The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting welcomes two new members to its board of directors: Fletcher Kittredge, founder and CEO of GWI in Biddeford, a telecommunications company specializing in providing gigabit fiber networks and cloud telephone services to Maine, and Marie Tessier, moderator and op-talk blog contributor at The New York Times.
Before joining The Times in 2007, Tessier was an independent journalist specializing in coverage of violence against women, politics, and legal and financial affairs. Her work has appeared on the Women’s eNews and Women’s Media Center Web sites, in Ms. magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, in other papers and magazines, and on “Marketplace” radio and National Public Radio.
She is the author of “Covering Aviation Safety: An Investigator’s Guide,” from Investigative Reporters & Editors and several book chapters. She is an independent writer whose work has been distributed throughout the English and Arabic-speaking world.
Before going into journalism, she worked at the League of Women Voters national office, and served on the production staff of the presidential debates.
Kittredge is joining the Center’s board of directors for the second time — he began his service on the board in 2010, after he sent an unsolicited donation and Center reporter Naomi Schalit called him and told him his reward was to be asked to serve as a director. He left about two years later after serving as an important member of the Center’s founding team of board members, helping lead fundraising efforts for our fledgling organization.
Kittredge is a graduate of Colby College and Harvard University. He serves on the board of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development, and is Chairman of the ConnectME Authority Advisory Board.
In 2011, Kittredge was named Large Business Leader of the Year by Mainebiz magazine and has led GWI to be recognized by INC. Magazine as one of the nation’s fastest growing companies five times.
