This year’s featured speaker is Nicole Grohoski.

State Representative Nicole Grohoski is currently in her second term as representative for the towns of Ellsworth and Trenton, and serves as a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology. She is a geographic information system (GIS) specialist and cartographer and currently works for a small, Maine-based mapping company.

Grohoski was the lead sponsor of a new, first-in-the-nation law to hold producers of packaging waste accountable for the cost of its disposal, which is currently borne by municipal taxpayers. The bipartisan bill was modeled on similar programs that are successful in more than 40 countries and regions worldwide. These programs cost less overall, with double the recycling rate that Maine achieves now.

Grohoski grew up in Ellsworth and graduated from Middlebury College, where she studied environmental studies and chemistry. She volunteers with Green Ellsworth, the Heart of Ellsworth, and Meals on Wheels and is a board member of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, which she was the first woman to thru-paddle in 2006. Her hobbies include biking, hiking, paddling, skiing, studying natural history, and playing with her rescue dog, Roxy.