Meet the Panelists
Ashley Albert - highly acclaimed Director of Choral Music at Brunswick High School (BHS) in Maine, known for leading successful choirs, teaching guitar/piano, directing theater, and holding leadership roles in music education, including state-level positions with the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). She's recognized for creating a positive, inclusive space for students, earning accolades like being named one of "50 Music Teachers who Make a Difference" by SBO+ Magazine.
Sampson Spadafore - (they/them) is a white, neurodivergent, queer and trans person currently living on unceded Wabanaki tribal land. Sampson works as a poet, writer, and theatre artist around themes of trans identity, queer and trans joy, family, romantic partners, community, grief, spirituality, and self expression. They hold a BFA in Musical Theatre from Nazareth University of Rochester. They are the recipient of the 2022 Bodwell Fellowship through the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and Hewnoaks Artist Residency. They were nominated as Portland Poet Laureate. They are proudly a founding member of Brazen Bandits, a trans artist collective.
Sue Tesar - photographer and visual artist, retired Navy nurse, massage therapist, and a certified lay minister at Brunswick United Methodist Church in Brunswick, Maine. Sue is a passionate advocate for women’s voices and the marginalized. Her photography is an expression of her faith and humanity.
Maya Williams - (ey/em, they/them, and she/her) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who is currently an Ashley Bryan Fellow, a Creative Fellow of the University of New England's Maine Women Writers Collection, and was selected as the seventh Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine for a July 2021 to July 2024 term. Ey were the recipient of the Maine Humanities Council's Constance Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2024 and will compete with the COVID cautious slam team Invisible Poets Collective starting in the spring of 2026.