J. Bonnie Newman, the former interim president of the University of New Hampshire, was named interim chancellor of the New Hampshire Community College System, succeeding Richard Gustafson, who is retiring as chancellor of the seven-campus system. Newman was executive dean of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, an assistant to President George H.W. Bush, president of the Business and Industry Association and the New England Council. When U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire accepted President Obama's offer to be his secretary of commerce in 2009, Newman was expected to fill Gregg's seat, until the senator changed his mind.

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Robert Kennedy, who served for 11 years as president of the University of Maine, was named interim president of the Connecticut Board of Regents of Higher Education, a new system, which includes the four state universities, as well as the community college system and Charter Oak State College. Michael P. Meotti, the current interim president, will become executive vice president.

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College of the Atlantic named Darron Collins as its next president. Currently director of creative assets at the World Wildlife Fund, Collins will become the first COA alumnus to head the college in Bar Harbor, Maine.

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The Maine Center for Economic Policy (MECEP) selected Garrett Martin, MECEP's current associate director, as the organization's new executive director, to succeed Christopher St. John, who was the think tank's founding executive director. Before joining the MECEP staff in February 2009, Martin was director of Program Strategy at the Maine Community Foundation and associate director at the Genesis Community Loan Fund.