Jay Kilbourn, Treasurer
Alicia Sampson, Secretary
Pious Ali, Member At Large
Marge Barker, Member at Large
Merritt Carey, Member at Large
Adesina Kazeem Lawal, President
Kazeem is the founder of the African Cultural Foundation and the Maine African Film Festival. He lives in Portland, Maine where he continues to explore his passions working on all sorts of African related issues. He currently works for FairPoint Telecommunications, but is also the Founder of Novus Nigeria Ltd, manufacturing bottled water quality Ice Cubes in Lagos, Nigeria under the brand name Island Ice. He is on the board of the Portland Public Library and donates his time to the Center for Grieving Children. A graduate of the Institute of Civic Leadership, he received a BS in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a MBA from Rutgers University. He enjoys his volunteer activities around Portland, playing soccer and travel.
Jay Kilbourn, Treasurer
Jay Kilbourn is the Director of Business Development at New England Organics, a division of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ – CWS) where he has worked in various capacities for over 20 years. Mr. Kilbourn leads the company’s efforts to develop new organic waste facilities and technologies, expand the customer base, make strategic acquisitions and provide superior customer service. Currently the Treasurer for the Maine African Film Festival and a member of several non-profit boards, his has also served as a School Board Director and as the founding director of the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG), an environmental, non-profit organization. A graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT with a BA in African Studies. He holds a Certificate in Biological Horticulture from the Agroecology Program at University of California at Santa Cruz. Jay has had a lifelong passion for Africa which has included working in community development in South Africa at St. Anthony's Cultural Center, Reiger Park, Boksburg, RSA. and hitch hiking across the continent twice, once in 1975 and again in1983. Jay lives in Portland, Maine.
Alicia Sampson, Secretary
Alicia Sampson is the Service Learning Coordinator at the University of Southern Maine’s Office of Community Engagement. She provides support for service learning courses that address community identified needs, serves as the project coordinator for Civic Matters, a symposium of community based research and collects information about service learning throughout the institution. One of Sampson’s most successful endeavors at USM is the development of the service learning course The Refugee Experience: From There to Here. This course examines the causes, consequences, experiences of and responses to forced migration. It then focuses on the successes and challenges of refugees in the Greater Portland area through seminar discussion and service learning activities. The daughter of a Mainer, Sampson relocated to Portland in May of 2008 from Buffalo, NY where she was enrolled in a Cultural Anthropology graduate program. Sampson has integrated herself into the social fabric of Portland by drawing on her experiences abroad in Costa Rica and Argentina and through the channel of public art specifically her WSCA.fm radio show, as a collaborator of the Building of Song (formerly Tower of Song) a monthly concert series held in Congress Square, and as the co-founder of Panda Bandits Portland's strangest animal-style collective. Sampson also serves as a facilitator at the Center for Grieving Children’s Multicultural Program.
Pious Ali, Member at Large
Marge Barker, Member at Large
Marge is a Senior Vice President at TD Bank. She is the founder of Friends of Kayanet Education Center. The mission of this organization is to build a school which will provide disadvantaged children in Warang County, Kenya a safe and friendly environment to learn and grow. Marge is also a member of South Portland/Cape Elizabeth Rotary were she serves as Vice President. She is currently the co-chair of the International Food Festival to be held on the Southern Maine Community College campus March 2010. Past organization affiliations include Preble Learning Center, Maine Arts, March of Dimes and United Way. Marge attends Husson University where she is pursuing her BS in Business Administration.
Merritt Carey, Member at Large
Merritt is founder of GraffamSolutions, a marketing and communications firm providing a wide range of services including brand development, website development, and strategic consulting with an emphasis and expertise on sustainability. Merritt has been a lifelong champion of environmental and social justice, beginning with her high school years when she designed an award-winning wind farm and was politically active in the anti-apartheid movement. Today, Merritt’s commitment to social responsibility and sustainability is much broader and based on her expert knowledge of socially responsible workplace practices as well as green business initiatives. Prior to receiving her law degree from University of Auckland, New Zealand, and University of Maine School of Law (magna cum laude), Merritt sailed around the world on the second-ever all women’s team to participate in the Whitbread-Round-the-World Race (now the Volvo Ocean Race). She was also a team member on the first all women’s America’s Cup sailing team, America3. Merritt received her B.A. in American Civilization and History from Brown University and attended Northfield Mount Hermon School. Merritt lives in Portland.
