8:30am – 3:30pm

Keynote address by Robin Hacke followed by discussions, panels, and facilitated small group sessions.

About the Keynote Speaker:

Robin Hacke is Executive Director and cofounder of the Center for Community Investment. Since entering the field of community investment in 2007, Robin has raised and managed impact investment funds as Director of Capital Innovation at Living Cities; served as a Senior Fellow at the Kresge Foundation and advised foundations and hospitals on how they can use investment to help overcome systemic racism and achieve greater equity and opportunity in their communities. Robin brings three decades of investment and strategy experience to community investment, having previously served as a venture capitalist, strategy consultant, and public finance banker. She is a frequent speaker and writer on how to deepen the scale and impact of community investment and has served as a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and a member of the Steering Committee for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Working Cities Challenge.

Overview of Agenda:

8:30 am  Continental Breakfast and Welcome: Barbara Crowley, MD, Leader, Peter Alfond Endowment at MaineGeneral Health and member of Maine Alliance for Health and Prosperity

9 am      The imperative for cross-sector collaboration in Maine: Hannah Pingree, Director, Governor’s Office on Policy, Innovation, and the Future

9:10 am  Keynote Presentation, Q&A: Robin Hacke, Executive Director and co-founder, Center for Community Investment (learn more at Center for Community Investment)

10 am   Introduction to Panel Discussions and Breakout Sessions: Yellow Light Breen, President, Maine Development Foundation

10:10 am Panel #1: Mobilizing and Capacity-building Across Sectors

• “Aligning Existing Resources to BIPOC Youth Needs” (Hawa Eve Ali, Project Coordinator, Working Communities Challenge – Lewiston)
• “Thrive 2027: Cumberland and York Counties” (Dan Coyne, Senior VP, Community Impact and Governance, United Way of Southern Maine)
• “Engaging Impacted Communities” (Robyn Merrill, Esq., Executive Director, Maine Equal Justice)
• “Building Partnerships to Harness Our New Longevity” (Jess Maurer, Esq., Executive Director of Maine Council on Aging)
• Moderator: Barbara Leonard, MPH, President, Maine Health Access Foundation

11:10 am Breakout session #1 (three groups): discussion, actions, potential priorities

12:10 Lunch and remarks: “Addressing Health Equity and Inclusion in Maine” (Speaker of the House Rachel Talbot Ross, invited)

12:50 pm Panel #2: Creating and Implementing Cross Sector investment Strategies

• “Community Investment Strategies for Family Economic Mobility Downeast” (Charley Martin- Berry, Director, Community Caring Collaborative)
• “Building and Sustaining Resources for Place-based Cross-sector Collaboration” (Maine West (Amy Scott, Program Manager, Northern Forest Center and Coordinator, Maine West)
• “Developing Talent Pipelines for Maine’s Innovation Economy” (Leo Waterston, Program Director, FocusMaine)
• “Penobscot Housing Fund” (Laura Mitchell, Executive Director, Maine Affordable Housing Coalition)
• “FOR/Maine Workforce Initiative” (Erica Watson, Senior Program Director Education & Workforce, Maine Development Foundation)
  • Moderator: Keith Bisson, President, Coastal Enterprises, Inc.

1:55 pm Breakout Session #2

2:55 pm Gallery Walk

3:10 pm Networking Wrap Up

3:30 pm Adjourn