Meet Our Team

Wintergreen is an organization based on the idea that creativity, advocacy, and community can produce great things.

Please take a moment and meet our board of directors, executive director, and dedicated team of creative staff members.

Danielle Rae Clark has been a part of our Wintergreen family since 2010. Over the years, she has served in just about every position at the arts center. She currently serves as chair of our board of directors. Danielle enjoys volunteering at our many events and is often seen facepainting at community events. She is always willing to roll up her sleeves with anything Wintergreen needs. Her help supports our efforts to make a positive impact on the children and families in our community. A resident of Caribou, Danielle is the Early Childhood Education Program coordinator and faculty member at Northern Maine Community College.

Brittany Delano first became a part of Wintergreen when she sent her oldest child to our creative preschool, Under the Willow Tree, in 2017. Her resourceful ways soon drew an invitation for her to join our board. Brittany’s volunteer commitment to Wintergreen includes being a driving force in the renovation of our new space at the Aroostook Centre Mall. Crafty, artistic, and talented with a hammer and saw, Brittany is a homemaker and design consultant. She resides in Presque Isle with her husband, Jake, and their three Wintergreen children: Barrett, Harper, and Asher.

Billi Griffeth is a Presque Isle native who joined our board of directors in 2018. She currently serves as the secretary. Billi works at Katahdin Trust Company serving as the senior vice president of community banking. She is an active mom of three Wintergreen children: Kapri, Kooper and Porter. They keep her on the run with basketball, hockey, and soccer schedules! The Griffeths are always on the go and in their spare time they enjoy traveling and hiking as a family.

Christine Grillo holds a degree in anthropology from the University of British Columbia and studied archaeology and art history at the University of Nottingham. She is the director of marketing and communications at Northern Maine Community College. While teaching English in Hokkaido, Japan, she developed a deep appreciation for the craftsmanship and pride Japanese artisans bring to their work. Christine enjoys sumo, travelling with her husband and two kids and has a particular fondness for visiting art galleries and natural history museums. She is proud to serve on the Wintergreen board, believing strongly in its mission and value to the County.

Sue Nickerson has been a woman of action at Wintergreen since our inception in 2006 when our founder, Lara Cannon, asked her to serve as the new nonprofit’s treasurer. Sue remains our treasurer to this day. She has seen Wintergreen through many phases keeping us all on track. Sue resides in Presque Isle and spends her winters in sunny Florida. She is a bookkeeper for longtime clients but saves time for her passions, spending time with her great-grandbabies and playing cards with her friends. Sue also serves on the board of C.A.N.C.E.R, Caring Area Neighbors for Cancer Education and Recovery.

Dylan Ouellette is a ceramics artist. He joined our board of directors in 2024. Dylan received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI) and is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Maine College of Art & Design in Portland. He is the ceramics, sculpture, and design foundations instructor for UMPI. Dylan is invested in developing the Aroostook County community and has even taken it into his art practice by harvesting local clay. No stranger to Wintergreen, Dylan served as student representative on our board of directors during his early undergraduate years. 

Gretchen Violette is a maker and reluctant artist, wanting to try all forms of art to better understand the passion artists feel for each medium. Being a part of Wintergreen since 2010, she joined the board of directors in 2020. Gretchen believes deeply in Wintergreen’s mission and is proud to be a part of a center that supports local artists in so many ways. In her spare time, Gretchen can be found in her workshop creating with repurposed items. She loves sharing new experiences, good food, and lots of laughter with her husband, Scott, and their children, Zoey and Ethan.

Dottie Hutchins joined Wintergreen as executive director in 2016. She takes great joy in supporting our board of directors and creative staff to help make Wintergreen a mainstay in Aroostook County. Dottie admires artists across genres. She finds her own creative adventures through writing and has had the privilege of working on several collaborative projects over the years. Dottie’s most recent writing project was for Maine’s largest construction company, CIANBRO, as a member of the company’s 75-th anniversary book team. A resident of Presque Isle, Dottie and her better half, Mike Lavoie, enjoy exploring West Texas and the Southwest with their dog, Poppy.

