Maine Unitarian Universalist State Advocacy Network Leadership Team
MUUSAN is guided by a dedicated group of social justice activists representing a diversity of Unitarian Universalist congregations from across Maine.
MUUSAN Co-Chairs
Trudy Ferland
Visionary founder of MUUSAN in 2012 and a continuing Co-Chair from the start, Trudy Ferland lives in Pittsfield with her husband, Royce Sposato. Together they have three grown children. A member of the UU Meeting House of Pittsfield, Trudy has held a variety of seats on their Council, currently serving as the Council Secretary. She was a founding member of both the Welcome Table, Pittsfield’s free lunch program, and the Central Maine Community Forum. Trudy has been a Pittsfield Town Councilor and is a busy political activist in Somerset County. While she began her career as a nurse, her love for children’s literature drew her to the school library where she has been fortunate to spend the past 25 years sharing that passion with students.
Visionary founder of MUUSAN in 2012 and a continuing Co-Chair from the start, Trudy Ferland lives in Pittsfield with her husband, Royce Sposato. Together they have three grown children. A member of the UU Meeting House of Pittsfield, Trudy has held a variety of seats on their Council, currently serving as the Council Secretary. She was a founding member of both the Welcome Table, Pittsfield’s free lunch program, and the Central Maine Community Forum. Trudy has been a Pittsfield Town Councilor and is a busy political activist in Somerset County. While she began her career as a nurse, her love for children’s literature drew her to the school library where she has been fortunate to spend the past 25 years sharing that passion with students.
Julia Fitz-Randolph
MUUSAN Co-Chair Julia Fitz-Randolph also serves on the board of the Coalition of UU State Action Networks (CUUSAN, the national organization of SANs) and chairs the Midcoast UU Fellowship’s Social Justice Committee in Damariscotta. Julia is a recently retired marketing, development, and communications professional whose career spanned the private, non-profit and public service sectors. As a life-long social justice activist, she has founded and served on volunteer organizations committed to empowering women and their children, and to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equality. Julia is a decades-long Unitarian Universalist now living year round with her wife in Pemaquid.
MUUSAN Co-Chair Julia Fitz-Randolph also serves on the board of the Coalition of UU State Action Networks (CUUSAN, the national organization of SANs) and chairs the Midcoast UU Fellowship’s Social Justice Committee in Damariscotta. Julia is a recently retired marketing, development, and communications professional whose career spanned the private, non-profit and public service sectors. As a life-long social justice activist, she has founded and served on volunteer organizations committed to empowering women and their children, and to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender equality. Julia is a decades-long Unitarian Universalist now living year round with her wife in Pemaquid.
MUUSAN Steering Committee Members, 2019-2020
Deborah Crump is a member of the First Universalist Church of Norway, Unitarian Universalist. She is a member of the Social Justice committee at her church and has participated in many activities over the years in support of LGBTQ and women’s rights, environmental, racial, and economic justice. She has been a home hospice nurse for over 30 years and lives with her life partner in the home they built off the grid in the woods of western Maine. She enjoys gardening, playing the ukulele, writing, her 2 cats, her almost three year old grandchild and her connections to the land.
Rev. Carie Johnsen services as minister of Unitarian Universalist Community Church in Augusta. At the heart of Carie’s ministry is a commitment to co-creating interfaith relationships, community partnerships, and beloved community. She is a founding member of the Maine Unitarian Universalist State Advocacy Network, and serves on the Board of Trustees and co-chairs the Public Policy Committee for the Maine Council of Churches. Carie is mother to Justin and Mo, and grandmother to Avery, Layla, Alivia, and Michael. She just wishes they didn’t all live in Massachusetts.
Melanie Lanctot, MUUSAN Treasurer, lives in Readfield, is a retired data analyst for the State of Maine, and has been a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta for 30 years. She is a founding member of MUUSAN and has been a leader or co-leader of the Climate Issue Group from 2013-19. In 2017, the Natural Resources Council of Maine recognized her work on “issues relating to solar power and climate change” at their People’s Choice Awards night. An eternal student, she is active with Senior College at the University of Maine Augusta campus, and in 2015 she became a Maine Master Naturalist in order to share with others her fascination with the natural world. Hobbies include nature walks, drawing, writing light poetry and choral singing.
Jill Linzee is a member of Midcoast UU Fellowship of Damariscotta. Her professional work has been in public folklore and ethnomusicology in both state and federal government (American Folklife Center, Smithsonian and the National Endowment for the Arts), and for non-profits. She’s worked for statewide programs in Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Washington state, where her political advocacy efforts were more focused in the cultural arena. In 2016 she moved with her husband to Maine, and joined MUUSAN shortly thereafter, becoming Co-Chair of the Climate Change group in 2018. She enjoys playing and listening to music, hiking, birding, sailing, reading, traveling, and the company of friends and animals.
