About Women for Healthy Rural Living

Cherryfield

Pat Olsen moved to Cherryfield after 24 years accompanying her husband on diplomatic assignments to countries in the Middle East, Europe and the Pacific. She is an educator who has taught in public, private and international schools as well as home-schooled. Pat’s years in foreign environments provided her with experience in community building, cultural adaptation and cross-cultural initiatives. She has a B.A in Psychology and German from Colby College and a M.Ed. from George Mason University. She enjoys outdoor recreation, fiber arts, cooking, and traveling.

Harrington

Pam Dyer Stewart was a home birth midwife in Downeast Maine for over thirty years until her retirement in 2017. She served on the national midwifery board and was active in state midwifery politics. As the mother of four grown children, she knows the central role moms play in the family circle. In her work, she affirmed women’s ways of knowing and supported their physical and emotional self-care. Pam joined the WHRL board in 2009. Currently, she serves as secretary and as coordinator of Incredible Edible Milbridge. With her husband, Brian, she grows vegetables and tends chickens for eggs and meat. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, hiking, biking, reading, fiber arts, and all the visits she can get with her children and grandchildren.

Milbridge

Ora, a Massachusetts native, has happily called Maine her home for forty-eight years. She graduated from Emmanuel College in Boston with a BA in education and art. Developing and implementing the first visual art curriculum at Narraguagus High School, she taught the program there for twenty-four years. Upon her retirement in 2008, she joined the board of the Women’s Health Resource Library and is proud to be a part of this dynamic group of community-minded women. As past-president of the Pleasant River Garden Club and its current secretary, she has a special interest in WHRL’s Incredible Edible Milbridge project which promotes food equity, community gardening skills, and nutrition education. Married to her husband, Carl, for 55 years and mother of four, she enjoys cooking, painting, gardening, and most especially, watching their nine grandchildren grow!

Cherryfield

Alison grew up in NY and spent summers at the family camp in Maine. After graduating from William & Mary, she moved to California. While raising 2 kids of her own, she opened her family to foster teens, several from the high school where she was a teacher for 20 years. She taught math, English, and history to many who needed the extra love, discipline, and pb & j provided in her classroom. Preparing meals for a family of 10 has been replaced by cooking in retirement for David and friends, sometimes around the campfire, sometimes for the 50 or so at DETOP. Hiking, reading, FaceTime with kids and grandkids are other favorite activities. Secretly, Alison might be most happy when she is making people laugh.

Addison

Originally from Massachusetts, Wendy attended Lesley College and joined the Peace Corps. She has a degree in education. In 2002, Wendy moved to Addison to work with the Maine Seacoast Mission, where she developed the Mission’s EdGE Program with her husband Charlie. She also helped create the Downeast Table of Plenty. Throughout her career, Wendy’s work has been centered on children and families and building healthy, caring communities. She was a founding member of the Washington County Food and Fuel Alliance and serves as board president. She is on the board of Eastport Health Center and the Cape Split Chapel.  Wendy enjoys fiber arts, yoga, and adventures with her husband, three children, and six grandchildren. Wendy is excited to work with WHRL and the many programs that help build a healthy, caring community for all.

Milbridge

Barbara arrived in Boston from the UK in 1964.  After working at a consulting company for 10 years she went back to school and received her BA and JD from Wellesley College and Suffolk University Law School respectively.  She worked at Winchester Hospital in Massachusetts as head of Human Resources and in-house General Counsel until 2001, when she retired, but kept her association with the hospital by becoming a volunteer. Barbara and her partner, Ron, built their house in Milbridge in 2002. Ron died in 2016, and she made plans to live full-time in Milbridge, making the move final in 2018.  Barbara is looking forward to working with WHRL in whatever capacity and whatever projects she can be helpful.

Harrington

Jamie was born and raised in Downeast, Maine, and graduated from Narraguagus High School. She worked at MBNA for seven years– “It taught me valuable skills that would allow me to see possibility beyond the boundaries of the seasonal work that supported my youth, and it gave me permission to desire more.” She completed her undergraduate degree in 2014 and her M.S.Ed in 2019. Jamie worked for the UMaine System from 2017 through 2021. In 2022, she started her current HR position at Wyman’s. Jamie is a single mom to one son.  “I am proud to live and work here, and I want our young women to realize just how much potential is out there, however you define success.”  She enjoys cooking, baking, kayaking, and fishing in her free time.