Speakers

S. Peter Mills, Esq., of Cornville, executive director of the Maine Turnpike Authority, is a Maine native.  He graduated from Harvard College in 1965, served five years on U.S. Navy destroyers during the Vietnam conflict and graduated from Maine Law School in 1973.  After practicing law in Portland for nine years, he moved to Skowhegan to become the owner of the Wright & Mills law firm.  From 1995 through 2010, he served eight terms in the Maine Legislature.  He is a founding member of two central Maine economic development groups.  In 2006 and 2010, he ran unsuccessfully for governor in GOP primaries.  Since his appointment to the Turnpike Authority in 2011, he divides his time between Turnpike headquarters in Portland and his Cornville woodlots on weekends.  In 2014, his wife Nancy was appointed to her fourth 7-year term as a justice of the Maine Superior Court.  He has three adult daughters and six grandchildren.

Judy Camuso grew up in Melrose Mass, 11 miles outside of Boston, the youngest of 6 children.  She studied Wildlife Biology at the University of Vermont, and has spent her entire career and adult life devoted to fish and wildlife conservation.

Judy started her career at Maine Audubon, working as the staff naturalist. After 11 years at Audubon, she was hired by IFW as a regional biologist in Southern Maine.  Seven years later, she was promoted to the special projects coordinator in the Augusta headquarters.  After several months in this position she was promoted to the position of Wildlife Division Director.  

As Director, Judy managed close to 50 professional biologists and foresters as well as administrative assistants and oversaw a budget of $12 million. She coordinated and directed the 10 year-update to the State Wildlife Action Plan, Maine's Big Game Management Plan, and worked with communication staff to develop a Communication and Marketing Plan for the agency.

She was nominated by Governor Mills to lead the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife and her nomination unanimously passed in the House and Senate, making her the first woman to become Commissioner. 

Tom received his masters in entomology from University of Illinois in 2015.  He worked for the Forest Health division in the New York Department of Environmental Conservation  for 3 years before taking a forest entomologist position with the Maine Forest Service in September 2018.  

 

Betsy Peters is an entrepreneur, an angel investor, Chairman of the Board for a startup in Bangor, and a former Entrepreneur in Residence at the Maine Technology Institute. In February of 2018, she and a group of 13 professionals came together to create MaineCanDo, a platform designed to help individuals, employers, and investors to prevent future #metoo incidents in the state of Maine.