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Eastern Trail Alliance Trustees

BOB BOWKER, INTERIM PRESIDENT

Bob is an avid cyclist and president of Bowker & Associates, an environmental engineering firm located in Portland. He has been commuting by bicycle from Scarborough to Portland for over 25 years. Bob founded the Maine Lighthouse Ride in 2003, a fundraising cycling event for the Eastern Trail Alliance that has grown to become the largest single-day ride in Maine with 1,200 riders. He also helped develop Commute Another Way Day, an event designed to promote alternative transportation in Maine communities. Bob is a Licensed Cycling Instructor who enjoys cycling, kayaking, and hiking.

JESSICA RICE, VICE PRESIDENT

As a resident of Gorham, Jessica is the Member Engagement Manager at Town & Country Federal Credit Union. She enjoys riding her bike and taking lunch break walks on the Eastern Trail. Off trail, she enjoys hiking, rock climbing, backpacking and all outdoor adventures. Jessica believes the Eastern Trail helps connect communities and allows nature to be accessible to everyone!

RALPH HILTZ, TREASURER

Ralph is a retired accountant with a Bachelors Degree in Accounting from Husson College. He currently works part time as a Job coach at L.L. Bean. He lives in Saco with his wife Terry and Sheltie Lucy. They have three adult children, two boys and one girl. Two are school teachers teaching special needs children and other child operates his own company doing web page design. In addition to being an accountant Ralph spent 11 years coaching sons Little League teams, and three years as President of Biddeford Youth Hockey. When youngest son decided at age 11 to be a youth hockey referee he became one also and did that for about 10 years. Now in his semi-retirement he enjoys all sports as well as traveling with his wife.

TIM LAMBERT, SECRETARY

Tim started to get involved with the Eastern Trail Alliance in 2008. He has a vested interest in seeing the project completed: he wants to ride the entire 2,900 mile East Coast Greenway once completed, so he felt that getting involved in his home state just made sense. Tim works full time as a system engineer in South Portland. Originally from Biddeford, Tim recently purchased a house adjacent to the trail in Scarborough. Tim and his wife have one son and two dogs. The Lambert family favorite pastimes include walking, biking, camping and hiking.

JOHN ANDREWS, FOUNDER OF THE EASTERN TRAIL

The Founder of the Eastern Trail and an ETA President Emeritus, John was an inspiring man of vision and untiring spirit. John’s vision to create the Eastern Trail started in the early 1990’s. He was persistent, but patient, and made tremendous progress in a relatively short amount of time.

Sadly, John passed away on February 20, 2017.

Read more information about John, including some of the many public tributes to him on this page.

JIM BUCAR, TRUSTEE

Jim’s earliest biking was on country roads in Ohio, and he began obsessing about photography first in high school, combining both of those pastimes while teaching English at a private day school in New Haven. He’s convinced that photography is a serious art form, and he was equally convinced that putting your life on two wheels— rather than four— was such a compelling idea that he joined a group of faculty who commuted to campus on their bikes. Was it only coincidental, then, that retirement to Maine allowed even closer bonding of those two activities via volunteering for the ETA?

BILL DEHAIS, TRUSTEE

Bill first was exposed to trail riding in 1978 on the Warren County Bikeway (NY) riding from Glens Falls to Lake George frequently and was a early believer in the rail to trail conversion process. In addition to bicycling bill enjoys most anything outdoors including motorcycling, kayaking, hiking and fishing. He is also a collector of breweriana, mostly Schlitz memorabilia. Professionally he is a career banker and currently is the Senior Sales Officer for Kennebunk Savings Bank. He also serves as finance chair and volunteer on the Board of the Cumberland Woodbank. Bill resides in Cumberland with his wife. They have two grown children.

DEBORAH ERICKSON-IRONS, TRUSTEE

Deborah is a healthcare management and public health professional from York, Maine. As a writer and singer she is passionate about the connection between nature, health, and creativity.  Deb is a strong advocate for bringing the off-road Eastern Trail south of Kennebunk. She enjoys cycling and walking on the ET and the many conserved lands in Southern Maine, and can’t wait until her grandbabies are old enough to join her for outside adventures!

BRYAN GALLANT, TRUSTEE

Bryan is honored to join the Eastern Trail Alliance as a trustee. He is an avid triathlete and outdoor enthusiast. Originally from New Hampshire, Bryan moved to Maine nearly 10 years ago and spends as much time as he can in the White Mountains skiing, hiking and biking. His career has been in the ski and bike industry as a freestyle ski coach and an employee at Rodgers in Scarborough, Maine. Bryan competes in local triathlons as well as Ironman races around the country. You can find Bryan running on the Eastern Trail, swimming along the coast or on his bike in southern Maine.

