FocusMaine, a private sector initiative that promotes job growth and the state’s economy, has hired Mikayla Sweet as its grants and finance manager and Courtney Crossgrove as the Food and Agriculture Program manager.
Sweet has over eight years of experience in grant-seeking organizations and a grant-making foundation, as well as five years of experience in nonprofit program and operations management.
Most recently, she served as a grant and contracts administrator for the University of Virginia, managing a $50 million research portfolio. She also worked in Dublin, Ireland, developing operations and staff for a health care organization’s new fundraising initiative. In Washington, D.C., she oversaw the grants department for an education organization and managed the grant-making cycle and database for a civil legal aid organization.
She holds a master’s in nonprofit administration from Louisiana State University in Shreveport and a bachelor’s in sociology from Appalachian State University.
“The more we invest in growing Maine’s economy, the more our citizens’ standard of living will improvem,” said Sweet. “I hope to make more people aware of the opportunities that FocusMaine provides.”
Crossgrove spent a year as a Resilience Corps fellow working on community-based sustainability and climate resilience programs in the greater Portland region, including a craft beverage technical assistance and recognition program. Previously, she was a program assistant at the United States Agency for International Development.
“My interests mesh exactly with what FocusMaine is about, growth with sustainability,” said Crossgrove. “I look forward to creating meaningful Maine jobs.”
She earned a master’s degree in sustainability science with a focus on food and agriculture from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a bachelor’s in nutrition and dietetics from the University of New Haven in Connecticut.
FocusMaine ramps up the creation of quality Maine jobs by investing in three of the state’s globally competitive and high-growth fields — agriculture, aquaculture and biopharmaceuticals.