Rota Knott, CFRE
Executive Director
Rota join AFC in April 2023. She has more than 14 years of nonprofit management and human services experience that includes the development and management of substance use and mental health programs in her home state of Maryland.
More recently, Knott served as executive director of Tedford Housing in Brunswick where she advanced an $8.3 million capital campaign to construct a new emergency housing and homeless services building for the Southern Midcoast region.
Board of Directors
Sam Hamill, Chairman
A 50-year summer resident Tremont, permanent home in New Jersey. Career in land use planning, on the staffs and boards of various non-profit research and advocacy organizations. A past board chair and now life trustee of College of the Atlantic. Drawn to AFC because of a family tragedy involving addiction.
Elissa Chesler, PhD
Dr. Chesler is Associate Professor and Ann Watson Symington Chair in Addiction Research at The Jackson Lab, where she researches the genetics that underly behavior and identifies the biological basis for relationships among behavioral traits in human disorders. She is a resident of Bar Harbor, where she also serves as a member of the Town Planning Board.
Jim Green
Jim has spent his career with leading global real estate firms. Currently affiliated with Searle & Co. in Greenwich, he advises real estate and investment management firms throughout the globe. Jim is the President of the SRA of the Town of Mount Desert, the former President of the board of the NEH Sailing School, served as a board member of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Westminster School Parents’ Committee and the Parents’ Council at Elon University. Along with his wife, Anne, he resides in Riverside, CT and Northeast Harbor. Anne is on the board and the former Chair of Friends of Acadia and a current Director of the Rossi Foundation. Their two adult children live in Austin.
Rhonda Fortin, Secretary/Treasurer
Rhonda grew up in Southwest Harbor and is now the Director of Teaching and Learning Grades PK - 6 for the Mount Desert Island Regional School System. The early part of her career in education took place in Southern Maine where she was a high school math teacher, math instructional coach and middle school assistant principal. Upon returning to MDI, she was the principal at Pemetic Elementary School for four years. Rhonda is grateful for the opportunity to work with the Acadia Family Center to provide early preventative education for children and their families on children’s mental health and substance abuse disorder.
John Hall, Vice President
“I am a husband, father, grandfather, veteran and current Police Chief of Southwest Harbor. Graduated from UMO in 1985 with a degree in Legal Technology. Our family has survived a series of SUD's through various forms of treatment and recovery. I am seeing the daily devastation that SUD is reeking in our community and want to apply more effort at prevention/treatment prior to law enforcement involvement.”
Ken Hill, PhD
Dr. Hill is Provost at The College of the Atlantic. In addition to his duties in academic administration, Ken teaches courses in adolescent psychology. He holds a B.A from The University of Michigan, and advanced degrees in Counseling (Ed.M. Harvard, 1990) and Educational Psychology and Measurement (M.S. and PhD. Cornell, 1993 and 1995. He has directed out-patient community clinical programs and programs for prison systems. In his free time Ken enjoys weight lifting, canoe tripping, and knife making.
Vivek Kumar, PhD
Dr. Kumar is a senior research scientist at The Jackson Laboratory. His lab studies the genetics of addiction, using the complex tools of genetics, neuroscience, computation, and engineering to address this critically important health issue. Dr. Kumar is committed to explaining his work to the public and to advancing public understanding of science more generally. He has given public lectured and published extensively on his important work.
Jacques Newell Taylor
Jacques has over 25 years of experience and education in the combined fields of applied neuroscience and exercise science, where he explores the relationships between physical performance, mental performance, and personal transformation. Prior to moving to MDI, Jacques had robust practices in the Brentwood and Pacific Palisades areas of Los Angeles. His “Neuro-Logic” training has been highly successful in helping people create sustainable solutions for weight management and addiction challenges. Jacques is an avid mountaineer. He lives in Southwest Harbor.
Tom Nelson, PhD
Retired CEO of Share our Strength, a national non-profit dedicated to ending childhood hunger and poverty, with a presence in all 50 states and an annual budget of $140 M. Formerly COO of AARP. Currently an Adjunct Professor at teaching non-profit leadership and management at Georgetown. Summer resident of Southwest Harbor.