GLORIA LEGERE, TRUSTEE

Gloria Legere, RN, MS, JD, CPHQ is a hospital accreditation and patient safety consultant. Her focus is assisting hospital in developing practical, long-term strategies for continuous readiness for accreditation compliance. She lives on a lake in Lyman. Gloria is an avid biker (on trail and road), hiker, skier and photographer and the Eastern Trail provides an excellent resource for all of those. Last summer, biking from Kennebunk to Bug Light (and back) in a day, allowed the opportunity to vividly understand the need to “Close the Gap” and to extend the trail to southern regions as well.

TOM McCOLLUM, TRUSTEE

Tom is a South Berwick resident since 1980 with his wife, Jannette. Tom worked at Civil Consultants, a Survey and Engineering company since 1978 and is a licensed Professional Land Surveyor. Retired, Tom is an active cyclist, has ridden the Pan-Mass Challenge for 15 years and is an active volunteer for South Berwick events.
Tom is currently the Town of South Berwick representative to the ETMD.
We welcome Tom to the ETA board.

JIM MUNROE, TRUSTEE

Jim has been member of the Eastern Trail for 7-8 yrs. Currently a Trustee, Jim is part of our outreach team participating in various corporate presentations and events. He is busy keeping many of our Kiosk information boxes full, and helping with our Maine Lighthouse Ride. He’s retired and enjoys volunteer work; Big Brothers, ETA, Mercy Hospital, working with patients who are in Detox for Drug & Alcohol abuse. Jim mentored a young man for Sweetsers Home and is still looking for other areas where he can help. Jim has resided in OOB for 20 years.

JOE YUHAS, TRUSTEE

Joe leads the monthly full moon walks on the Eastern Trail and has been doing so for 4 years now. A biker both on and off the trail, he can also be seen snowshoeing and x-c skiing during the snow season. He has a background as a naturalist and is very interested in environmental issues and teaches courses on Climate Change and Natural History at York County Senior College. A retired teacher/professor, when not on a bike, he volunteers as a train host on the Downeaster, works with youngsters at Community Bike Center and enjoys singing with his church choir and with Harbour Singers.

Eastern Trail Alliance Staff

NANCY BORG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Nancy joined the Eastern Trail as a volunteer in 2013, became a part time employee in 2015 and in 2019 became the Eastern Trail’s Executive Director. You will find Nancy at most Eastern Trail events enthusiastically sharing the vision of the trail. When she’s not at an event, she enjoys singing, loves to travel, listening to opera, reading non-fiction and spending time with her husband, Charles and their dog, AJ.

CAROLE BRUSH, ETA TRAIL DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ETMD

Carole is Executive Director of the Eastern Trail Management District (ETMD) and Trail Development Director of Eastern Trail Alliance (ETA). For the past decade, she was Executive Director of the ETMD and ETA, leading both organizations through a period of growth and progress, including doubling off-road mileage and developing an amazing staff. Carole is excited to now focus on ET funding and expansion through campaigns such as: “Blazing the Trail South” from Kennebunk through the Berwicks, and “Over the River” to connect the off-road trail sections in Biddeford and Saco. She is a Registered Maine Guide who shares her passion for wild, natural places through hikes and retreats, teaches Yoga, Pilates, and mindfulness, and enjoys sunset and moonrise with fellow trail-goers during monthly full moon walks at Scarborough Marsh ET.

JEN STEELE SKILLINGS, EVENT COORDINATOR

A Scarborough native and resident, Jen became a stay-at-home-mom after the birth of her son in 2013. As the Event Coordinator for the ETA, she is responsible for planning the trail’s annual fundraising events including Taste of the Town, John Andrews Memorial 5k, Mend the Gap 10k, and the Annual Meeting. Jen enjoys biking, running, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing on the Eastern Trail with her husband James and son Andrew.

HOLLON OLIVER, OFFICE MANAGER

Hollon is a Pacific Northwest native, married a Mainiac, and after living all over the world has settled in Wells for retirement. She joined the Eastern Trail as the Office Manager in March of 2019. Hollon enjoys spending time with her family and friends, cooking and baking, traveling, listening to great live music, playing with her dogs (Sprocket and Claire), and doing DIY projects.

LARRY GLANTZ, WEBSITE MANAGER

Larry got involved with the Eastern Trail after reading John’s Feb. 1998 article in the Press Herald. In those early years he served as a founding Trustee and Vice President of the ETA. He created ETA’s first web site in 1999 to showcase the Eastern Trail vision to the region, state and beyond. The web site won American Trails’ best local trail website award in 2003. Leaving the ETA board (designated as one of the first Trustees Emeritus!), he continued as a volunteer but returned as a part-time staff member in 2011 to manage the ever-growing ETA website. Larry lives in Cape Elizabeth and works for L.L.Bean.