Meet Our Board Members
Elin Elisofon - President
Having been here every summer of her life as a child, and then as a year-round resident, Elin cherishes the relationships formed over these many decades with members of the Vinalhaven community.
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Elin has been involved with many of the island organizations at their formative stages, including working to establish Vinalhaven Eldercare Services and the Vinalhaven Land Trust. She is a member of the Town of Vinalhaven Planning Commission, which created revised zoning ordinances to promote and facilitate the creation of year-round housing on Vinalhaven.
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Elin lives in a home built in 1843 by Joel and Mary Jane Philbrook and was fortunate to, know their descendants. She is an artist, conservationist, preservationist, real estate broker and an active member of the Pleasant River Grange.
Kathi Young - Vice President
Kathi is a life-long resident of Vinalhaven. As a dedicated member of the community, Kathi has served on several boards, including the Town of Vinalhaven Selectboard, the Vinalhaven School Board, and the Island Community Medical Services Board of Directors. Kathi was a member of the Town-appointed Vinalhaven Housing Committee and is a founding member of the nonprofit Vinalhaven Housing Initiative
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In 2005, Kathi purchased her home through the USDA First Time Home Buyers program. In that home, she raised two children who both still reside on the island. Kathi manages a family-owned business, Island Lobster Supply, on Vinalhaven.
Hooper Brooks - Secretary
Hooper is a full-time resident of Maine and a seasonal resident and homeowner on Vinalhaven for forty years. His professional career included government, philanthropic foundations and non-profit positions working on land conservation, regional planning, sustainable development and smart growth. He has also served on several non-profit boards.
Duncan Urquhart - Treasurer
Duncan first came to Vinalhaven in January of 2021. He knew instantly that this was where he would spend his retirement and bought a house on the island less than a week later. After graduating from college, Duncan spent the next 40 years in the Mid-Hudson Valley area of New York, where he held positions in senior financial management with companies in both the public and private sector. Previous board experience includes 15 years as a director of a high-tech public company, where he chaired both the Audit and Compensation committees.
Kristin Alley
Kristin was born and raised on Vinalhaven. After graduating from Vinalhaven High School, she attended the University of Maine at Machias and graduated with a business degree majoring in accounting. Shortly after graduating from college, she started working for Camden National Bank. She has also worked at Vinalhaven Eldercare Services and at J. Edward Knight as an insurance agent. Currently, Kristin is a bookkeeper at Islands Community Medical Services. She is married to Brad Alley, a native fisherman.
Darline Beckman
Darline was a member of the Town-appointed Vinalhaven Housing Committee and is a founding member of the nonprofit Vinalhaven Housing Initiative. Darline currently serves on the Town-appointed Net Factory Re-Use Committee. She is a lifelong resident of Vinalhaven and graduated from Vinalhaven High School. Darline’s husband, Sigward Beckman, and their three sons all work in the lobster industry.
Darline has worked as a sternman on her husband’s lobster boat and at many local businesses. She a member of the Bean Team at Bean Maine Lobster, an employee-owned wholesale lobster company that purchases directly from local fishermen and women on the waterfront.
Tom Crisp
Tom is an anglo-American folk artist and homesteader whose work grows out of a sustained fascination with Nuclear Semiotics, the problem of how meaning survives time. Tom lives and works on Vinalhaven with his wife, Dani.
Tom serves as Director of the Maine Jung Center and as the Land Steward for the Vinalhaven Land Trust. He is a painter, as well as a biographer of John Ignatius Salemi, one of Maine's most prolific outsider artists.
Eric Davis
Eric works as a lobsterman. He has deep familiarity with the land and landscape of Vinalhaven. Eric was a member of the Town-appointed Vinalhaven Housing Committee at its inception.
He has served the Vinalhaven community for several years in many ways. Previously he was a Selectman, President of the Vinalhaven Land Trust, and Vinalhaven Road Commissioner. Currently, he serves on the Town of Vinalhaven Budget Committee, as Chairman of the Town of Vinalhaven Cemetery Committee, and on the Net Factory Re-Use Committee.
Patricia Dunn
Patricia (Trish) has been coming to Vinalhaven with her family for 20 years. She grew up on the coast of North Carolina, graduated from the University of North Carolina, and got her law degree from the GWU National Law Center in Washington, DC.
Trish practiced law for over 25 years in Washington and served a 10-year stint on the leadership team at The Washington Post. Now that she and her husband Doug have retired, they spend most of their time at their home on Vinalhaven.
Brent Groce
​​Brent and his wife acquired an off-the-,grid home on Vinalhaven in 2011. Brent started out on a conventional career path with mechanical engineering and graduate business degrees. After years as a telecom product manager, he became an inner-city math teacher, co-founder of an economic development non-profit in Uganda, a non-profit financial manager, and furniture maker. Most recently he worked in various capacities at a Philadelphia-based solar installer. He holds a NABCEP PV Installation Professional certification.
Dylan Jackson
​As a carpenter and builder of timber frame structures, Dylan is a founding partner of Fox Island Timber Frame, LLC. Dylan attended Cornell University and attained a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Maine, Augusta.
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Dylan builds homes and other structures focusing on high quality craftsmanship and sustainability. Dylan oversees and functions as the General Contractor at the 16 East Boston Road project on the behalf of VHI, where he supervises all aspects of the project and the sub-contractors involved, as well providing carpentry labor for the project.
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He is also a member of the Vinalhaven Volunteer Fire Department and the Emergency Medical Service.
Jack Myer
Jack grew up in the Boston area and graduated from Georgetown University. Since 1986 he has worked in humanitarian aid overseas, advising on and managing humanitarian programs for the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, and since 1997 with the United States Agency for International Development, ending his career as Senior Humanitarian Advisor covering the Middle East and Europe. He continues to work on a contract basis with USAID and travels a great deal for work and pleasure. In 2009, Vinalhaven became his permanent home.
Beth Newbold-Winkler
Beth is a third-generation Vinalhaven homeowner. For 23 yea,rs she and her husband Pat co-owned a construction services business. In addition, Beth brings decades of experience serving in leadership positions on several non-profit boards including as a Project Manager and as a Director of The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC., President of Pittsburgh City Theater, and President of PowerLink, an advisory board for women-owned businesses.