Jane Makela is a member of First Universalist Church in Yarmouth , whose involvement with immigrant justice work was inspired by the UUA’s suggestion more than a decade ago that its member congregations study immigration as a moral issue. She joined the MUUSAN steering committee in early 2018 and became co-chair of MUUSAN’s Racial, Native and Immigrant Justice issue group later that year. Jane is a somewhat retired lawyer whose legal work is now entirely pro bono, advising nonprofits and helping asylum-seekers and other immigrants. She volunteers regularly at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP), helps steer the Supporting Immigrant Tenants program of ProsperityMaine, and serves as Board Legal Adviser to Furniture Friends. Now that her two daughters have left the nest, Jane lives in Falmouth with her retired pediatrician husband John Vogt and Murphy, her cat.
Rev. Drew Moeller joined the MUUSAN Steering Committee in 2017. He is currently serving as the minister at the UU Society of Bangor where he has been for the three years. In addition to his roll in MUUSAN he also serves as the Chair of the Professional Advisory Committee to the new Clinical Pastoral Education program at Northern Light / Eastern Maine Medical Center and on the Steering Committee of the UU Buddhist Fellowship. Before moving to Bangor, he began his ministerial career at the UU Society in Laconia, NH where he served as a founder / Vice President of a start-up non-profit homeless shelter for families. Rev. Drew is also currently training with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield in a two year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Training to become a certified Vipassana Meditation Teacher. In his free time, he loves to hike and paddle his canoes through the flat waters of Maine's waterways. He is also a life long sailor who can’t wait to start exploring the coast of Maine by sea.
Rev. Christina Sillari serves as the minister of The First Parish Portland, Maine Unitarian Universalist Church. Christina is passionate about consciousness, justice and the earth. She served as the co-chair of the MUUSAN’s Racial, Native and Immigrant Justice issue group for two years. She also served on the UUA Commission on Social Witness for four years. She currently serves on the coordinating committee of the Maine Poor People's Campaign. Christina loves leading small groups using spiritual practices for transformation. She lives in Portland with her husband and daughter.
Marylyn Wentworth, MUUSAN Secretary, is a member of the First Parish UU Church of Kennebunk and is a member of the church Board of Directors. She has been an educator in many capacities since 1963. She was a founder of The School Around Us in 1970, a parent run democratic elementary school where all five of her children attended and most of her 9 grandchildren attend to this day. She was also a founding member of The New School, a democratic high school which focuses on social and environmental justice. She was principal of the school for 18 years. She worked with many national educational coalitions engaged in school reform for 20 years. In her first year of retirement she joined MUUSAN and a group that serves immigrants in Biddeford. She lives in Arundel with her husband Stacy of 58 years, two of her children and their families, and a huge, gorgeous garden.
MUUSAN Ad Hoc Leadership
Sue Ellen Bordwell, MUUSAN UUtheVOTE 2020 Statewide Coordinator, has been a member of the First Universalist Church in Yarmouth for 30 plus years, serving in a variety of capacities, most recently as a member of the Faith In Action Council. For the last few years, she has been attending MUUSAN meetings. During the last year on the Climate Change Issue Group, she worked on legislation to increase support for and increase of town recycling of product packaging.
Sue Ellen has a MSW focusing on public policy and community organization. Prior to retirement, her professional experience includes Director of Felony Diversion Program/Criminal Division of RI Attorney General’s Office; Executive Director of the Nattional Assn. of Social Workers/CT chapter; Exectutive Director of ME Democrats, including a stint as Field Director for the Tierney for Governor campaign; and Executive Director Diversity/USM.
Sue Ellen has a MSW focusing on public policy and community organization. Prior to retirement, her professional experience includes Director of Felony Diversion Program/Criminal Division of RI Attorney General’s Office; Executive Director of the Nattional Assn. of Social Workers/CT chapter; Exectutive Director of ME Democrats, including a stint as Field Director for the Tierney for Governor campaign; and Executive Director Diversity/USM.
Dale McCormick, Legislative Specialist, grew up in Iowa where she raised sheep with Old Testament names and showed them at the County Fair in Boys 4-H. She became a draft counselor to oppose the Vietnam War; was part of the second wave of the Women’s Movement; founded many LGBTQ+ organizations; and completed her apprenticeship to become the first woman journey level carpenter in the US.
In 1980 Dale moved to Maine where she joined the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta, serving as Social Justice chair, Coordinator of its orchestra, and is a co-founder of MUUSAN. Dale has been fighting for equality and against economic sex segregation her whole life. In 1989 she founded Women Unlimited, a program that trains women on welfare to compete for high-paying trade and technical jobs. Dale was the first openly lesbian State Senator in the US, Maine State Treasurer, Augusta City Councilor and Director of MaineHousing, and is a writer, urban farmer, mother, and cellist.
In 1980 Dale moved to Maine where she joined the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta, serving as Social Justice chair, Coordinator of its orchestra, and is a co-founder of MUUSAN. Dale has been fighting for equality and against economic sex segregation her whole life. In 1989 she founded Women Unlimited, a program that trains women on welfare to compete for high-paying trade and technical jobs. Dale was the first openly lesbian State Senator in the US, Maine State Treasurer, Augusta City Councilor and Director of MaineHousing, and is a writer, urban farmer, mother, and cellist.
