Board of Directors

Mike Michaud (Chair)
Former Congressman Mike Michaud represented Maine’s Second District in the U.S. House of Representatives from January 3, 2003 to January 3, 2015. In Congress, Michaud served as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. He also served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.Following his service in Congress, Mike Michaud served as Assistant Secretary of the Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS) in the U.S. Department of Labor. He was nominated to this position by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate, being sworn in on December 2, 2015, and he served until January 20, 2017. As the Assistant Secretary, Michaud reported to the Secretary of Labor. VETS is the focal point in the federal government for veterans employment by preparing military service members for transition to civilian employment, providing veterans with services to assist them in getting good jobs, protecting veterans employment rights, and promoting veterans employment in the private sector. Prior to his service in Congress, Michaud served in the Maine State Senate from 1994 to 2002, serving as President in 2001 and President Pro Tempore in 2002, and he also served in the Maine State House of Representatives from 1980 to 1994. Michaud was born and raised in the Katahdin Region of Maine, and graduated from Schenck High School in East Millinocket, Maine. Prior to his political career, Michaud worked for over 29 years at the Great Northern Paper Company in East Millinocket.

John Baldacci (Chair Emeritus)
Former Maine State Governor John Baldacci is currently Senior Advisor for Economic Development and Government Relations at Pierce Atwood LLP, a regional law firm headquartered in Portland, Maine. Prior to his service as Maine’s 73rd Governor, John represented Maine’s Second District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002, serving on the House Agriculture Committee and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. He was first elected to public office in 1978 as a Bangor City Councilor, and also served 12 years as a member of the Maine State Senate from the 9th district. In 2011, after completing his two terms as governor, John accepted an appointment as the director of the Department of Defense’s Military Health Care Reform Initiative where he worked with former Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Clifford L. Stanley, to conduct a full-scale review and evaluation of military health care and wellness. John is very active with many non-profit boards including serving as the chair for Jobs for America’s Graduates, Inc., co-chair of Fix-the-Debt Maine, campaign co-chair for the Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges, and as a member of the Home Base Leadership Council. A Maine native, John is a graduate of the University of Maine.

Steve LaTourette (Chair Emeritus In Memoriam)
Steve LaTourette was Chair of the Northeast-Midwest Institute’s Board of Directors from 2013 until he passed away in 2016 following a long illness. He was an unceasing advocate for the region and for the work of the Northeast-Midwest Institute.  Steve was a nine-term Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1995 to 2013.  He was highly respected by his colleagues in the House, and an outpouring of tributes and sympathy from current and former Representatives and Senators has followed the announcement of his passing.  During four years as Chair of the NEMWI Board of Directors, Steve sought to strengthen the work and impact of the Institute. He worked tirelessly to ensure that the needs of the region were in the forefront, especially economic and environmental priorities, most notably transportation, manufacturing, water quality, and Great Lakes issues.  Steve LaTourette’s distinguished career of public service, his extraordinary leadership of the Northeast-Midwest Institute, and his legacy working on behalf of Ohio and the region leave a legacy that will not be forgotten.

Mary Cronin Brooks (Vice-Chair)
Mary Cronin Brooks is the Managing Director at Smith Dawson & Andrews (SDA), a full service government relations firm in Washington, D.C. She joined SDA in 2010 after a career spanning federal, state and county government. Mary oversees the management of SDA’s clients and assists the firm’s clients with their policy and funding goals. She also works with private sector companies on government procurement, particularly in the defense and technology sectors. Most recently, Mary was Director of the bipartisan Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition (NEMW), where she managed a number of Congressional task forces, coordinating common policy interests among more than 70 Members of Congress representing 18 Northeast and Midwestern states. Prior to her service on Capitol Hill, Mary was Assistant Director of Government Relations for the Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools, the nation’s 10th-largest school system, and Legislative Director to the Assistant Majority Whip in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Mary graduated from Saint Michael’s College, holds a Master of Science in Public Affairs from the University of Massachusetts, McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, and a Master of Arts in Strategic Security Studies from the College of International Security Affairs at the National Defense University. She is a member of the Women in Government Relations and Women in International Trade professional societies and she serves on the development committee of the Washington School for Girls.

