Two New Faces at SEEAL Partners SEMAP and Lloyd Center

SEMAP WELCOMES NEW E.D. JAY COBURN!

Dear Friends of SEMAP,

I am delighted to introduce you to SEMAP's new Executive Director, Jay Coburn! After an extremely coordinated and efficient effort by the Search Committee, led by SEMAP's Board President Carolyn DeMoranville, Jay was the committee's unanimous recommendation out of over 35 candidates. He brings a wealth of diverse and valuable experience to SEMAP and is without doubt the ideal person to lead SEMAP forward. To learn more about Jay, please see the bio below.

Thank you all so much for your support of SEMAP and local farms over the past 5 years. I know you will be seeing great things to come from Jay, our incredibly dedicated Board and Committee members, and of course our excellent staff members, Sarah Cogswell and Katie Cavanagh. As I wrap up my time at SEMAP, I could not be happier to see the organization in such extremely capable hands, and I hope you will join me in welcoming Jay!

Many thanks, Sarah Kelley


About Jay Coburn: Jay's path to Executive Director of SEMAP is a slightly unusual one. He grew up on a small hobby farm in Northwestern New Jersey where he and his family raised a herd of dairy goats. Jay became a licensed dairy goat judge while a senior in high school and started college at the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. Other interests led him to graduate from Cornell's College of Human Ecology and spend a dozen years as an activist and lobbyist on AIDS and adolescent health issues. In 1997, Jay and his partner John moved to the Outer Cape and dove into the restaurant business. For nine seasons they ran CHESTER, one of the Cape's most highly rated restaurants, and were early members of SEMAP's B2B Network. Jay served as the restaurant's executive chef and developed a passion for using local ingredients and supporting local farmers. Jay lives in Truro on the Cape and is thrilled at the opportunity to help lead SEMAP forward in the organization's second decade. He is particularly grateful for the extraordinary foundation laid by Sarah Kelley, SEMAP's Board and supporters.



STRONACH SELECTED TO LEAD LLOYD CENTER EDUCATION

Dartmouth, MA - The Lloyd Center is pleased to announce that, following the unanimous vote of its Education-Director Search Committee, Rachel Stronach, of Fall River (MA), accepted the Center's call to be it next Director of Education. Ms. Stronach was selected following a lengthy process of discernment by the search committee, which reviewed the candidacies of a number of excellent and promising individuals. It was the committee's carefully considered opinion that Ms. Stronach possessed all the abilities and gifts required to lead this critically important part of the Center's work and mission. She will succeed current Education Director Patricia Sheppard, who, following a thirteen-year career as head of the Center's Education Department, will be departing to join her husband, whose career shift, earlier this year, has required a "family-move" to Maryland.

According to the Center's Executive Director, D'Arcy MacMahon, "Rachel Stronach is a gifted teacher who combines depth, presence and story-telling power in her classes. She engages adults and youth with an infectious and intelligent energy and has a well known passion for marine biology and environmental education. We have great confidence that Rachel can build upon the level of excellence the Center has achieved under the outstanding leadership of Tricia Sheppard, who will be sorely missed".

Ms. Stronach, who received her B.S. Degree in Fisheries Conservation and Management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (2001) is in the final stages of completing the thesis for her Masters Degree in Marine Biology from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. She will be leaving her current position as the 7th and 8th Grade Mathematics & Science Teacher at New Bedford's Global Learning Charter School, where she has been responsible for the development and implementation of the mathematics and science curriculum in line with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and the required Special Education forms for both mathematics and science. Her official start-date at the Lloyd Center will be August 10, 2009.