Events
Coming Up
PEAC Social, 6/11/24, 12-1 pm, Coe Room, Memorial Union
The academic year has wrapped up, and PEAC invites you to a social event to celebrate. Come and join us in person for a group lunch–vouchers provided! Make connections with other staff on campus. Register here.
Previous Events
Food4Thought, 2/27/24 12-1pm, Bangor Room, Memorial Union and Zoom
Guest: Kate Garland (UMaine BA ’01, MS ’09), Horticulture Professional, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
“Digging Deeper: Exploring Answers to Frequently Asked Garden Questions and Learning Opportunities with UMaine Cooperative Extension”
Kate Garland, a Horticulture Professional, will guide us through the newest resources available from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension for local growers. Additionally, she will conduct a rapid-fire review of frequently asked questions that she and her colleagues commonly address for home gardeners in our region.
May Social, 5/16/23 12-1pm, Bangor Room, Memorial Union
The semester is wrapping up, and PEAC wants to invite you to one more event before summer arrives. Come and join us in person for a social lunch! We will provide food – you can simply drop in and make professional/informal connections with other staff on campus.
Food4Thought, 4/11/23 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council to learn about Study Abroad programs with Erika Clement, Assistant Director of Education Abroad in the Office of International Programs. Audience participation is encouraged – bring your comments and questions!
Food4Thought, 3/28/23 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council to learn more about the UM Foundation’s mission, history, current and upcoming events/initiatives with Philanthropy Officer Matt Mullen. Audience participation is encouraged – bring your comments and questions!
Food4Thought, 2/28/23 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council to learn about Arts and Humanities engagement opportunities at UMaine.
Our speakers will include:
- Beth Wiemann – Director of the Clement and Linda McGillicuddy Humanities Center
- Drew Hooke – Operations Manager with the Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center
Food4Thought, 12/20/22 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and campus leaders involved in sustainability efforts to learn about UMaine’s green initiatives.
Our panelists will include:
- Dan Dixon, UMaine’s Sustainability Director
- Megan Carter, Community Education Assistant and Supervisor of the Green Campus Initiative
- Lynette Cassidy, Assistant Director for Operations in Auxiliary Enterprises
- Glenn Taylor, Director of Culinary Services
Food4Thought, 4/26/22 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and members of Facilities Management to learn about UMaine’s 10 Year Capital Master Planning. Over the next decade, UMaine will experience major changes in capital construction projects, in areas like Athletics, Engineering, and One-Health, among others. UMaine’s Department of Space & Capital Management Services will present the current master plan that was presented to the Board of Trustees’ Finance, Facilities, & Technology committee in March. In addition to the master plan, they will discuss the annual call for projects that is currently underway, and a new round of project requests that will soon begin.
Audience participation is encouraged – bring your comments and questions!
Food4Thought, 3/22/22 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and archivists from Fogler Library’s Special Collections to learn about the many (and unusual!) materials related to Maine and UMaine that are collected, processed, and made available to researchers near and far. Our panelists will discuss how people currently use the collections for research, what some of the future possibilities are, and examples of the sorts of records, that as University employees, we should be thinking about preserving.
Our panel of archivists include:
- Desiree Butterfield-Nagy, who was in Marketing and Public Relations prior to becoming an archivist. She has been with the Special Collections Department since 2009.
- Matthew Revitt, who is the Special Collections and Maine Shared Collections Librarian at the University of Maine. Matthew splits his time between managing the Maine Shared Collections Cooperative library shared print program and overseeing the management of archival university records.
- Beth Russell, who is an Archivist and Social Collections Librarian focused on collections that preserve the story of Maine, ranging from personal and family histories to corporate records.
What would you like to know, learn, or research when it comes to Maine or UMaine? Audience participation is encouraged – bring your comments, experiences, and questions!
Food4Thought, 2/2/22 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and Shawn Laatsch, director of the Versant Power Astronomy Center, for a behind-the-scenes look at UMaine’s planetarium!
Participants will get the opportunity to:
- take a tour of the night sky;
- see the new program, Stargazers of Africa, which explores ways in which a variety of African cultures have viewed the sky;
- learn how the Center can be used to present on a variety of topics (well beyond astronomy), for special events and much more;
- and hear about some of the exciting new research taking place at the Center.
Food4Thought, 1/11/22 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council for a panel discussion titled, Our Return to Campus – The Work Experience of UM Professional Employees During the Pandemic.
Throughout the pandemic, UMaine’s professional employees have experienced:
- Some professionals working on campus with various COVID precautions
- Some professionals working remotely (not able to work on campus due to the pandemic and other reasons)
- Some professionals working a hybrid model
A panel of UM professionals will describe their experiences working throughout the pandemic, and what they have learned. Panelists include:
- Lindsay Decker, Fogler Library
- Shawn Laatsch, Versant Power Astronomy Center
- Andrew Bergeron, Department of Chemistry
The discussion will be facilitated by David Scheidt, Strategic Procurement.
What have you learned by working at UMaine during the pandemic? Audience participation is encouraged – bring your comments, experiences, and questions!
Food4Thought, 12/21/21, 2-3pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council for a virtual fireside chat on Winter holiday traditions!
No matter what holiday(s) we observe, we have traditions that make them particularly meaningful. We’re sometimes unaware of how others celebrate the same holidays, and often oblivious to the meaning and traditions surrounding holidays we don’t observe.
