New England

The University of Maine leads collaboration within our New England Hub.

The University of Maine is building a system of robust, rural-focused programs supporting small towns and rural schools across the state, and heads up the collaborative network of like-minded advocates and organizations throughout the larger New England region consisting of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Catharine Biddle, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at UMaine, serves as the New England hub contact.


As Maine's flagship public university, The University of Maine (UMaine) has a statewide mission of teaching, research and economic development, and community service, and is the state's public research university. The New England Region has long been an exemplar of school-community engagement, excellent rural educators, and place-based education. UMaine recently received Catalyst Initiative Grant funding for a Rural Teacher Corp, which will continue to enrich their support of communities across one of America’s most rural states.

UMaine has diverse pathways for supporting rural schools and communities, including:

RSC’s New England Hub, which includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, offers an opportunity to deepen collaboration across the region and beyond. Biddle is working to form an advisory board with representatives from each state in order to guide the work of the Hub. To learn more about the exciting developments across New England, explore below.


Teacher Profile

Joe Hennessey

Joe Hennessey - Dover-Foxcroft, ME

Leading through the transformative power of rural education.

Joe has been a teacher for 10 years, spending the majority of his tenure teaching eleventh and twelfth grades. He places a heavy value on the power of education as an asset to students’ personal growth and career development. For him, education is as transformative and liberating as it is noble. Joe shares that one of the most rewarding aspects of education is “to actually experience the awe and the wonderment of being able to communicate with ideas across generations, civilizations, and eons; and to connect with those ideas and understand how that is still personally meaningful and relevant.”

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