Lisa Brewer has been a part of Wintergreen since her girls were very young, attending programs and volunteering at events. In 2017, Lisa joined our preschool teaching team to help guide our newly launched creative preschool, Under the Willow Tree, on its path to success. She and her colleague, Katie Greenlaw, have created an amazing, loving program and remain at the helm. An experienced elementary education graduate of the University of Maine at Presque Isle, Lisa also helped found the Aroostook Autism Support Group. She lives in Presque Isle with her husband, Chad, and their two Wintergreen daughters, Mia and Ava.

Sophia Garcia is a native of New Sweden. She joined Wintergreen in 2022 as a volunteer the summer before her sophomore year in high school. With maturity beyond her years, Sophia became a paid assistant the following summer, progressing to After School Arts teacher. In 2025, Sophia will graduate from Caribou High School with plans to enter a pre-law program. When not at Wintergreen, Sophia can be found working at Aroostook Farm, the University of Maine’s research farm in Presque Isle, along with helping to herd cattle at her family’s farm. She loves to read, go on walks with her dog, and enjoy coffee with friends.

Katie Greenlaw joined Wintergreen as a member of our creative preschool teaching team in 2017. She and her colleague, Lisa Brewer, have nurtured, cherished, and graduated the students of every class at Under the Willow Tree since the program’s inception. Katie came to Wintergreen with a decade of experience at a developmental preschool. With family roots in Maine, Katie grew up in Georgia. She later made the Pine Tree State her permanent home where she attended the University of Maine. She now resides in Presque Isle with her husband, Ben, and their three children, Brent, Libby, and Casey.

Erin Marquis joined Wintergreen in early 2023 with an idea to develop Saplings, an art-based outdoor learning program for ages 0-5. Quickly learning that Erin worked as a broadcast journalist in Bangor for four years, it didn’t take long to enlist her video production skills to help our budding student reporters at WKNN, Wintergreen Kids News Network. She went on to launch Saplings that fall. A native of Westfield, Erin returned to Aroostook County to raise her family. She and her husband, Hogan, have three active, curious boys, Bode, Rollie, and Hugo. In 2024, they welcomed baby Greta.

Claire Mautz is a local artist who specializes in digital art and animation. She joined Wintergreen in 2024 as our digital After School Arts teacher. Claire grew up with art, finding peace, joy, and growth in her work. Exploring mediums such as acrylics, watercolors, oil, and even tattooing, she found a niche in the infinite possibilities of the digital realm. Claire is a student at the University of Maine at Presque Isle studying education with a goal of teaching kindergarten when she graduates. When not working or studying, Claire spends time with her little brothers, Peter and David, both Under the Willow Tree alumni.

Shaye McHatten joined Wintergreen as our Summer Arts teacher in 2017, following her freshman year in college. In addition to transforming our summer program into theme-based camps, Shaye spearheaded the creation of ART with HeART, a free arts program in partnership with the Presque Isle Housing Authority that continues to grow and thrive since its inception. A native of Mapleton, Shaye graduated with a degree in early childhood and elementary education from Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. After teaching elementary school in Vermont for several years, she returned to her home state where she now teaches in southern Maine. Shaye enjoys summers in Aroostook County.

Jessica O’Donnell is a long-time member of our Wintergreen family. Over the years, she has attended several Wintergreen programs and events with students in her care. In 2024, Jess officially joined our team as our front desk and center manager. She holds a degree in social work from the University of Maine at Presque Isle and has worked with local school systems and child-centered programs. Jess has great patience with youth, which has served her well supervising dozens of teenagers as manager of Houlton Farms Dairy Bar in Presque Isle. Born in Connecticut, Jess grew up in Washburn. Her future includes a teaching degree.

Gretchen Violette holds the unique position of wearing two hats at Wintergreen. She is a member of our creative staff and a member of our board of directors. In 2022, Gretchen stepped down as board chair to become our events director. She was pivotal in the 2020 renovation of our new space at the Aroostook Centre Mall. From project planning and budgeting, to swinging a hammer, Gretchen helped lead our all-volunteer efforts to transform our space. A native of central Maine, Gretchen has made Aroostook County her home. Often recruiting her husband, Scott, and children, Zoey and Ethan, to help with art center projects, they are a true Wintergreen family.