Melissa Chadwick

Web Master/Administrative Assistant

Melissa earned her Bachelors degree in Media Arts and Animation from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. She has extensive experience as an Administrative Assistant and has worked for the USM Muskie School with the Mainely Nutrition Network and Central Maine Power to name a few. She handles the maintenance of the website, graphic design, and provides administrative support to the staff and consultants of MCPH.

Kim Dube

Director of Finance & Administration
Kim earned Bachelor degrees in Accounting and Business Administration from Husson College. She handles all finances, human resources, and IT for MCPH. Her previous experience ranges from managing a satellite office for a manufacturing company to working with employee benefits in the insurance industry. She also holds a license in Life and Health Insurance.

Karen Foster

Interim Chief Executive Officer

Karen Foster has an independent consulting practice serving clients in the arts, social services, healthcare, land management and education.  She focuses on helping nonprofit boards with strategic planning, governance and board development.  She also specializes in executive transitions and has served as interim executive director for Frannie Peabody Center, Maine Civil Liberties Union, Portland Symphony Orchestra and Abbe Museum.  She has served on numerous nonprofit boards and has designed and delivered board development workshops for The Board Network and Institute for Civic Leadership. 

Between 1978 and 2000, Karen held multiple management and senior executive positions at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine where she was responsible, at various times, for strategic and business planning, product development, market research, sales and marketing, benefit plan consulting, and worksite wellness programs. 

She has a bachelor of science degree in Occupational Therapy from the University of New Hampshire.

Melissa Furtado, MPH

Evaluation Specialist
Melissa Furtado is an Evaluation Specialist at MCPH. She earned her BS degree in Biology from the University of Portland in Portland, Oregon, and MPH degree in Global Health and Infectious Disease Epidemiology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. While pursuing her graduate degree, she worked with the WHO Global Salmonella Surveillance Group at CDC Atlanta on evaluation of international training courses on laboratory-based detection and surveillance of enteric pathogens, and with the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust in India on a baseline Integrated Behavioral and Biological Assessment of HIV and other STIs in the MSM population in Mysore district.

Sarah Levin Martin, PhD

Research Associate

Sarah has over 20 years of experience in the Public Health arena, beginning with the Pawtucket Heart Health Project in RI in the late 1980's.  She has a doctoral degree in epidemiology, and specializes in the program evaluation.  Sarah is the lead author of the "Physical Activity Evaluation Handbook" which she wrote in her tenure as a health scientist for the CDC's Physical Activity and Health Branch. Her career spans health promotion and research projects with youth in the Northeast, Native Americans in the Southwest, African Americans in the Southeast, the Catawba Indian Tribe of the Carolinas, and the entire nation in her role with the federal government.  Sarah is the lead author of over 25 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Carry Oostveen-Buterbaugh, MS

Senior Evaluator

Carry Buterbaugh is a Senior Evaluator at MCPH. Currently she is an evaluator for the Maine Asthma Plan. For multiple years Carry worked as a graduate research analyst on public health projects through  the Muskie School of Public Service. She also provided technical assistance to education and outreach efforts conducted through the Gulf of Maine Census of Marine Life - project. Prior to moving to Maine Carry worked on several community based outreach initiatives while working as an Extension Specialist at Clemson University, and Extension Educator at Cornell University. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Business Economics in the The Netherlands, her Master's degree in Applied Economics and Statistics from Clemson University, and is currently finishing up her PhD in Public Policy at the Muskie School at the University of Southern Maine.

RuthAnne Spence, PhD

Lead Evaluator/Research Associate

RuthAnne provides lead evaluation and research expertise to a variety of programs at the MCPH. RuthAnne is working with both state government and community-based programs to improve health and welfare outcomes for the citizens of Maine. Working across multiple systems and disciplines has been the hallmark of RuthAnne’s extensive experience in teaching, social services administration, research, and program development and evaluation. She holds a PhD from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Policy at Syracuse University, and MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and a BS from the University of Maine at Orono. Prior to joining the MCPH this year, RuthAnne spent eight years at the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine developing interdisciplinary case management systems and integrated funding models for youth with disabilities. Before returning home to Maine in 1998, she spent five years at Syracuse University teaching social work and cross-disciplinary women’s studies courses and serving as the interim associate director of Women’s Studies.