June 25, 2018 – Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), which helps to grow good jobs, environmentally sustainable enterprises, and shared prosperity in Maine and rural regions across the country, announced that Catherine Godschalk, Beth Mattingly, Justin Maxson, and Stewart Smith have been named to its board of directors. In addition, Christa Velasquez has been elected to serve as chair, and Susan Hammond has been elected to serve as vice chair of the board of directors. Erin Cooperrider, who has served as Chair for the past year, is stepping down from the Board. Erin joined CEI’s board in 2010.

Catherine Godschalk manages Bethesda, MD-based Calvert Impact Capital’s investments team and the more than $375 million global portfolio of impact investments aimed at building, scaling, and strengthening intermediaries and structured funds tackling social and/or environmental challenges. She has spent 25 years working at the intersection of private capital and social impact, with program and product development, policy, and financing roles across a variety of institutions, including S. H. Cowell Foundation, the White House Office of Management and Budget, Fannie Mae Corporation, and Self-Help Ventures Fund. She serves on the loan committees for ROC USA Capital and Appalachian Community Capital, and she is a member of the Conservation Finance Network’s Advisory Board.  She has a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and received her BA from Columbia University.

Susan Hammond is a Penobscot Nation tribal member, and the long-standing executive director of Four Directions Development Corporation (FDDC), a Native-governed Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in Orono, ME, serving the four tribes of Maine. As one of the founders, Susan has been involved with FDDC since the earliest planning stages which began in the fall of 2000. Susan graduated from the University of Maine at Orono with a BS in Business Administration. Prior to Four Directions, she worked for the Penobscot tribe for ten years in various positions including the financial manager for the Health Department and the director of the Tribal Housing Authority. She served on the Penobscot Nation Tribal Council from 1996 to 2004. In 2003, Susan was awarded the Maine SBA Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year Award. She is the first-ever recipient of the Visionary Leader Award from the Opportunity Finance Network/Oweesta Corporation in 2006 and in 2010 received the Circle of Honor Award from the Opportunity Finance Network/Oweesta Corporation. Susan joined the CEI board in 2015.

Beth Mattingly is director of research on vulnerable families at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. She manages all of Carsey’s policy work relating to family well-being. Her work at Carsey examines child poverty and how different family policies affect rural, suburban, and urban families and how growing up in poverty influences life outcomes. Beth has published in several academic journals, including Social Forces and Journal of Marriage and Family, and in edited volumes. Her work has been featured in Time magazine, Real Simple magazine, USA Today, and other media outlets. In addition, she has appeared on National Public Radio, New Hampshire Public Radio, and other media outlets to discuss her research. Beth completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Family Research Lab at the University of New Hampshire and received her master’s and doctorate degrees in sociology from the University of Maryland. She has an undergraduate degree in geography from Dartmouth College.

Justin Maxson manages the overall operations of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation (MRBF) in Winston-Salem, NC and leads staff in developing strategy and initiatives to accomplish its mission and makes recommendations to the board of directors. Before joining MRBF, Justin served for 13 years as President of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED), a multi-strategy community economic development organization based in Berea, Kentucky. Justin has been a year-long fellow at the Sustainability Institute and the Rockwood Leadership Institute. He served at the Kentucky Governor’s request on the Kentucky Climate Action Planning Committee and the planning committee for Shaping Our Appalachian Region, a regional development planning process. He has a master’s degree from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky, both in anthropology.

Stewart Smith is Professor Emeritus of Sustainable Agriculture Policy at the University of Maine, where his teaching and research focused on sustainable agriculture and sustainable development. In addition to teaching, his career has ranged from farming to government work to owning his own business. Stewart worked in the Carter administration as Associate Administrator of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service at USDA (now the Farm Service Agency). He later returned to Maine as Commissioner of Agriculture in 1979 in the Brennan administration, where he developed the foundation for an alternative farming system which is now recognized as local agriculture. In addition to his own work, he has served on numerous boards including the Maine Sustainable Agricultural Society, Maine Agricultural Loan Fund Advisory Committee, Farms for the Future Advisory Council, the Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, The Land Institute’s Sunshine Farm Advisory Committee, and Wolfes Neck Farm Foundation Board. In 2006, he and his wife, Sarah Redfield, started Lakeside Family Farm in Newport, producing and distributing mixed vegetables to wholesale markets in Maine. Stewart has a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Connecticut, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University.

Christa Velasquez is a recognized leader in the impact investing field. Currently an independent consultant in Chicago, she advises foundations on impact investing strategies and program design, product development and transactions. In addition to her independent work, Christa is a senior advisor at The Giving Practice, the consulting arm of Philanthropy Northwest. She also lectures at the University of Chicago on the business of nonprofits and the evolving social sector. Christa was director of social investments for nine years at the Annie E. Casey Foundation where she created and managed its $125 million social investment fund. She was also a senior fellow at the Initiative for Responsible Investment at the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University. Christa holds a BA in Latin American Studies from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. Christa joined CEI’s board in 2013.