By way of introduction, we are pleased to bring you the biographies of those who will be speaking during this summer’s 2025 Schedule of Events, to be held July 23-28.

Wednesday, July 23
Steve Cayard
Steve Cayard is a builder of birchbark canoes in Wellington, Maine. His canoes are faithful to the traditional style of the early Wabanaki birchbark canoes of Maine and New Brunswick, based on his careful research. He has built over 60 birchbark canoes, either on commission, or as leader or co-leader of educational group projects. Most of these teaching projects have been in partnership with the Wabanaki communities, who have reached out to Steve in their efforts to keep this traditional art alive. Steve has repaired or participated in the conservation of a number of historic birchbark canoes, for museums throughout the Northeast. 

Jason Pardilla
Jason Pardilla is a member of the Penobscot Nation and also a Penobscot Nation Council member. He has been paddling canoes in the traditional territory of the Penobscots since the 1970s, from the headwaters to the ocean. Jason has participated in several group projects building birch bark canoes. He also shares his knowledge of canoes and waterways while guiding people for the Penobscot Nation’s Cultural Tourism Program.

Ryan Ranco Kelley
Ryan Ranco Kelley is a member of the Penobscot Nation and guides for their cultural program. In 2023, he completed an 1800-mile canoe journey across traditional Indigenous water routes in the northeast. Ryan’s documentary of this four-month journey was featured on PBS in New Hampshire and at last year’s Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival. This year, his knowledge, experiences, and the importance of the riversfrom a Penobscot point of view will be shared as part of The Art of River Traveling. 

Thursday, July 24
Alexandra Conover Bennett
Alexandra Bennett, a nature lover since childhood, has been a year round Master Maine Guide for over 40 years. Her enthusiasm abounds on the trails, whether she’s listening to songs of the thrushes and warblers, observing shifts in the weather heralded by frogs, spying edible and medicinal wild flowers, admiring the miniature world of mosses and lichens, or harvesting mushrooms. Raised eight miles from Thoreau’s Walden Pond, in her teen-hood, Thoreau’s nature observations, canoe trip adventures, and unusual philosophies greatly influenced and inspired her life’s choices. 

Amity Wilczek
Dr. Amity Wilczek is a longtime educator, ecologist, and Thoreau enthusiast who spent 10 years at Deep Springs College serving as Herbert Reich Chair of Natural Sciences, Academic Dean, and Vice President. Her research has been published in Science, Ecology, and many other journals. Amity now lives in Concord, Massachusetts, where she serves on the Thoreau Farm Trust Board, and saunters in Thoreau country at every opportunity.

Richard Smith
Richard Smith has lectured on and written about antebellum United States history and 19th-Century American literature since 1995. He has worked in Concord as a public historian and Living History Interpreter for 25 years and has portrayed Henry Thoreau at Walden Pond, around the country, and in Canada. He has written or edited 11 books for Arcadia Publishing and is a regular contributor to Discover Concord Magazine.

**See above for biographies of Steve Cayard, Jason Pardilla, Ryan Ranco Kelley

Isaac Crabtree
Isaac Crabtree has been teaching high school science at Greenville Consolidated School since 2007 and photographing the Moosehead Lake region for much of that time. While his expertise is in aerial photography, his access to the dark skies in this region has given him ample opportunity to hone his skills in astrophotography. He will share a beginner’s guide to taking photos at night, focusing on the Milky Way, Northern Lights, and other celestial events, like comets.

Friday, July 25
** See above for the biographies of Master Maine Guide Alexandra Conover Bennett and Dr. Amity Wilczek.

** See above for the biography of Thoreau speaker Richard Smith.

Suzanne M. AuClair
Suzanne M. AuClair has published extensively about the Moosehead Lake Region for 31 years. She is an award-winning journalist and photographer, with a specific interest in documenting for historical context, past to present. She produced the state’s reference anthology The Origin, Formation & History of Maine’s Inland Fisheries Division. As executive director of the Moosehead Historical Society & Museums (retired), she authored Moosehead Lake Region: Gateway to Maine’s North Woods, expanded its programming, created its cultural and outdoor heritage museums, cultivated international relations, and initiated a partnership with the Penobscot Nation Cultural and Historic Preservation Department. She has served on many boards. In 2024, Suzanne co-incorporated the Thoreau-Wabanaki Trail Festival. Today, she serves as its president. 

Lee Kantar
Lee Kantar has served as the state’s deer then moose project leader for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife for 20 years. He has worked extensively managing big game and non-game species in other states. Currently, he is responsible for the management and research of Maine’s moose population. He leads research on adult cow and calf moose survival, aerial surveys, disease surveillance and reproduction in Maine’s moose. In 2019, Lee was recognized internationally for his work, receiving the Distinguished Moose Biologist Award from the North American Moose Conference.

Darren J. Ranco
Darren J. Ranco, PhD, is a Professor of Anthropology, Chair of Native American Programs, and Faculty Fellow at the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine.  He has published extensively and teaches classes on Indigenous intellectual property rights, research ethics and methodology, environmental and climate justice, and tribal governance. 

John J. Kucich
John J. Kucich is a professor of English at Bridgewater State University. His edited collection of essays, Rediscovering the Maine Woods: Thoreau’s Legacy in an Unsettled Land, was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2019. His latest book is Unsettling Thoreau: Native Americans, Settler Colonialism and the Power of Place (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024). He currently serves as the president of the Thoreau Society. 

Saturday-Monday, July 26-28
James Eric Francis, Sr.
James Eric Francis Sr. serves as the Director of Cultural and Historic Preservation, Tribal Historian, and Chair of the Penobscot Tribal Rights and Resource Protection Board for the Penobscot Nation. As a historian, he explores the relationship between Maine Native Americans and the land. Before his current roles, James contributed to the Wabanaki Studies Commission, assisting with the implementation of Maine’s Native American Studies Law in schools. He co-produced the documentary *Invisible*, which highlights the racism faced by Native Americans in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. James is a member of the Abbe Museum’s Board of Trustees and Abbe Council; co-founder and Chair of Local Context, an initiative dedicated to supporting Indigenous communities in managing their cultural heritage and intellectual property. He serves on the UMaine Hudson Museum Advisory Board and chairs the Maine Archives Board. James is also a visual artist, photographer, filmmaker, painter, and graphic artist.