Going Green

Peak Dental Health, in Falmouth, has joined the Eco-Dentistry Association and pledged to rethink the way the office practices dentistry by focusing on initiatives that prevent pollution, reduce waste, save water and energy and incorporate wellness-based practices into patient care. Peak Dental Health has installed a device that captures mercury waste and prevents it from entering the local water supply; purchased all-new equipment using 50 percent less energy; reduced waste by using government-approved reusable materials; switched to digital record keeping and electronic patient communication and arranged the purchase of renewable energy credits.

New Hires, Promotions and Appointments

The Portland Museum of Art hired Marney E. McKenney as membership manager. McKenney will develop and implement successful strategies for managing the PMA’s individual membership program and the annual fund. McKenney earned a bachelor’s degree in art history from Dickinson College. Prior to joining the PMA, she was director of membership at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland.

South Portland City Councilor Linda Cohen was named to the Maine Municipal Association Executive Committee. A councilor since last December, Cohen officially joined MMA’s 12-member Executive Committee this month.

George Shaw of Newcastle and Dighton Spooner of Cumberland Foreside were appointed chairman and vice-chairman of the Maine Community Foundation board of directors. Shaw was an attorney at Hemenway & Barnes in Boston from 1968 to 2000, specializing in estate and charitable planning and trust administration. He serves on the board of the Island Institute and was on the Maine board of the Conservation Law Foundation and chairman of the board of the Berkshire Choral Festival. Spooner is associate director of Career Planning at Bowdoin College. He was also project director for “Craft in America,” a multimedia project that included a PBS TV series.  Shaw replaces Eileen Epstein, an attorney with Epstein & O’Donovan in Portland, who will remain on the community foundation’s board of directors.

Bill Becker, vice president and investment solutions specialist at Key Private Bank; Rocky Cianchette, president of Main Line Fence Company; and Taja Dockendorf, president and CEO of Pulp + Wire, in Portland, were elected to the board of trustees for the Susan L. Curtis Charitable Foundation/Camp Susan Curtis. Camp Susan Curtis is a unique outdoor leadership program that teaches economically disadvantaged Maine children, ages 8 to 17, the habits and skills they need to succeed in school and in life.

Portland’s Downtown District hired Rachel Irwin as events and marketing manager. Irwin will lead efforts to market and promote downtown Portland as a premier destination for those visiting, living and working in the area. Irwin has worked for public relations and marketing agencies in Maine and California. She started her career in the press office of former U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, and received her bachelor of arts in journalism from the University of Maine.

Mid Coast Hospital added Miguel R. Arguedas to its medical staff. Arguedas specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of gastrointestinal and liver diseases. He joined Alroy A. Chow and Gary Zartarian and the active medical team of Mid Coast Medical Group specializing in gastroenterology.

Barbara McGuan of Berry Dunn has been named to the Maine Society of Certified Public Accountants Board of Governors. McGuan is a principal and member of Berry Dunn’s tax consulting and compliance group, and the firm’s nonprofit group. Founded in 1924, MECPA is a statewide nonprofit professional organization representing nearly 1,000 CPAs in business, education, government, and public accounting.

The League of Women Voters of Maine elected Barbara McDade to her third term as president during their biennial convention May 31 and June 1 in Portland.

Preti Flaherty attorney David Van Slyke, chairman of the firm’s environmental practice group and co-chairman of the firm’s climate strategy group, was appointed to the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission by Gov. Paul LePage.

Recognition

The Public Television Programmers Association named MPBN television programmer Kelly Luoma as the recipient of the 2013 Charles Impaglia Programmer of the Year Award. The award, announced May 12 in Miami, recognizes the programmer and station that displays the most significant and consistent increases in audience growth, both prime time and whole day. Luoma is MPBN’s main programmer, as well as a programmer of Vermont Public Television and an employee of TRAC Media Services. Under Luoma’s stewardship, MPBN’s whole-week viewership stands 9 percent above where it was pre-digital and the cumulative audience is up 3 percent. Prime time viewership has risen 63 percent since 2008 with a cumulative audience increase of 31 percent.

Meg Baxter, president and CEO of the Mitchell Institute, received the 2013 Hon. Edmund S. Muskie Access to Justice Award May 29. Baxter’s nonprofit career has spanned four decades, with the majority of her work conducted in Maine. The award was presented at the 18th annual Muskie Access to Justice Dinner at the Portland’s Holiday Inn by the Bay. Sponsored by the Muskie Fund for Legal Services, the event raises money for civil legal assistance to elderly and low-income Mainers. Proceeds from the dinner are used to support the work of the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Legal Services for the Elderly, Maine Equal Justice, Pine Tree Legal Assistance and the Volunteer Lawyers Project.

Good Deeds

More than $260,000 was raised by about 3,000 walkers who participated in the Southern Maine Heart Walk on May 19. The walk is the largest event for the American Heart Association in Maine. From a new kick-off location at the AAA parking lot on Marginal Way in Portland, teams of families, friends and co-workers gathered for a heart-healthy breakfast, inspirational speeches, health-related exhibits and children’s activities before hitting the Back Cove walking trail.