Stepping Stone Housing, Inc.
Our BOARD
Marilee Harris
Executive Director
Marilee joined the Stepping Stone Housing Board in 2016. She was hired as executive director on July 1, 2016 and served until August 31, 2019 when she accepted a full-time teaching position. She was immediately elected as president at the September 2019 meeting succeeding Bill Howlett and becoming SSHI’s second president. Marilee is also the pastor at the Damariscotta Baptist Church and has a passion for the mission of SSHI.
Ken Lydecker
President
Annie Gastaldo
Vice President
Annie joined the SSHI board in 2024. She is passionate about helping in her community and excited to be part of an incredible cause, such as SSHI. Annie works as a licensed massage therapist in Newcastle. She opened her massage business in 2020. While being from midcoast maine she has had the opportunity to live many different places over seas. She spent three years living in Europe taking care of children and teaching them English. While she still has a love for travel, she is happy to be home putting down roots in Maine.
Bruce Bachelder
Treasurer
Bruce is a CPA practicing in Damariscotta. He and wife Karen (also a big SSHI volunteer) have lived in Damariscotta for over 40 years. Bruce has been a SSHI Board member and volunteer since 2014. He has a personal connection to SSHI as he and Karen lived at Blue Haven in 1977. Karen does the bookkeeping for SSHI and manages the Permanent Yard Sale. When not working or volunteering B &K enjoy family, pets, gardening and travel.
Kimberley Tolley
Secretary
Kim has lived in Midcoast Maine with her family for over 23 years, and has been a SSHI Board Member since 2016. She is active in the community and serves on several non-profit boards and volunteers for several organizations in our Midcoast Maine community as well as being active in the Ecumenical Council for the Prevention of Homelessness and the All Saints Parish community. Kim worked at the Damariscotta Montessori School for many years and now serves as President of the Board of the school. She has three daughters and a husband who is an Oregon Columbia River Bar Pilot. The Tolley family enjoys traveling, creating, and going on adventures together.
Carolyn Neighoff
Original Board Member
Carolyn is an original Board Member of Stepping Stone Housing and also serves at the Pastor at Water of Life Lutheran Church, where she has been a member for twenty five years. In her former professional life Carolyn was a teacher, coach and administrator in the Augusta School Department. Carolyn is married to Jack Crommett and together they live in Augusta. She has two children, Krista Chase and Seth Meyer, and four step children. Between them they have seven grandchildren.
Karol Clark
Board Member
Karol has been a Spanish and French teacher for the past thirty-five years at Lincoln Academy, the Chewonki Foundation and Boothbay Region Elementary and High School. In addition she has been a member of the Damariscotta Baptist Church for over forty years, participating in short-term mission trips and serving monthly Wednesday night meals at the Newcastle Congregational Church for over twenty years. When Pastor Marilee Harris said that Stepping Stones Housing was looking for new members Karol volunteered in 2022, hoping to give back to her community and has not once regretted the decision.
Lonnie Anderson
Board Member
Lonnie is a long time board member of SSHI. She graduated Lincoln Academy and attended Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing and Wellesley College. She has worked as a private orthopedic scrub nurse and a bookkeeper for family business. She moved back to Jefferson, Maine with her husban Ken in the early 90s. She has volunteered over the years for the Girl Scouts; as a Master Gardener in schools; Bunker Hill Ladies' Aid; Stepping Stone Housing Inc; and Second Congregational Church Outreach and Diaconate. Lonnie has 3 children and 4 grandchildren.
Kay Whitner
Board Member
Susan Dale
Board Member
Susan joined the Stepping Stones Board in January, 2025. She is a long-time resident of Midcoast Maine, beginning with childhood summers on Rutherford Island, South Bristol. Her love of Maine drew her here permanently in the 1970s and she and her husband now reside in Newcastle . Susan volunteers with and is a past board member of Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust and was a member of the Miles Hospital performance improvement committee. Having worked in retail management at L.L. Bean and Maine Sport, Susan enjoys working in the Stepping Stones Thrift shop.