Greetings from Deutschland! Team Gauvin has moved back to Bavaria for the next few years. Bring on the brats, beer, and brötchen! If you find yourself in Germany, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We love seeing fellow Black Bears.
Chris Markwood was featured in a Portland Press Herald piece about his quest to rebuild the men’s basketball program at UMaine. They had quite a strong showing during the 2022-23 season and I know will continue to grow under Chris’s leadership. The feature shared some nice tidbits about Chris’s childhood and what led him to UMaine as well as the hope he has for the team’s future.
Congratulations to Lowell Oyster ’07G for being named 2023 Maine’s National Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year. Lowell is assistant principal at Bonny Eagle Middle School in Buxton and is lauded for his “strong emphasis on community outreach.” An amazing honor for a hard-working and dedicated educator!
Erik Gundersen has stepped down from the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP). He has started a cannabis consulting firm called ERG Strategies, LLC. Erik was the state’s first director of OCP beginning in February 2019, and he also serves as a senior advisor with Cannabis Public Policy Consulting, which evaluates how states regulate cannabis.
Rudman Winchell, a Bangor-based law firm that employs many UMaine grads, promoted Candace Jaegge Augustine to senior counsel. Congratulations!
Nikki Higgins Chan was named assistant superintendent of the Ellsworth School Department. She works with fellow alumna, Superintendent Amy Boles ’10G, ’16 CAS. Nikki is a graduate of Ellsworth High School and previously taught art at the school. In her most recent position, she served as Ellsworth High School’s dean of instruction, and was named 2022 Maine Curriculum Leader of the Year.
CourseStorm, an online registration software platform co-founded by classmate Matt James, has reached an exciting milestone of connecting learners to one million plus informal learning courses! CourseStorm allows organizations and programs to streamline how they register participants for classes, both in-person and virtually. Sounds like an amazing resource!
Here’s to you, Class of 2005! Looking forward to hearing from you soon.