art kite shop” for several years before becoming a founding partner of Horvath & Cuthbertson, a technical illustration firm. In Thomaston Jim and Kathy have raised two daughters. His younger daughter introduced him to Atlantic Challenge when she participated in the International Competition of Seamanship in Denmark and again when she taught for the Community Sailing Program. Jim presently serves as a trustee for Watts Hall, chairs the Thomaston Harbor Committee and is Vice Commodore of the Rockland Yacht Club. He volunteers as a theatrical lighting mentor for Watts Hall productions and rescues stranded marine mammals for Marine Animal Lifeline Rescue in the Midcoast area.

                                            
Nancy Snow Leeson
Nancy is a resident of Rockport, Maine. Educated in Boston at the Children’s Hospital School of Nursing, she then worked for a year at the Children’s Hospital before marrying Bartlett Harwood Jr. and having six children. After the death of her husband, she moved from Princeton N.J. to Rockport where she married A. Dix Leeson-who passed away in June of 2004. Nancy’s interests include sailing, tennis and her 18 grandchildren.

Richard Marshuetz
Dick’s career includes service as a corporate director and audit committee chair in public and private companies, and since the mid-eighties, management of corporate turnarounds and start-ups. His functional responsibilities have included P&L and a variety of operating and financial roles. He has served as a director of Abbott House in New York, a non-profit agency that cares for more than 800 abandoned, abused and neglected children. Recently he has worked with organizations like Sears Business Centers and Wesco Distribution whose survival required shifts in strategic direction within the context of a strongly ingrained culture. Dick has industry experience in distribution, consumer goods, health care, building products, lighting and retail. Earlier in his career he worked with Avon Products and American Can. Dick served as an officer in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and was an instructor in the Army’s Engineer Officer Candidate School. Most recently he was President of Princess House, a consumer goods company. A graduate of Syracuse University, Dick earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He and his wife Mindy live in Blue Hill where they enjoy sailing in their 28’ Cape Dory.

Dr. Philip F. McKean

Phil is a resident of Cushing where he lives with his wife, Deborah. He grew up in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts and on Friendship Harbor, where he learned to row and sail a dory at an early age. He graduated from Williams College, Yale University Divinity School and was awarded a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology by Brown University for his research in Indonesia. Dr. McKean has served as a chaplain and minister in the United Church of Christ, a founding professor and Dean at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, and as Headmaster of Concord Academy in Concord, MA. Dr. McKean has served as Vice President for Philanthropy at hospital charitable foundations UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, MA and Valley Health Systems in Holyoke, MA. Currently he is Director of Planned Giving for the Northeast Health Foundation and a consultant in charitable legacy planning. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Senior Coastal College and of Midcoast Habitat for Humanity, and a member of the St. John Baptist Episcopal Church Haiti-Maine Companion Diocese Committee.

Phil wrote his M.A. thesis in anthropology at Brown University on the culture of "Outward Bound" and served as a Watch Officer in the early years of Hurricane Island Outward Bound School. He continues to "muck about in boats" in Friendship and Cushing.

Frederick Moon

Bio coming soon.

Thomas R. Moore

Tom and his wife Sue are residents of Owls Head, Maine and spend part of the year in Portland, Oregon near their kids and grandkids.

Tom grew up “summering” in Maine, and after attending Cornell University for BS and graduate degrees in chemical engineering, migrated to San Francisco for a 34 year career with Chevron. His assignments were split between refining and shipping, and in the mid 1980’s he was in Saint John, New Brunswick as the general manager of the Irving Oil refinery and marine terminals. (Irving was then an affiliate of Chevron). His last 13 years were in charge of global marine transportation, serving as President of Chevron Shipping Company.

Tom was a founding director of Presidio World College in San Francisco, and since retirement served on the Board of American Bureau of shipping, and the U.K. P & I club in London. Until 2007 he was the chairman of Marine Spill Response Corp, an industry sponsored national oil spill response organization.

Tom began boating and learned to sail on his grandfather’s 14’ catboat on Lake Cobbosseecontee in Maine. Many boats later, Tom is looking forward to his new Herreshoff 12 ½ currently being built at the Atlantic Challenge Apprenticeshop.

