Read & Relax #273

Kat Frati is the owner of Grown Up Girl, a blog dedicated to inspiring women of all ages to create sustainable happiness in their lives. The site offers life advice through practical tips and inspiring stories by focusing on the themes of health, wealth, love, gratitude, and bliss. The remarried mom of four kids, plus two stepchildren, is a cancer and open-heart surgery survivor, entrepreneur, musician, athlete, cribbage player, and often blissed out. A former computer engineer who designed air traffic control simulations for the Federal Aviation Administration, Frati founded grownUPgirl.com in 2013. She’s currently working on a new initiative of building an online resource of life skills lessons for young adults.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/kat-frati/

For many years, Brian Andreas, the creator of StoryPeople, has been writing and creating stories in many different ways, through many different mediums. He's been a playwright, worked with marble, mixed media, recycled barn wood, and has created tin sculptures and pen and ink and gouache watercolor prints. Fia Skye’s professional career as an actress and text/voice professor has allowed her to deeply dive into the intense study of human behavior, body, voice and believability in performance through theatre.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/brian-andreas-fia-skye/

Christina "Christy" Gardner is a 35-year-old retired Army veteran. She grew up in Auburn, but spent a lot of her childhood in New York City. She played sports growing up and loved to be outside, but was also rather artistic. After high school, she attended Long Island University in NY and earned a degree in photography, but had signed up to leave with the Army as soon as she graduated. She served as a military police officer and was injured overseas in 2006. She spent a year and a half rehabbing on active duty and three and a half years rehabbing at the VA Hospital. Due to her brain injury, she started back over at the third grade level to re-learn English, grammar, and math. After being discharged from the rehab programs, she was able to live on her own again and started participating in adaptive sports. She is now co-captain of the U.S. Women's Para Ice Hockey team.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/christy-gardner/

Owen J. Logue, Ed.D., is an accomplished leader with over 30 years of professional experience in the field of education. Dr. Logue currently serves as the executive director of the Maine Educational Center for The Deaf and Hard of Hearing. He has held faculty appointments at the University of Maine, Smith College, and Providence College. He was also an associate dean of academic services at the University of Maine at Orono for 11 years. He received a Doctorate of Education from Vanderbilt University (focus: Higher Education Administration); a Masters in Education from the University of Maine (focus: Secondary Social Studies and Special Education); and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Southern Maine (major: Social Welfare). A former cross-country and track and field coach, Dr. Logue also participated as a deaf Olympian representing the United States in track and field in west Germany and Los Angeles.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/dr-owen-logue/

Ari Solotoff is a business and entertainment lawyer with the Portland firm of Bernstein Shur. As a lawyer he focuses his practice on nonprofit law and copyright law, with an emphasis on music copyright and licensing matters. Solotoff represents a variety of musicians, ensembles, music publishers, and other creatives, as well as a diverse range of nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations. Solotoff earned his law degree from the University of Maine School of Law in 2015 and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Before becoming an attorney, he served for over a decade in leadership positions within the classical music industry, including as executive director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra in Florida, and as executive vice president of The Philadelphia Orchestra. A native of New York and California, Solotoff lives with his family in Portland’s Back Cove.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/ari-solotoff/

Matt Chappell owns and operates Gather restaurant, a neighborhood eatery in the heart of Yarmouth’s village. As a proud native Mainer, Chappell has intentionally pursued ways to make Maine the focus of his restaurant. Whether it’s the food he procures from area farms, the musicians he books, the art he displays, or the vendors he chooses – all of it is meant to celebrate the bounty of the state. He credits his mother for his love and curiosity of food, and his father for modeling a community-centered business approach. He and his partner Wendy are currently blending families and building a new house in Yarmouth.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/matt-chappell/

Dr. Dan Landry trained and worked within the Harvard system in Boston as a pediatric anesthesiologist prior to joining Spectrum Healthcare Partners in 1994. Since arriving in Maine, Dr. Landry concentrated his practice on the care of both children and adults with cardiac disease. In addition to his clinical duties, he became active in practice administration and health policy. Over the past 15 years, he managed the largest division within Spectrum and served as president and chairman of the board. In addition to his role within Spectrum, he sits on numerous healthcare-related boards and advocates for healthcare reform, and he is a policy advisor during the governor’s transition into office. On January 1, he gave up his administrative positions within Spectrum Healthcare Partners to focus on his clinical practice and advocate for healthcare reform within Maine and throughout the United States.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/dr-dan-landry/

Emily Sharood is the sales and marketing director at Mousam Valley Mushrooms, a certified organic mushroom farm she started with her father and brother in 2012. The farm, located in Springvale, sells oyster and shiitake mushrooms throughout New England. Johnny Dickinson is the head molder operator at Longleaf Lumber in Berwick and also runs his own woodworking business, Winter Hill Design, located in Kennebunkport. He has a BFA from Maine College of Art in woodworking and furniture design. He designed and built the wooden structures that hold the mushroom blocks at Mousam Valley Mushrooms, and works on the farm on the weekends.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/emily-sharood-and-johnny-dickinson/

As a young child, Kim Swan was immersed in the family real estate and insurance business and as a freshman in college was encouraged by her father to get her real estate license. She joined the family company in 1981, selling homes through college summers before purchasing the company in 1994. Today, she is the sole stockholder of Trumpeter Inc., d/b/a The Swan Agency Sotheby's International Realty. Swan focuses on business development and selective brokerage of luxury and commercial properties. She has also produced Living Acadia TV for the last three seasons and is the founder and creative director of the Mount Desert Island Designer Showhouse. She was the executive producer of the 2017 film “The Fire of ’47” for the Bar Harbor Historical Society and is currently working on the next documentary in the series, “Consolidation,” exploring the 50th Anniversary of Mount Desert Island High School. Swan is on the board of the Bar Harbor Historical Society and previously served ten years as a Bar Harbor town councilor. In 2017, she was awarded the Cadillac Award by the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce. Swan has many business interests throughout Maine, focusing on lodging and real estate investment as well as her strong interest in art, interior design and music publishing.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/kim-swan/

Emily Wedick and her friend Louise are advertising account managers at Maine Media Collective. They each have young children who are transgender.

https://www.themainemag.com/radio/radio-guests/emily-wedick-and-louise/