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Updated: March 5, 2025

With retirement on the horizon, director of Downeast Institute reflects on a decade of change

A person poses by the water. Photo / Courtesy Downeast Institute Dianne Tilton helped shepherd the Downeast Institute’s 2018 expansion and launch the next capital campaign to meet additional needs .
By Laurie Schreiber

The executive director of the Downeast Institute in Beals plans to retire after serving over 30 years with nonprofits across Maine.

Dianne Tilton has led the institute since 2015.

Previously, she spent 13 years as founding executive director of the Sunrise County Economic Council in Machias. During that time, she was a founding and long-term board member of the Downeast Institute. 

A state representative from 2008 to 2012, she served on the Joint Standing Committee on Marine Resources, Joint Select Committee on Maine’s Energy Future and Joint Select Committee on Regulatory Reform.

The Harrington native received a bachelor's in journalism from the University of Maine and worked for a daily newspaper in Concord, N.H., for six years.

Achievements include participation in 2009 in the Emerging Political Leaders Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. Recognitions include the 2004 Mainebiz Next List, University of New England’s Deborah Morton Award for Outstanding Maine Women, Maine Development Foundation’s Kenneth M. Curtis Leadership Award,  Maine Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration’s Maine Public Administrator of the Year and Finance Authority of Maine’s Economic Developer of the Year.

Q&A with Dianne Tilton

Mainebiz asked Tilton how the institute evolved during her tenure. Here’s an edited transcript.

Mainebiz: How did you become involved with the Downeast Institute?

Dianne Tilton: I was a founding board member and served on the board for 10 years until I went into the legislature. At the Sunrise County Economic Council, we were early supporters of the Beals Island Regional Shellfish Hatchery, before it became the Downeast Institute. 

Downeast Institute asked me to come back on the board and then I took the position as executive director. They were trying to raise money for a big expansion [completed in 2018]. When I sat the employees down on my first day there, they asked, "When are we going to finish the expansion?" So it was top of mind.

MB: Why was an expansion needed?

DT: The hatchery and education center were very tight. We had researchers coming from out-of-state who would count samples on the picnic tables outside because there wasn’t anyplace inside to do it. It was a very effective place but not as well-appointed as it is now. 

An aerial view of woods, water and buildings.
Photo / Courtesy Downeast Institute
Downeast Institute’s laboratories, hatchery and education center.

MB: What was the institute’s focus at that time?

DT: When I came in, they were growing clam seed for municipal shellfish committees — and they still are. They were also starting hatchery research for blue mussels, which ultimately turned to gold mussels [which have a unique golden color] that are available now. We started growing more species to try to diversify shellfish aquaculture, such as European oysters, razor clams and Atlantic surf clams. We’ve come up with the hatchery portion of that technology, but some work still needs to be done. 

MB: How did you develop the specialized knowledge for this field? 

DT: I think a communications background prepares you for just about anything. I think the secret for me is working with boards of directors, because what I don’t know, they know. I listen to them and learn what I need to learn about any subject matter that I’m not familiar with. I do the research. And when I was at the Sunrise County Economic Council, one of the things the board wanted was for us to be at the table regarding the issues that affected the state as a whole. So I networked with different groups and organizations and listened to what a variety of people have to say about the issues.

MB: Now Downeast Institute is looking to raise $4 million to create more housing for staff, visiting researchers and interns and to support operations and other capital priorities. Any other plans in the works?

DT: Research-wise, we’re focused on sea scallops. There’s no hatchery technology for sea scallops right now, although there is interest in them in the aquaculture industry. Quite a few people are growing them on leases, but they have to collect the babies in the wild, which isn’t a sure thing. They’re very difficult to grow out to seed size. We’ve had some limited success and we’re working with the Darling Marine Center [a University of Maine marine and environmental sciences field station in South Bristol] and Mook Sea Farm [an oyster farm in South Bristol], hoping we can solve the puzzle.

People are working on mud flats.
Photo / Courtesy Downeast Institute
Brian Beal, founder of the Downeast Institute, is seen several years ago working on a clam recruitment monitoring system on a Sipayik Tribal clam flat.

We’re tying to get funding to start to commercialize the Atlantic surf clam, called “butter clams,” which can be grown fairly easily and quickly. There’s a market outside of Maine and growers are interested.

MB: Do you have a retirement date?

DT: Once a new person has been hired and trained. We’ve written up a position profile and will start posting it.  We’re hoping for someone who has the background and the ability to come in and take us to the next level. We have so much potential and so much lined up to help us grow. 

People have told me, “You’ve done so much.” But when I came to Downeast Institute as executive director, activities had exploded and it had so much potential. It’s there again. We have all this untapped potential and we need someone able to come in and get us over the horizon. 

About Downeast Institute

Downeast Institute is a marine research laboratory and education center with a shellfish research and production hatchery.

In the mid-1980s, fishermen and community members from six towns in Washington County became concerned about a decline in soft-shell clam harvests. They joined with research scientist Brian Beal to learn how to spawn clams, raise larvae and grow them into seed clams that can be planted in mudflats. The effort initiated Maine’s first public shellfish hatchery and founded the organization that was to become the Downeast Institute. The institute works with community and industry partners to discover and develop methods and techniques to adapt fisheries to the changing marine environment and create new opportunities for fishermen and entrepreneurs.

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