Stacey Keefer Palmer
Stacey joins the Atlantic Challenge Board of Directors with over twelve years experience in the marine industry, including employment in management and customer service at Journey’s End Marina in Rockland. Her current employment at the Maine Marine Trade Association as an Education/Industry Liaison involves workforce and training issues for the marine trades in Maine. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Maine Marine Trade Association and has been involved with the Maine Clean Boatyards & Marinas Program. Stacey grew up on a small farm in Vermont and learned to sail on Lake Champlain. She resides in Union, Maine and enjoys camping and sailing with her husband Larry and children, Larz and Petra.       

Ruth W. Parker
Woofie first came to Maine in 1947 with her husband Harry, who started the South Freeport Yacht Basin in South Freeport. The business sold and chartered boats as well as offering services for designing and building boats. The Parkers chose to move up the coast once their three children were off on their own. They chose Rockland as it was the first harbor up the coast that didn’t require traveling down a peninsula. Woofie owned and ran Harbor Real Estate here in Rockland for 25 years. Once she retired from the real estate business she had more time to dedicate to other interests. She happened upon two current trustees on the ski slopes and learned about the first strategic planning meeting for the Atlantic Challenge Community Sailing Program. Woofie became one of the founding members of the Community Sailing Program, believing strongly about teaching children sailing and seamanship.

Robert B. Rheault

Bob is a resident of Owls Head, Maine where he lives with his wife Susan St. John. Bob's twenty-six year military career began at West Point and took him around the world with service in Europe, the Middle East and the Orient including combat in Korea and Vietnam. His last 10 years were in Special Forces with a final assignment as Commander of all Special Forces in Vietnam. He holds a Masters degree in International Affairs from George Washington University. Since retiring from the Army, Bob spent twenty years with the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, as Instructor, Course Director, Program Director, and Acting President before retiring in 2001.

Sarah Ruef-Lindquist, JD, CFTA
Sarah joins Atlantic Challenge's board as a trustee as well as a volunteer adult instructor in the Community Sailing Program. Sarah's love of sailing began at the age of 13 aboard a lateen rig Sailfish on a lake in Wisconsin and has grown ever since. Sarah's connection with Maine's waterfront community involves competitive racing and serving on and managing crews and foredeck in regattas around the state. Sarah and her husband Peter Lindquist live in Camden.

Sarah is Senior Consultant and Founder of Planning for Good, providing planned giving expertise and support to organizations. Previously she was Vice President and Senior Administrative Officer at the Trust Department of Union Trust Company, and prior to that served as Vice President for Southern Maine at the Maine Community Foundation. She has extensive knowledge and experience in planned giving and endowment management and holds a B.A. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and a J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire. She is a member of the Maine State Bar Association, New Hampshire Bar, and American Bar Associations, the American Bankers Association, the Maine Estate Planning Council, and is a member and past President of the Maine Planned Giving Council.

Sarah agreed to join the board because "the lessons learned in sailing are all about teamwork, using good judgment, building self-confidence, and enjoying nature is a low-impact way. Traditional boat building is a part of our heritage that enriches the lives of current and future generations. The beauty of sailing and traditional sailing craft has touched the lives of so many here in Maine, and through the work of AC, will continue for the future. I'm very pleased to be able to support that in a volunteer capacity."

Lee Scarbrough
Lee is a graduate of Dartmouth College. He has recently retired from designing, building and remodeling homes. For two periods of several years each he has lived aboard sailboats with his wife and sons, including a transatlantic crossing. The boys were home schooled, the family living for extended periods in remote anchorages. For ten years Lee has been involved with Atlantic Challenge gig programs, and has run the Cape Challenge seamanship program on Cape Cod. Lee is ACUSA trustee for the several Bantry Bay gig programs in the US, and is also president of Atlantic Challenge International, the sponsoring group which hosts these rowing and sailing contests. Lee brings 50 years of sailing and seamanship experience to AC, including many thousands of miles at sea. He currently lives in Harwichport, MA with his wife Jacquie.

Ralph D. Siewers, M.D.
Ralph is originally from Winston-Salem, NC, attended NC State College, graduated with a degree in Agriculture, followed this up with a year in Moravian Theological Seminary (Bethlehem PA), and medical school at Bowman Gray School of Medicine (Wake Forest Univ) in Winston-Salem. After graduation, Ralph developed special interest in surgery and trained at Bowman Gray, followed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center – in General and Cardiothoracic Surgery, graduating in 1969. Compulsory service in the Army brought him to Washington D.C. for one year, followed by a year in Viet Nam (24th Evac. Hospital). Upon returning home, Ralph and his family moved to Pittsburgh, where he joined the faculty of University of Pittsburgh as a cardiothoracic surgeon. He eventually went on to specialize in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery – retiring in July of 2002.

