Margaret Brownlee - July 2022

Diversity Officer, Maine College of Art (MECA)

Margaret Brownlee calls herself a boomerang: “Born and raised in Portland, my family moved from Grant Street to St. John Street, to High Street, to Mellen Street, we moved around a lot! After graduating high school, I thought ‘I want to get away from this place and see the world.’” Ten years later, having worked in New York, Massachusetts, and a variety of other locations, she was in love and ready to move back home. Wanting to be involved in the field of education, she worked at both the University of Southern Maine (USM) and Southern Maine Community College (SMCC) before joining the Maine College of Art as Diversity Officer. “I love working with people; my passion is soaking in new information.” And, even though she grew up here in Portland, “I know what it’s like to be seen as an outsider. You have to get out. The more people I know, the more it feels like home again.” And although she acknowledges that racial equity is “one of the top things this state needs to work on, there are a lot of great people doing the work. It’s a lot of work, and it’s easy to get burned out. I play a part because I’m an educator. I don’t necessarily think it’s everyone’s job.”

Two podcasts Margaret recommends are podsavethepeople and National Public Radio’s Invisibilia — along with moments of silence, “just to relax.”