StaffRobin Alden, Executive Director
Bobbi Billings, Administrative Director
Aaron Dority, Project Director, Downeast Initiative
Aaron Dority is the Downeast Groundfish Initiative Project Director. Aaron received a Bachelor’s in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut in Storrs and holds a Master of Public Administration and Certificate of Nonprofit Management from the University of Oregon, where he studied community-based forest and watershed management. He works with fishermen and federal fisheries managers to advocate for rebuilding groundfish stocks and restoring the groundfish industry in eastern Maine through area management. In 2009 Aaron was instrumental in creating the Penobscot East fisheries permit bank, to preserve future access to the fishery for community fishermen. He organized and now manages the Northeast Coastal Communities Sector, a federally-approved organization of fishermen who are responsible for managing the catch shares, or quota of fish, to which they have rights Aaron also organizes Penobscot East’s Community Supported Fisheries (CSF) activities marketing local shrimp and groundfish. He lives in Blue Hill with his wife Jessica and son Leif.
Holly Eaton, Administrative Assistant
Holly Eaton is the administrative assistant at Penobscot East Resource Center. Holly was born and raised in Deer Isle, and returned to the area a few years ago to be closer to her family. Holly graduated from Regis College in Weston, MA where she obtained her BA in English Literature and minored in Women's and Irish Studies. While at Regis Holly had the opportunity to study abroad in Ireland her second semester junior year. After college Holly returned to Deer Isle where she worked as her cousin's sternman for 3 seasons before moving to Portland, where she worked for Martin's Point Health Care in a number of administrative capacities. Holly is actively involved in a number of community groups and initiatives here on the island, and is very happy to work for a company that continually strives to help create a sustainable future for her fishing family as well as all the others in her community. Holly recently went to Belize with founding board member Ted Hoskins, to assist him in his work with their fishing villages in helping them to organize and create a representative body. Holly currently lives in Deer Isle near her family, with her german shepherd and two cats.
Carla Guenther, Community Coordinator
Carla Guenther is the Penobscot East Resource Center’s Community Coordinator who manages our fishermen’s leadership program. After studying lobster behavior at Woods Hole, MA she decided to test the waters of Baja California, Mexico where she learned about a special form of community-based co-management. Inspired by fishermen’s level of organization and management structure, Carla pursued doctoral studies in Marine Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Educated in oceanography, ecology, and anthropology, Carla approaches fisheries management with a focus on fishing communities. She engaged Santa Barbara’s commercial lobster fleet while conducting interviews for her doctoral research on Marine Protected Area impacts on socio-economics, reef ecology, and fishing behavior. These interviews became the basis of her communication with the rest of California’s commercial lobster fleet and fostered the fishery’s application for Marine Stewardship Council Certification, proposed legislation for self-funding lobster management science, and voluntary fishery-collection of biological data for use in the first stock assessment of California spiny lobster populations. Carla brings invaluable knowledge and skills developed in California’s science and policy arena to our mission to secure a future for the fishing communities of eastern Maine.
Debra Gross-Larrabee, Accounting & Financial Coordinator
Veronica Young, Associate Director
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Robin Alden is Executive Director, Penobscot East Resource Center. Alden was Maine Commissioner of Marine Resources from 1995 to 1997, responsible for Maine‘s marine and anadromous fishery management and enforcement and for aquaculture in the state. For twenty years she was publisher and editor of Commercial Fisheries News, a regional fishing trade newspaper that she founded in 1973 and later became publisher and editor of the company's new publication, Fish Farming News. She was instrumental in starting the annual Maine Fishermen's Forum in the mid-1970s and received the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment Visionary Award in 1997 and the Maine Initiatives Social Landscape Artist Award with her husband, Ted Ames in 2007. She was a public member of the New England Fishery Management Council 1979-1982 and a member again during her tenure as Commissioner. She was a member of the National Sea Grant Review Panel from 2000-2009. Alden has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Maine. Robin lives in Stonington with her husband and daughter, Ted and Annie Ames.
Bobbi Billings is the Administrative Director at Penobscot East Resource Center. Bobbi has lived and worked within her hometown community her whole life. She comes from many generations of fishermen and has strong ties to the fishing community as a whole. Bobbi graduated from the local high school then received an Associate Degree in Accounting from Husson College. For many years she has served on numerous profit and non-profit boards in leadership positions. Bobbi is a very strong civic leader and is frequently sought out for her tremendous organizational skills and attention to detail with numerous community projects, benefits and programs. She was inducted into the National Association of Professional Women in 2008 and is a current member. 
Debra Gross-Larrabee is an experienced bookkeeper in municipal, governmental, private and non-profit businesses. She is a graduate of the New England School of Whole Health Education in Boston, MA and is certified as a Whole Health Educator ®. She is currently attending the University of Maine as a part time student and dabbles in oil painting and monumental design. Debra is a licensed pilot with instrument rating and is currently secretary of the Stonington Municipal Airport and serving as the treasurer to the Stonington Fisheries Alliance. Her family’s heritage in the fishing industry is shared by both Debra’s past and present. She lives in Stonington with her spouse, four grown children and grandchildren. 
Veronica Young is Penobscot East Resource Center’s Associate Director. Born in England, raised in UK and Australia, educated at University of Melbourne and globe-trotting ever since, Veronica ended up in Maine after many years in Washington DC, Boston, Sag Harbor and New York. She brings to her work in management, communications and development, a media background which includes corporate consulting and long-form documentary film making as a producer/director/writer for BBC, PBS and many cable TV networks. For many years Veronica managed TV production groups out of New York City. Her more formal education includes a BA and MS (Social Work) and post-graduate training in analytic therapy. Prior to her position at Penobscot East, she was Communications and Development Director at MERI in Blue Hill.|
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