Ralph became involved with the Maine coast in 1976 when he volunteered his medical services to the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School. He soon became progressively involved, and after 12 years became Chairman of the National Safety Committee of Outward Bound. Following 12 years there, Ralph and his wife purchased a 40 ft. wooden ketch which eventually led them to DownEast Maine. Ralph became involved in AC shortly after the 'Shop moved to Rockland where “I found a wonderful small board and staff that helped me to focus my Outward Bound educated energies towards programmatic and organizational issues. Atlantic Challenge captures my imagination because it is based in Hahnian educational and social philosophy involving 'hands-on work' in a mutually supportive community which in order to thrive must find its basis in compassion and service."

Back home in Sedgewick, Maine where he lives with his wife Pam, Ralph enjoys gardening, woodworking, and messing around in the shop with the dream of building a boat, sailing and motoring on the water, good books and good music, and activities oriented toward social concerns, including personal and social health.

George Sprague, Apprentice Representative

George came to Atlantic Challenge in January 2007 as an apprentice at The Apprenticeshop, the largest program of Atlantic Challenge. He was voted by a group of his peers to be the Apprentice Trustee, serving as the liaison between the apprentices of the 'Shop and the larger organization for the next year. George built his first boat with his grandfather at the age of 12. He is now returning to the craft after 20 years of other employment including four years as a Marine Corps mechanic, seven years with the New Hampshire Army National Guard driving tractor trailers, alpaca farming, and a stint as a union steel erector in Boston. Outside of the 'Shop, George is fixing up a small house he and his wife recently bought in Rockland and, on the weekends, commuting home to Concord, NH where his wife still resides. George loves the combination of boat building and sailing that Atlantic Challenge affords. "Here," he says, "I get to learn how to use the boats I build."

C.P. Williamson, Jr.
Pen is the Director of Development of The LifeFlight Foundation, which supports LifeFlight of Maine, the state's medical helicopter system. Prior to LifeFlight, he spent 27 years with the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School, originally as an instructor and most recently as Vice President of Development. He is also a former Director of Development at Colby College. He has been certified by the Association of Fundraising Professionals since 1981, and currently sits on the board of directors of their Northern New England Chapter. He was a trustee of the former Rockport Apprenticeshop and an active member of the Maine Rowing Association. Pen is a graduate of Colby and served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He lives in Warren, Maine with his wife Beverly. They have two grown children.

Thomas E. Wood
Tom came East from Los Angeles after high school to graduate from Amherst College in 1961 and Penn Law School in 1966. Not wanting to work for a large firm, he joined Philadelphia’s Drinker Biddle & Reath when the firm had 40 lawyers, practiced corporate and securities law there for over 40 years and retired when the firm had 650 lawyers. He remains Of Counsel to the firm. Tom currently serves on the boards of Vertex, Inc., a software company, and Turner Investments, Inc., an investment advisory firm, and is Chairman of the Easttown Township, PA, Zoning Hearing Board. He is a former trustee of The Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, PA. Tom and his wife Sally have two daughters, six grandchildren and "Woodwind," a well-loved ApprenticeShop Haven 12 ½, a boat they purchased at the same time they acquired a house in Cushing. Tom first encountered Atlantic Challenge as the Apprentice Shop many years ago in Bath when his sister-in-law was an apprentice there.

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Lance R. Lee, Founder
Founder of the Apprenticeshop in 1972, Lance has spent a large part of his career focused on experiential education. He spent over a decade with Outward Bound as an instructor, consultant and site developer, as well as a couple of years as an instructor on a 1700-ton Norwegian barque. Lance co-founded Atlantic Challenge, the international sea competition in 1984, The Apprenticeshop on the Neva in Russia and Atlantic Challenge Russia, as well as the East River Apprenticeshop. Lance was editor of “The Apprentice,” a maritime folklife journal published by the Apprenticeshop from 1981-1989. Lance also published "Twice Round the Loggerhead" (1999), Monographs, “Norse Boatbuilding in North America” and was co-author of "Barns, Beams and Boats". He is currently working on a book on the Kurt Hahn legacy.

Lance is a resident of Rockland, Maine, living just a few blocks away down Main Street from Atlantic Challenge.