Board of Directors at MMHC
Joseph (Joe) Mellone - Board Member
Starting in Providence, Rhode Island, I had a supportive home and loving parents who encouraged responsibility, kindness, and caring. This stability allowed us to explore interests, leading us to professions that sustain us and benefit family, community, and society. Most of my career has been in the computer industry, while I have also pursued poetry, technical writing, and novel writing. Owning older homes taught me building trades, while raising two sons here in Maine allowed them to pursue their interests. I’ve lived in various places but am rooted in New England, returning to Maine - where life is as it should be - thanks to organizations like this that support youth and young adults in need. I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this organization and, as Edward Everett Hale maintains, “to do something that I can do.”
Suetta Tenney - M.D., F.A.C.P. Board Treasurer
Email: Treasurer@m-m-h-c.org
Suetta was impacted by growing up in a single-parent home, with two relatives with significant disabilities, living in an inner city. She carried these memories into community-based primary care. If patients did not feel listened to, they would not share the important, very private information that was critical to excellent holistic primary care. She trained in women’s health, addictions, mind-body medicine, geriatrics, and hospice and palliative care.
Suetta has always been an active volunteer in her community, with the YWCA, scouts, and faith communities. In the 1990s, she spearheaded a faith-based group that created her town’s first middle school after-school program, then transitioned this program to the YMCA.
After her children were grown, Suetta followed a lifelong dream to live in a rural area and relocated to Stockton Springs, Maine – working in geriatrics before retiring. In addition to the Midcoast Maine Homeless Coalition, she is on the board of But Still I Am One, volunteers with the Restorative Justice Project in Belfast, and is a Board Member of Penobscot Community Health Center. She enjoys participating in choral and instrumental music.
Barbara Gage - M.P.A., PH.D. Board Member
Barbara started her career 30 years ago working for the Maine State Legislature after completing her Master of Public Administration at the University of Maine at Orono and her Ph.D. at Penn State University. She spent 30 years in public policy research, focused on the Medicare program, long term care, Medicaid, the Older Americans Act, and conducting payment and outcomes research. Positions included Congressional staff, Brookings Fellow, RTI, and faculty appointments at GWU and USC. After moving back to Maine in 2017, she worked closely with Susan Dupler, Belfast’s public health nurse and the Belfast Soup Kitchen to set up summer lunch delivery programs for kids in the greater Belfast area who couldn’t access the schools’ summer lunches. Barbara also served as President of the Belfast Garden Club for two years and helped care for the Waterloo Public Gardens downtown at the waterfront.
Most recently, she volunteered at But Still I Am One to help write grants. She knows that giving kids a chance at this stage of life can greatly affect their entire future. In her spare time, she gardens, kayaks, makes glass beads, and reads.
Kathy Muzzy - LCSW Board Chair
Email: Chair@m-m-h-c.org
Kathy Muzzy has lived in Belfast for almost three decades. She is a retired Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has worked on crisis teams, in community mental health centers, in integrated health within family medical centers where she worked with adults and adolescents, and had her own private practice. She has provided in-home mental health services for the elderly.
Earlier in her career, she was a certified teacher of the deaf, so as a social worker she also worked with adults who were deaf or had hearing loss. Another one of her specialties in her private practice was providing counseling for adults with developmental disabilities. She currently is an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Belfast where she serves on the Social Justice Committee and the Caring Circle, and she facilitates a discussion group on spiritually-related topics.
Joel Krueger - M.Div. Vice-chair
Rev. Joel Krueger joined the Midcoast Maine Homeless Coalition Board of Directors in February of 2024. He is a retired pastor, ordained in the United Church of Christ. He co-pastored The First Church, UCC in Belfast from 2004-2023, with his wife, Rev. Dr. Kate Winters, as well as the United Church of Christ in Osseo, Wisconsin before that. Joel is committed to community building and social justice. He served on the Sunrise Association of the Maine Conference UCC Committee on Ministry (2018-2023, as Chair 2019-2022) and presently serves on the association’s Coordinating Council. He participated in the Greater Bay Area Ministerium (GBAM) with other area clergy and church representatives and served as the group’s convener for a number of years. During that time, he helped organize the GBAM-sponsored Belfast Peace Festivals (2014, 2015); served on the GBAM Food Cupboard Board; and assisted with the annual Belfast Area High School Baccalaureate programs. He participated in the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day events held at The First Church in Belfast, and served on the MLK Day Planning Committee, organized the "We Still Have a Dream Rally and Vigil" commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech (2013), organized the Belfast Choral Festivals (2017, 2018, 2019), served on the Waldo County Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors, and has enjoyed engaging in many Belfast area events.