At this virtual fireside chat, you’ll hear from peers about favorite and/or unique ways they celebrate (and what they celebrate) and have an opportunity to share your own traditions. We want to hear about generations-old family recipes, special decorations, an annual trek through the woods, music, dance, worship, and the stories you heard as a child and are passing on to the next generation.
Food4Thought, 11/30/21, 12pm-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council, and a panel of professional staff conducting research at UMaine, to learn about several exciting research projects that are underway!
At this session, you’ll hear from professional employees who are studying everything from tardigrades, to electric waterfalls, to paleoclimates, to gender equity in sports, and more. Panelists will also share keys to their success.
This program follows up on PEAC‘s 2020 survey that aimed to better understand the research interests and needs of professional staff.
Our panelists include:
- Emma Perry, Electron Microscopy Laboratory Manager in the Coordinated Operating Research Entities
- David Labrecque, Graduate Faculty Instructor & Instrumentation Specialist in the Department of Chemistry
- Lisa Carter, Career Counselor in the Career Center
- Jen Bonnet, Social Sciences & Humanities Librarian in Fogler Library
- Dan Dixon, Director of the Office of Sustainability & Research Assistant Professor in the Climate Change Institute
There will be plenty of time for Q&A!
Food4Thought, 10/26/21 12pm-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council, the Office of Research Development, and Human Resources to learn about ways to get involved in research at UMaine!
We will discuss the fundamentals of getting connected to research at UMaine for professional staff, and some initiatives that are underway. This session follows up on PEAC‘s survey last year that aimed to better understand the research interests and needs of professional staff.
Our panelists include:
- Jason Charland, Senior Advisor to the President and Director of Research Development at UMaine;
- Danielle O’Neill, Research Development Specialist at UMaine;
- and Nicole Lawrence, Director of Human Resources.
There will be plenty of time for Q&A!
Food4Thought, 05/17/21 and 05/19/21, 11:30-1pm and 12pm-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and Anila Karunakar for a 2-part workshop on racial equity. Participants will engage in guided discussions around understanding race as it pertains to them, systems of privilege, and racism. Anila hopes to create space to help participants develop language to engage in conversations around race.
Food4Thought, 05/25/21, 12pm-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and librarians from Fogler Library to learn about ways the Library can support you personally and professionally!
Food4Thought, 04/29/21, 12pm-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and Kate Garland, horticultural specialist with the Cooperative Extension, to learn how Cooperative Extension has pivoted during the COVID pandemic. Stick around for some fun gardening tips!
Food4Thought, 03/23/21, 11am-12pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and Richard Young, Associate Executive Director of Auxiliary Services, to learn about the current state of COVID testing at UMaine, and ask your questions about the pandemic!
Food4Thought, 02/25/21, 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and Dan Dixon to discuss current sustainability initiatives on the UMaine campus. Questions are welcome and encouraged!
Dan Dixon has two roles at the University of Maine. He is the campus Sustainability Director and a Research Assistant Professor with the University’s Climate Change Institute. In his role as Sustainability Director, Dan provides strategic direction and leadership to promote a culture of sustainability at the University of Maine. He is responsible for the overall management and oversight of the Office of Sustainability. He works closely with all levels of university leadership to advance the University of Maine’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and engages campus leaders to foster sustainability broadly across the institution.
Food4Thought, 12/18/20, 1:30-2:30pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council for a fireside chat! This will be a casual conversation with colleagues and an opportunity to unwind at the end of this unprecedented and difficult semester. Feel free to drop in as you like and BYOHB- Bring Your Own Hot Beverage (or whatever beverage you’d like- you do you)!
Food4Thought, 11/24/20, 11am-12pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and John Bear Mitchell to discuss Mitchell’s work with the Wabanaki Center as Outreach and Student Development Coordinator, as well as his work in the surrounding community.
John Bear Mitchell is a citizen of the Penobscot Nation from Indian Island in Maine. He presently serves as the University of Maine System Office Native American Waiver and Educational Program Coordinator, University of Maine’s Wabanaki Center Outreach and Student Development Coordinator, and a Lecturer of Wabanaki Studies and Multicultural Studies.
Come learn with us!
Food4Thought, 10/27/20, 12-1pm
Join the Professional Employees Advisory Council and Hilary Freeman from TrestleTree to discuss wellness options available to you during the winter months. Our focus will be on mindfulness. Research has shown that practicing mindfulness- purposely focusing your attention on the present moment and accepting it without judgment- has positive benefits for both physical and mental health. Learn what these benefits are and how to practice mindfulness techniques in this seminar.
Attending this 1-hour program counts toward your Level 2 Wellness Incentive!
Food4Thought, 9/24/20, 12-1pm
Food4Thought, 1/28/20
Betsy Rose, The National Alliance on Mental Illness, 11:30am-1pm in the Coe Room
Betsy Rose is a Publications Specialist for the Center for Poetry and Poetics and the University of Maine Press, and also serves as president of NAMI Bangor, the local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Betsy discussed the challenges of having a loved one with mental illness, and talk about the services provided by NAMI Bangor and the state organization, NAMI Maine. Please bring your questions!
Crockpot Challenge 2020
The Challenge was held Friday, February 14th, from 11:30am-1:00pm in the Memorial Union Bangor Room. Participants enjoyed a free, hot, lunch with friends as we celebrated Winter Carnival and Valentine’s Day with the annual event where employees present their crockpot creations for the UM community to taste and judge!