Dexter resident Deering appointed by Gov. Mills to Volunteer Maine

AUGUSTA — Gov. Janet Mills has appointed four new commissioners to Volunteer Maine, the state service commission, including Dexter resident Mathison Deering. Additionally, Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin has named Jessica Nixon as her designee to the Volunteer Maine commission. Mills has also reappointed Jennifer Tilton-Flood of Clinton to serve an additional 3-year term.

A student at Thomas College in Waterville, Deering joins the Volunteer Maine commission to represent an individual age 16 to 25 who is a participant in a service program for youth.

Deering was appointed along with Julia Fiori of Portland, a student at the Waynflete School in Portland who has also been appointed to represent an individual age 16 to 25 who is a participant in a service program for youth;

Observer file photo/Stuart Hedstrom
VOLUNTEER MAINE APPOINTMENT — Dexter resident Mathison Deering, left pictured in 2018 when he was a Dexter Regional High School student speaking to the town council in 2018 along with fellow Key Club members Aino Rudloff-Eastman and Shannon O’Roak, has been appointed as a commissioner to Volunteer Maine by Gov. Janet Mills. A student at Thomas College in Waterville, Deering joins the Volunteer Maine commission to represent an individual age 16-25 who is a participant in a service program for youth.

Matthew L’Italien of Sidney, a project director at Somerset Public Health in Skowhegan who has been appointed to the Volunteer Maine commission as a representative of a community-based agency or organization;

Jessica Nixon of Augusta, who currently serves as chief of staff at the Maine Department of Education who has been selected as the designee for the commissioner of education — the seat reserved for the Commissioner of Education or the commissioner’s designee is an ex-officio member of the Volunteer Maine commission; and

Lisa Phelps of Brunswick, a program administrator at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, joins the Volunteer Maine commission as an expert in the delivery of educational services to communities and people.

After joining the Volunteer Maine commission in 2016, Tilton Flood has been reappointed to serve for a second 3-year term. Tilton Flood is the chair of Volunteer Maine’s Communications Task Force and serves as a representative of the business community. Tilton Flood is a dairy farmer and the spokesperson for Cabot Creamery Cooperative.

Commissioner terms of service are three years with an option for reappointment. The commissioners are a diverse, bipartisan group of citizens, actively engaged in community service, and represent every region of the state. They elect officers from their membership and the officers serve 2-year terms.

The seats on the board are designated in statute such that each person represents at least one facet of the community volunteer service sector.

Volunteer Maine, the state service commission, builds capacity and sustainability in Maine’s volunteer sector by funding service programs, developing volunteer managers and service-learning practitioners, raising awareness of the scope and the impact of the volunteer sector and encouraging an ethic of service. As of Oct. 16, the Maine Commission for Community Service has adopted the identity Volunteer Maine.