WHO WE ARE

The "OUR" in Finding Our Voices

Finding Our Voices is led and driven by Maine survivors of intimate partner abuse, lifted up by caring and creative community members who help get us louder and brighter across the state.

Patrisha McLean, Founder & CEO of Finding Our Voices, photojournalist and women rights advocate, based in Camden. Patrisha is the author of All Fall Down (2013), the biography of the child actor in Shane, and the photo books Maine Street: Faces and Voices from a Small Town (2010) about her neighbors in Camden, and My Island (2015), about summer and year-round children on North Haven, Vinalhaven, and Isleboro. Her photographs are in the permanent collections of the Farnsworth Museum and Portland Museum of Art. Read More

Photo by Mary Kamradt

BOARD MEMBERS

Nicole Larrabee of Cushing is the owner of Superior Restoration in Camden. As board treasurer she brings 15 years of experience in financial services. With an MBA focusing on management she wants to help spread awareness of domestic violence in the workplace, highlighting its financial impact in the business community.

Photo by Patrisha McLean

Pamela Gagnon da Silva, LCPC, of Hancock, is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) dedicated to fostering interdependence, equality, and resilience in response to oppression and trauma and has worked exclusively with domestic abuse survivors for the past decade. She is the founder of Resilient Women, a place of support and connection for women impacted by abuse. She teaches Intimate Partner Violence Dynamics and Community Response and Introduction to Feminist Therapy at College of the Atlantic and is the recipient of the John D. Burchard Award for her contributions to the mental health field specific to her work with Maine teenagers seeking to end dating violence.

Dr. Elizabeth True of Sedgwick is the Vice President for Student Affairs at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor. She also serves as the college’s Title IX Coordinator, and is the Maine State Community Colleges’ representative to the Maine Higher Education Interpersonal Violence Advisory Commission.

Liz previously worked at Maine Maritime Academy. She first became engaged in the work of preventing and responding to incidents of interpersonal violence as a volunteer on the crisis hotline for the Rutland Vermont Women’s Shelter.

Michelle Morel of South Portland is a Maine native and is founder and president of Confocal Communications, a women-owned consulting firm specializing in developing and implementing brand and communications strategies. The firm specializes in public health campaigns including youth substance use prevention, increasing access to affordable, high quality child care and early education, addressing the housing crisis, and increasing the use of community health workers to achieve better health outcomes. She is Secretary of the Board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine.

Susan Brennan of Bath brings 40 years of experience in executive assistance and fundraising, along with a deep commitment to justice, equity, and compassionate care. Through the decades, she volunteered for ten years with a nonprofit dedicated to eradicating landmines and rebuilding war-torn communities, supported terminally ill children, and served on the board of NorthStar Clubhouse, which empowers adults living with mental health challenges. These experiences profoundly shaped her unwavering belief in the power of service, empathy, and human dignity.

Lilly DesRoberts of Saco is currently a senior at University of New England where she studies Medical Biology with a minor in Mental Health Rehabilitation. She plans to go to dental school next Fall to become a dentist. Someday, she hopes to become a Finding Our Smile provider. On campus, she is involved with the Pre-Dental Club as president, Class of 2026 Council as president, and works for the Undergraduate Student Admissions as an ambassador. Outside of school, she works as a dental assistant at Endodontic Associates in Portland. Lilly is a born and raised Mainer and loves to spend her free time walking the beach with her dog Violet, skiing Sugarloaf Mountain, and spending time with her family and friends. Lilly has been involved with Finding Our Voices since October 2024 and is a recently elected board member. She is a two-year survivor of domestic violence and her personal mission is to raise awareness about abuse in teenage relationships.

Chief of Staff

Mary Kamradt brings over 20 years of administrative management in Human Resources and data administration. Before joining Finding Our Voices, she worked as the data coordinator for the largest domestic violence agency in Seattle, WA where she performed data reporting in compliance with all government contracts and also maintained the confidential client database. She is committed to utilizing her professional skills and lived experiences to support survivors and educate the community about domestic violence in Maine.

Listen to Patrisha’s Podcast with Mary here.

Sisterhood of Survivors

Forty-five Maine women survivors aged 18 to 85 are standing proud and speaking loud on Finding Our Voices posters and bookmarks in 100 towns across Maine, alerting the general public to the raging public health emergency that is domestic abuse, erasing the stereotype, and letting our sister-survivors know they are not alone, it is not their shame or their fault, and there IS a way out.