Kara McCrimmon

Co-Director and Director of Cobscook Experiential Programs

Kara has been with Cobscook Institute since 2004. On a daily basis she finds herself engaged and stretched as Cobscook Institute’s lead teacher for the Cobscook Experiential Program, and was part of the team that brought the Cobscook Program to life in 2010. Prior to that, Kara worked as Cobscook Institute’s Community Programs Director. A Michigan native, Kara first came to Maine in 2003 as a graduate student in in the Audubon Expedition Institute (now the Expedition Education Institute). Her group met with the folks who were working to create Cobscook Institute, which led to a semester-long internship (during which she taught her first class for Cobscook Institute – Introduction to Irish Whistle). That internship led to work, which has led to a life – home, family and fulfilling work – in Trescott on the shores of Whiting Bay.

In addition to her work with Cobscook Institute, Kara is an active musician and regular performer in Downeast Maine. She holds a BS in geology from Western Michigan University and a MS in Environmental Education from Lesley University. She’s a Registered Maine Guide, an American Canoe Association certified instructor, Wilderness First Responder and has Professional Maine 7-12 Teaching Certifications in Social Studies and Physical Science. Kara enjoys hiking and paddling the trails and waterways of eastern Maine with her family and their dogs, and playing guitar, whistle, accordion, and sometimes bagpipes with her bandmates. Kara is an avid Star Trek aficionado, and likes making maple syrup each spring.

Emily Guirl

Community Programming Steward

Emily started working at Cobscook Institute in 2025. As Cobscook’s Community Programming Steward she works to deliver meaningful programs, projects, and classes to community members. Her relationship with Cobscook programs started in 2010, when she moved Downeast. She met some of her first Maine friends at a Cobscook pizza night! Over the years she has enjoyed many Cobscook events and programs - pottery, yoga, botany, sailing, play group, and history talks.

Emily graduated from Oberlin College. She has worked in environmental education, agriculture, and conservation. Before moving to Cobscook she was Downeast Coastal Conservancy’s outreach director, managing programming, communications, and development.

With her incredible family, Emily tends a small farm in Whiting.

Louise Barteau

Louise Barteau is a field botanist, artist, and educator who has been watching birds since her first hike in Maine forty years ago. In recent years she has been working on botanical inventory and habitat restoration for birds and for butterflies.

Chris Bartlett

Chris Bartlett has served as the Marine Extension Associate for Eastern Maine of University of Maine’s Sea Grant since 1995. He works closely with coastal organizations, researchers, and resource managers on issues pertaining to commercial fishing and finfish aquaculture. Chris coordinates training and workshops, provides technical field assistance, and offers organizational support for groups engaged in commercial fisheries and aquaculture management. His interests also include collaborating with regional school groups to engage students in marine research and monitoring programs.

Colin Brown

Colin Brown is the Executive Director at Downeast Coastal Conservancy. He has a passion for connecting children and adults to the outdoors and has worked as an environmental educator and naturalist in many parts of New England. Colin has a BA in Sociology from the University of Connecticut and in his spare time enjoys hiking, camping, kayaking, birding, gardening, playing music, and spending time with his family.

Susan Cline

Susan Cline has lived on Campobello Island all her life. Since a young child, she has been curious about the natural world around her. Since 2006 Susan has been a summer employee at Herring Cove Provincial Park, enabling her to continue expanding her knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Island. Since 2012 she has particularly focused on identifying birds and learning their songs and behavior.

Pete Colman

Pete Colman is the Natural Areas Supervisor at Roosevelt Campobello International Park, working to maintain grounds of the park and steward principles of sustainability and ecological protection.

Bob Duchesne

Bob Duchesne became interested in birds in the first grade. Interest grew to passion, and today Bob is a chapter board member and frequent field trip leader for Maine Audubon. He spearheaded creation of the Maine Birding Trail, which launched in 2009, and is the author of Maine Birding Trail: The Official Guide to More than 260 Accessible Sites. Currently, Bob writes weekly birding columns in the Bangor Daily News and produces YouTube videos about birding in Maine and beyond.

Woody Gillies

Woody Gillies has had an interest in birds since his mother introduced him to backyard birding at an early age. When he was in junior high, he tagged along with his older brother who was taking a field ornithology course in college. Woody is a retired Professor Emeritus from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY where he taught chemistry for thirty-five years. He was a member of the Hudson-Mohawk Bird Club and of Mass Audubon, and past president of Fundy Audubon, a local chapter of Maine Audubon. Woody has birded in the Canadian Maritimes, Central America, Australia, and Europe. As a Downeast regional coordinator for the 2018-2022 Maine Bird Atlas and Winter Bird Survey, he has spent many hours birding lesser-known areas of Washington County. Woody has been interested in nature photography most of his adult life and has photographed birds wherever his travels take him.   

