Katie Chapman

Katie Chapman will be joining the community of Swan's Island and working with the Swan's Island Electric Cooperative to carry out a program of research and community education in support of Swan's Island's effort to determine if wind-generated electricity is a viable option for the town. Swan's Island has some of the highest electrical costs in the nation and residents have witnessed the doubling of their electricity costs since 1998. Yet Swan's has a rich wind resource, and Katie will assist the Swan's Island Electric Cooperative in completing a full investigative study on whether the community can regain control over its energy costs by harnessing this resource. 

Katie will also work with the Swan's Island Healthcare Clinic on establishing an informational and educational program to be used at the new island healthcare facility that is tentatively scheduled to open in January 2008. Katie will assist the Island Healthcare Committee determine medical services that are available on-island, what services could be offered and how to implement these services.

Katie Chapman is a recent graduate of Bowdoin College, where she majored in Spanish. As well as being an All-American swimmer who holds Bowdoin swimming records in five events, Katie was an active member of several college and local environmental groups including the Bowdoin Evergreens, Cool Energy NOW and Sustainable Bowdoin. Katie helped coordinate Solarfest, an annual solar powered reggae concert and festival, coordinated efforts to make Brunswick, Maine a "Cool Community," and participated in a campaign to encourage Bowdoin to buy 100% clean energy, a goal that was achieved in July, 2006. Katie has also worked with Sustainable Bowdoin on campus recycling efforts and events, served as a bioscience technician intern with the Environmental Protection Agency on a study of genomic mutations within grass species in Eastern Oregon, and interned with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a data technician for a study on fish-catch data along the Pacific Coast.

Katie is a native of Newport, Oregon and says: "I was excited to read the descriptions of the different projects Island Fellows are involved with because they, like Cool Communities, offer the opportunity to apply technology to benefit a community in an environmentally sustainable manner. I am strongly interested in how wind turbines, GIS mapping and other technologies may be integrated with social, economic and cultural concerns and simultaneously preserve the environment. I believe that the Maine Island Fellows Program offers the ideal opportunity to get hands-on experience with such long-term technological and developmental planning."