Joel lives in Belfast with his wife Kate. They are members of the United Christian Church, UCC in Lincolnville Center. Joel is a potter and sells his wares at the Waterfall Arts Farmers/Art Market during the summer. He likes gardening, bird watching, walking, hiking and biking, and just being outdoors.
Marjory Stickler - LICSW Board Member
Originally from Massachusetts where she was a Geriatric Care Manager, Marje was an LICSW. A former elementary school teacher, she raised three children. She and her husband enjoy Maine, an outdoor life, fishing, gardening, and dogs.
Julia Daley - MS, M.Div. Board Secretary
Email: thereforefarm@gmail.com
Julie served on the Board of Family Promise of Midcoast Maine, now known as Midcoast Maine Homeless Coalition, since its inception, serving for two years as the Secretary of the organization. Julie grew up in Massachusetts and studied both Music and Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (B.A. 1979). She served as both a church musician and a caseworker and program supervisor in churches and agencies in Massachusetts. Julie studied Nonprofit Management at Worcester State University (M.S. 1989) and served for over 20 years in human services administration, including in programs for people with disabilities, for the elderly, and eventually for families of children with multiple disabilities.
After an acute medical crisis, Julie attended Boston University School of Theology (MDiv 2004). She served in pastoral ministry for 12 years before returning to community service, now as an ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church. In her community ministry as a Family Advocate, Julie fostered several children and youth, and adopted two school-aged girls. Julie resides in Belfast, Maine on her small-acreage horse farm. She leads local women’s Bible Studies, serves as a volunteer with Waldo County Hospice Volunteers, pursues Para equestrian training, and enjoys an ever-widening circle of both church and un-church connections. Julie is passionate about ecumenism, about empowering others, about horses, and most especially about her conviction that Divine love is healing, transforming, and unfailing.
Steve Alspach - M.Div. Board Member
Rev. Steve Alspach is the pastor of the Congregational Church of Sandy Point. He is currently Vice-Convenor of the Greater Belfast Area Ministerium (GBAM) with Chaplain Jean Ashland.
During his lifelong ministry as an Intentional Interim and as a Settled Minister, he has been involved in a number of community initiatives, including weekly community meals, unemployed support and networking groups, the Interfaith Hospitality Network, Habitat for Humanity, as well as intergenerational service trips to New Orleans, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and Appalachia. Steve has also served as the Executive Director of the Worcester County (MA) Ecumenical Council, whose membership included churches from all the spiritual streams of Christianity.
He lives in Searsport with his wife Betsy, two cats, and a Sheltie dog. They have two grown sons. Steve loves to get people together to bike and sing.
Midge Browning - B.S. Board Member
Born in Southern California, she obtained a B.S. in Child Development from California State University, Fullerton. She and her husband moved to Southern Illinois (near St. Louis, MO) in 1982 and raised two sons. Midge worked in marketing/advertising for non-profits, and then for 30+ years at a small liberal arts college, providing academic advising and managing teacher certification in the Education Department, then became Director of Academic and Career Advising for domestic and international students, ages 17-25.
She and her husband retired to Maine in 2020 to be closer to their son (who married a Mainer), and their two granddaughters. She has volunteered as the Data Management Coordinator for the Lincolnville Heart & Soul project and as a member of the Engagement Committee for the Waldo County Democratic Committee. Midge enjoys time with teens/young adults, animals (especially her dog), horses, birds, gardening, arts/crafts, traveling, and adventures.