Doug Hitchcox

Doug Hitchcox, a Maine native, grew up in Hollis and graduated from the University of Maine in 2011. Throughout college Doug worked at Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center, and he was hired as Maine Audubon’s staff naturalist in the summer of 2013. He was also the Outreach Coordinator for the 2018-2022 Maine Bird Atlas. In his free time, Doug volunteers as one of Maine’s eBird reviewers, and he’s the moderator of Maine’s birding listserv and rare bird GroupMe. He also serves as a York County Audubon board member and is a voting member of the Maine Bird Records Committee.

Cathy Lookabaugh

Cathy Lookabaugh joined the Downeast Coastal Conservancy team in February 2020 as the Membership and Outreach Director. Originally from New Jersey, she first moved to the state to attend the University of Maine in Orono, where she graduated with a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and a B.A. in Mathematics. Her passion for outdoor recreation and her love for sharing nature with others led her to become a Registered Maine Recreation Guide and gain a certification as a Maine Master Naturalist. Cathy lives in Lubec with her husband Ian; you might run into them hiking on local trails or out kayaking in Cobscook Bay.

Spencer McCormick

Spencer found his passion for boating in 2016 while earning his Adventure Recreation and Tourism degree at Washington County Community College in Calais, ME. He can be found sea kayaking and sailing around Cobscook Bay or at the Calais Skatepark teaching skateboarding lessons. He is the Cobscook Shores Outdoor Education Program Coordinator where 12 Cobscook Bay area schools explore local parks via hiking, biking, paddling, x-country skiing and snowshoeing.

Spencer holds a Maine Guide license in Recreation and Sea Kayaking, ACA Level 2 Tandem River Canoe Instructor, ACA Level 3 Coastal Kayak Instructor, Leave No Trace Outdoor Trainer, Wilderness First Responder, and is a Certified Athletic Trainer.

Spencer finds great joy in empowering individuals to overcome personal challenges in unfamiliar environments.

Maurry Mills

Maurry Mills is a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and has been stationed at the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge since 1985. He is one of the original founders of the Downeast Birding Festival and has served on every planning committee since the festival’s beginning. During his 49-year career with the National Wildlife Refuge system, he also has worked at the Rachel Carson Refuge in southern Maine and the Great Swamp Refuge in New Jersey. He is the state coordinator for the annual American Woodcock Singing Ground Survey and the Breeding Bird Survey. One of his specialties is geospatial technology: He is responsible for maintaining databases and  generating maps and reports for the Northern Maine Refuge Complex using GIS and GPS applications.

Maurry has been watching birds and other wildlife since the early 1970s. Although his primary interest is in migratory birds, he has also worked with mammals, herps, and vernal pools, and managed forest, wetlands, and grassland habitats for a wide variety of wildlife species.  He has also conducted numerous environmental education, interpretation, and outreach programs. He was the handler and caregiver for Bart, a permanently injured Bald Eagle, for 15 years. During that time he visited all the grammar schools in Washington County and other events throughout the state of Maine, presenting programs on the history and life cycle of the Bald Eagle.

One of his current assignments is finalizing Moosehorn’s Habitat Management Plan, which will guide the Refuge’s course of management over the next 15 years. He is also a licensed amateur radio operator with a station capable of providing emergency communications worldwide during events when standard radio and telephone systems are inoperable. During the first few years of his life, he lived on a family farm on land that is now part of the Great Swamp NWR’s Wilderness Area. He currently resides with his wife Beth, and their French Brittany Sadie, in Dennysville along the Dennys River.

Sallie Satterthwaite

Sallie Satterthwaite is a bird-watcher and -listener from Concord MA and Harborside ME who loves the Cobscook area and the opportunity to help other people enjoy it.  Sallie serves on the Festival planning committee.

Bridget VerVaet

Bridget VerVaet is an environmental educator working at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. She primarily works with school and youth groups, along with teaching the occasionally adult education program or leading member bird walks. Originally from South Bend, Indiana, she has lived in Maine year-round since 2019 and has grown to absolutely treasure spring migration in Maine (but she loves a bird that you can find any time of year as well!).

Before moving to Maine, she studied biology at Indiana University Bloomington where she took an ornithology class that put a verb to what she already liked to do: birding. Up until then, it was all just bird watching sans binoculars – which was good too! In her free time, Bridget loves to be outdoors soaking up nature, crafting (especially crochet and other textile arts), cooking, dancing, or reading.