The Network’s Structure

The Maine Early Childhood Outdoors (MeECO) Network is organized into the following categories:

  • Overstory: MaineAEYC & Network Coordinator

  • Trees: Network Working Groups (Tasks Forces, Committees, etc.)

    • Seeds: Chairs of Tree groups who facilitate and lead

  • Understory: The children in our communities

  • Mycelium: Steering Committee

MeECO Staff

 
 

Anne Adams, Network coordinator

Anne is an early childhood professional specializing in play and experiential based education across all settings serving birth through age 8. She started her career as a preschool teacher and still cherishes any opportunity to work directly with children. After receiving her graduate degree from Wheelock College, she spent ten years transforming the Bowdoin College Children’s Center to a highly regarded play based, outdoor childcare center. During her time there she played an integral role in making MaineAEYC a sustainable and fully functional organization supporting EC educators across Maine. She has weaved together these diverse experiences and uses them as inspiration for her continued work in the field. Her next endeavor is to lead the Maine Early Childhood Outdoors (MaineECO) Network where she will unite the many people and organizations already involved in outdoor education. She sees MeECO as having the capacity to remove barriers and move outdoor education in Maine to a new level, a level accessible by all. Anne lives in Rockport, Maine with her husband and two young boys. She is an avid long distance runner and enjoys being out on the ocean with her family.

Contact: 207-712-4381 / meeco@maineaeyc.org

Steering Committee

Patti Bailie, Associate Director of Early Childhood Education, University of Maine at Farmington

Josh Bower, The Center for Wildlife, Director of Education and Community Outreach

Olivia Griset, Executive Director Maine Environmental Education Association (Non-voting member)

Lisa Henderson, Co-Founder of Sprouts Farm & Forest Kindergarten; Mills, MA

Rhonda Kaiser, Educare Central Maine School Director

Jessica Lewis, Inch By Inch Preschool 

Kris Michaud, Director Maine Roads to Quality

Betsy Myers, Assistant Director of the Bowdoin College Children's Center

Laura Newman, Nature Based Outdoor Play Space Consultant and Nature Based Education Advocate

Sessa Salas, M.Ed., Director, Peopleplace Cooperative Preschool, Camden

Anne Stires, Independent Educational Consultant and Affiliate Faculty, Antioch University

Morgan Tolin, Co-Executive Director, Maine Association for the Education of Young Children (Non-voting member)

Network Partners

“If you want to go somewhere, it is best to find someone who has already been there.” - Robert Kiyosaki

MeECO is a statewide network and relies on many partners for its success. There are many meaningful and important participants in our state, all doing their part to enhance outdoor education for young children.

Listed below are some of the most influential partners that we have been working with so far:

 
 

Consent to use photographic images

Registration and attendance at, or participation in, MaineAEYC meetings and other activities constitutes an agreement by the registrant or attendee to MaineAEYC’s use and distribution (both now and in the future) of the registrant’s or attendee’s image, likeness, and appearance in photographs of such events and activities.