The Board of Directors for the Maine Humanities Council [1], meeting at Castine on June 29, selected Hayden W. Anderson, Ph.D of Portland as its new Executive Director.
Anderson begins his duties on August 20, replacing Erik C. Jorgensen, who had been the MHC’s Executive Director since 2006. Jorgensen left the Council to seek election to the Maine House of Representatives in District 115, representing Portland.
Anderson was interim Executive Director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project in Portland for the past year, and since 2009 has served as the Development Director for the nonprofit immigration legal aid organization. A Certified Fund Raising Executive, he is an experienced nonprofit leader and certified as a strategic planning, board development, annual fund and capital campaign consultant.
Peter B. Webster of South Portland, Chair of the Council’s Search Committee, said Anderson was selected from a national pool of 90 applicants. “We are very excited about this choice and are confident that a new and exciting era in the Council’s affairs is about to begin,” said Webster.
Anderson has worked in development for Seattle University, Calumet Lutheran Ministries in New Hampshire, and for a Minneapolis fundraising consulting firm. Yet he also has a broad background in the humanities, earning a Ph.D and M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Amherst College.
“I believe that deep and broad engagement with the humanities can enhance people’s lives in a hugely powerful way. Literature, history, philosophy and culture can help us better understand ourselves, and can enrich interpersonal relationships and uncover meaning in the things of everyday life,” said Anderson.
“Moreover, I believe public engagement with the humanities has profound potential to inform civic conversation in a way that can bring increased civility, perspective, and thoughtfulness to public debates and produce better outcomes for our cities, our state, and our society as a whole,” Anderson added.