Vicky A. Bailey
Vicky A. Bailey is Principal at BHMM Energy Services, LLC, and the president of the Anderson Stratton International LLC management consultants in domestic and international energy industries. She has over twenty years of high level, national and international, corporate executive and governmental experience in energy and regulated industries. Ms. Bailey has demonstrated leadership as a state and federal regulator, a public utility corporate executive and as the leading international official for the U.S. Department of Energy. Ms. Bailey’s executive experience includes President and board member of PSI Energy, Inc., Indiana’s largest electric utility and subsidiary of the holding company Cinergy Corp., now Duke Energy.

Robert Clarke Brown
Robert Clarke Brown of Cleveland, Ohio is Treasurer of Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining Case Western Reserve in 2007, Mr. Brown was Capital Markets Advisor at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he assisted the Department in developing market-based financing initiatives, including implementation of the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, the first federal credit enhancement program for surface transportation. Earlier, Mr. Brown was an investment banker in Lehman Brothers’ transportation finance group, and he practiced law with the firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Cleveland. He also practiced and taught at the Institute for Public Interest Representation in Washington, D.C. During his military service, he was an engineer on the staff of the late Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, who fathered the U.S. Navy’s nuclear power program. Mr. Brown is a long-time member, appointed by President Clinton and re-appointed by President Bush, of the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the operator of Washington National and Washington Dulles Airports and the developer of the Dulles Metrorail project. He is a member of the Ohio and District of Columbia Bars.

Deborah DeMasi
Deborah DeMasi is a partner at the law firm Nixon Peabody LLC in Washington, DC. She has extensive experience in finance matters representing equity and other funds investing in domestic and international companies and infrastructure projects, project developers and sponsors, project companies, institutional investors, investment companies, and lenders in the development, financing and refinancing, acquisition, divestiture, and workout of power and infrastructure projects; domestic and international project financings, including senior, subordinated, and mezzanine debt arrangements; public offerings and private placements of debt and equity securities; loan workouts and restructurings; sales and acquisitions of assets and partnership and limited liability interests and stock; and general commercial matters, including joint venture and partnering arrangements and structuring and restructuring of equity funds.

Vincent DeVito
Vincent DeVito of Boston, Massachusetts, is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Cox Oil LLC. He formerly served as Counselor to the Secretary of the Interior for Energy Policy in the Immediate Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior, from 2017 to 2018. He previously was a corporate and regulatory attorney at the Boston office of Bowditch & Dewey. Mr. DeVito is an authority on renewable energy development and corporate sustainability issues, and he specializes in energy and clean technologies. He previously worked on legislative and regulatory corporate disclosure and compliance matters at the state, national, and international levels. He also previously served in the Office of the General Counsel at the U. S. Department of Energy and has served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Policy and International Affairs where he oversaw the Climate Change Technology Program. He also served as interim Executive Director of the Institute for Energy and Sustainability and sits on the Advisory Board of Greenopolis.com. He is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts, New York, and the District of Columbia.

Alex Echols
A former U.S. Senate staffer and executive at the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Mr. Echols currently serves as President of Terra Altus, a conservation consulting firm headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.

Philip S. English
Former U.S. Congressman Philip S. English is Senior Government Relations Adviser and Co-Chair of the government relations practice at Arent Fox. He assists Arent Fox clients in the areas of trade, health care, tax, and energy policy, as well as in state and municipal government operations.  During seven terms in the U.S. Congress, he represented western Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District (now redistricted to the 16th Congressional District), serving from 1995 to 2009. He was a member of the Ways and Means Committee starting as a freshman Congressman. As a Member of Congress, he was a strong advocate in the areas of health care, energy, tax, and trade policy. He also was a long-time member of the Joint Economic Committee and co-chair of the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute.  He also serves on the board of several leading policy organizations, including the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group, and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a leader in technology policy. He also currently serves as Coordinator of the Healthcare Group Purchasing Industry Initiative (HGPII), which enforces industry standards, promotes best business practices, and monitors adherence to its ethics code by healthcare group purchasing organizations. He also is Co-Chair of the Institute for Representative Government (IRG) and serves as Honorary Co-Chairman of the Center for Strategic Tax Reform (CSTR) and as Chairman of CSTR’s Board of Advisers.

Robert W. Gee
A former two time U.S. Asst. Secretary of Energy (Fossil Energy and Policy & International Affairs), as well as Chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission, Mr. Gee is a practicing attorney and President of Gee Strategies Group LLC, a Washington, DC-based energy and utilities consulting firm.

Henri Rauschenbach
Mr. Rauschenbach, a former Massachusetts State Senator, is currently with Smith & Rauschenbach, a Boston consulting firm.