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[Amy Winston] is the [Senior Director of State Policy] at Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI), a Maine-based community development financial institution (CDFI) with a mission to build just, vibrant and climate-resilient futures for people and communities in Maine and rural regions by integrating finance, business expertise and policy solutions in ways that make the economy work more equitably. Amy sits on the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous, and Tribal Populations in Maine representing CDFIs, is a member of Sodexo’s Maine Course local purchasing advisory committee, co-coordinates Miane’s Food Policy Work Group, and was appointed to the Maine Climate Council’s Coastal and Marine Working Group to help shape recommendations regarding coastal economic diversification in the forthcoming update of Maine’s state climate action plan.  

As CEI’s Senior Director of State Policy, Amy leads policy initiatives supporting the organization’s strategic objectives to expand economic opportunities, create good jobs and support environmentally sustainable enterprises. As a practitioner and policy analyst, Amy applies her training as an anthropologist specializing in the culture and economies of communities that have been built around extractive labor industries and lessons about cultural revitalization, participatory development and economic diversification strategies in rural regions from ethnographic fieldwork she has conducted in central Appalachia.

Prior to rejoining CEI, as state policy director, Amy served as a community resource navigator and social worker in the Midcoast, a legislative committee analyst, and economic development director for Lincoln County, Maine. She enjoys nature, hiking and the outdoors, and is a novice beekeeper.

Education

• BA, Linguistics & Anthropology, U of Mass-Amherst
• MA, Political Science, U of New Hampshire
• PhD, Anthropology, Purdue U

Community Connections

• North Atlantic Figure Skating Club, board of directors
• The Ecology School board of directors
• MidCoast Maine Community Action, board of directors, Vice Chair