Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions

Keynote Speaker

The keynote speaker for the 2025 Maine Sustainability & Water Conference is Samantha Horn, the Director of the Maine Office of Community Affairs. Horn was appointed by Governor Mills to lead the new Maine Office of Community Affairs in October 2024. She has over three decades of experience in policy, planning and science, including consulting on public stakeholder engagement, policy work, and planning and siting for development projects. 

Finding Each Other: Networks as a Source of Strength in Uncertain Times 

The world is changing around us. To create the impact we want, we need to find our place in the many networks of organizations and individuals who sustain and strengthen Maine communities. As these networks have grown, it has become harder to discover and hold onto all the bits of information about potential partners. For example, Maine state agencies have dozens of programs to assist communities with planning, development and resilience. And there are dozens more programs that exist outside of state government that can be used in combination with state programs. It can often be difficult for local officials, advocates, and others to find the right places to plug into this system to take advantage of the substantial technical assistance and grants that are available. This is particularly true for communities with little or no staff capacity.

The new Maine Office of Community Affairs (MOCA) was created to simplify this experience for communities. By working with partners to provide coordinated and efficient planning, technical assistance and financial support, we can better plan for challenges, pursue solutions and create stronger, more resilient communities. The staff that will be moving to MOCA this summer are currently exploring how to “make visible” the networks that support communities, so we can help potential partners find each other and bring more structure to the government part of the system. With the changes in the federal funding landscape, this issue will become increasingly important. As a community of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers, we all need practical solutions that help us collaborate rather than compete and make it easier to find the other members of our next project team. In this presentation, Samantha will explore how Maine developed such a robust set of networks. She will also pose thoughts and questions about how we might better find each other to make progress on our goals and as a source of strength in these challenging times.

About Samantha Horn

Governor Mills appointed Samantha Horn as Director of the Maine Office of Community Affairs in October 2024. Horn has three decades of experience in policy, planning and science, including consulting on public stakeholder engagement, policy work, and planning and siting for development projects. Prior to starting her consulting business, she was the director of science for The Nature Conservancy in Maine and worked in state natural resource agencies for nearly 20 years, including more than a decade in leadership roles at the Maine Land Use Planning Commission.

Horn has a Master’s Degree in the Human Dimensions of Fish and Wildlife Conservation from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a focus on conflict resolution in natural resources, and a Bachelor’s degree in biology and English literature from Washington University in St. Louis.  Her interests include rural community capacity, renewable energy siting practice, and integrated policy development. Horn was formerly on the boards of directors of the Maine Association of Planners, GrowSmart Maine, and the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund.