Mission and Organization

The mission of Belfast Senior College is to provide intellectual stimulation, practical knowledge, social interaction and fun for persons 50 years of age or older.

Organizational Overview

Our mission and overall direction of the Senior College are defined and refined by the Board of Trustees. The execution of the organization's mission falls to a collection of committees. Most committees are standing committees. Occasionally an ad hoc committee is formed to respond to a one-time need for planning.

All board members and all committee members are volunteers.

Click here to download our By-Laws, adopted 9-12-2024.

Board of Trustees 2025-2026

Trustees are elected by the membership at the annual meeting in September of each year. Board terms are 3 years and are staggered. If you are interested in joining the Board we would welcome you! Contact the the Nominating Committee.

The email address for the board is trustees@belfastseniorcollege.org.

View minutes of Board of Trustee meetings.

Current trustees and the email addresses of the officers:

Mayo Bulloch, President, term ends 2027
president@belfastseniorcollege.org

Jeff Edwards, term ends 2027

Sue Garrett, term end 2028

Karen Gleeson, Secretary, term ends 2026
secretary@belfastseniorcollege.org

Phil Jacks, term ends 2027

Jesse Liebman, Treasurer, term ends 2028
treasurer@belfastseniorcollege.org

Patsy Meisner, Vice President, term ends 2027

Monica Morris, term ends 2028

Denise Pendleton, term ends 2028

Eli Silverman, term ends 2027

David Urquia, term ends 2028

Board Member Biographies

Mayo Metcalf Bulloch retired from Case Western Reserve University after a 33-year career where she oversaw various programs including academic support, disability services, teaching assistant training, student community service, and student orientation and parent programs. She and her husband Steve bought land in Searsport in 2004 and moved to Maine permanently in 2016.

She has served on the Carver Memorial Library Board, Friends of Sears Island Advisory Board, Searsport Historic Preservation Committee, and Waldo County Literacy Volunteers Advisory Board. She has co-taught in two Senior College courses and enjoyed many more. Her main interests are literature, film, and travel.

Patsy Meisner is a former elementary school and art teacher.  She has a BA from the University of Illinois and an MEd from the University of New Orleans. She lived in Brunswick, Maine for 22 years before moving to Belfast to be closer to family.  As a new Belfast resident during the pandemic shutdown, she was delighted to discover Belfast Senior College and took many courses online. In addition to being a student and former instructor, she currently serves as Volunteer Coordinator, and a Curriculum Committee member. 

Jesse Liebman was an Adjunct Professor at Kennesaw State University's Dept of Economics, Finance and Quantitative Analysis, teaching Principles of Microeconomics. He also consulted internationally in travel product distribution. Jesse served in senior executive roles at four international travel and transport corporations. He holds an MBA degree in Finance and International Business and an undergraduate BS degree in International Affairs.

Karen Gleeson moved to midcoast Maine in the autumn of 2016 with her photographer husband Paul after a lifetime living in and around New York City and working in a variety of careers: museum education, environmental education, community organizing and hospice work. Her retirement in Maine has enabled her to have a garden and space for her weaving, sewing and crafts activities and enjoy a beautiful Maine library system full of books and movies to borrow. They have also organized movie programs at the Belfast Library and a few for Senior College. At Senior College, she has taken many courses in a variety of subjects (learning to knit in one of them) and has taught a variety of classes: end-of-life planning, the wives of Henry VIII, and one session about their trip to Iceland. She continues to live happily in Northport, where her gardening has been slowed down by some age-related health problems, but she continues to be an enthusiastic lifelong learner.

Jeff Edwards is a graduate of Earlham College and Yale Divinity School. He retired to Belfast after serving for forty years as a pastor in New Jersey. Throughout his ministry, Jeff wrote and directed plays, inviting anybody willing to engage with him in the process of creating theater. Out of that experience, Jeff offered a class at Belfast Senior College, entitled An Experiment in Creating Theater, in which over the course of six weeks a new play was written and staged at the Maskers’ Theater. Jeff has also taught two classes on Carl Jung and his ideas regarding spirituality and the second half of life, and another on Jesus of Nazareth.

Phil Jacks

Monica Morris worked as a chemical engineer at Exxon’s refinery in Linden, NJ, a consultant for Coopers and Lybrand in New York City, and a business analyst for Gillette in Boston. She then shifted her career into education and was a Montessori elementary and middle school teacher for over 20 years. She also taught Montessori teachers-in-training in the US and Europe. She has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and a masters degree in business administration. Monica was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina and lived in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts before coming to Belfast over 5 years ago.

Denise Pendleton holds an MFA in Writing and a MA in Literacy Education and is a published poet. She has devoted most of her career to promoting reading, writing and the arts in the nonprofit organizations including Maine Arts and the Portland Public Library. As program officer at the Maine Humanities Council, she developed the statewide Born to Read program.

She presently serves as coordinator of Literacy Volunteers of Waldo County and is on the Searsmont Town Library board. Denise is a Belfast native, returning with her husband after a thirty-year hiatus to raise her two children here. Her passions include being with family as well as reading, writing, and getting into the great outdoors.

Eli Silverman, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center of City University of New York. He has lectured, consulted with, and trained numerous police agencies in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He has enjoyed the Senior College experience as a participant and a lecturer in course offerings. Residing in Belfast has provided the welcome opportunity to be a member of the Lincolnville and Driveway bands in addition to riding his bike in Waldo County.

David Urquia is a retired Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and he has served as a board member with several medical organizations. David has taught several classes at Belfast Senior College on subjects such as New England history and the Civil War.