Amy Grommes Pulaski
Executive Director
Amy began as our interim director in January 2021 and agreed to serve in a permanent capacity that April. Amy comes to us with extensive experience in non-profit management.
She has in-depth knowledge of supporting small businesses & economic development, through her work managing Portland’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program for 10 years. She also helped the Greater Portland Council of Governments launch a grant program to support small businesses in response to the economic impact of COVID-19 in Cumberland County using local and federal resources.
She brings experience in fundraising, grant writing, and volunteer program development. Amy has dedicated her career to solving community problems through creativity and partnerships.
Trained in both engineering and community development, she has the ability to see across disciplines and boundaries to create holistic solutions. She is excited about supporting our downtown businesses and being involved with the many developments that will shape our downtown in the coming years.
Abby Wilson
Event and Volunteer Coordinator
Abby is enthusiastic about education, outreach, and community engagement. She enjoys adventure during all seasons and in her free time can be found playing in Maine’s many mountains and lakes. Abby enjoys hiking, photographing wildlife, snowshoeing, writing, snowboarding, swimming, and studying the night sky.
She has worked as a whale watch naturalist in the Gulf of Maine, a snowshoe guide in the mountains of Western Maine, a zipline instructor in the Southern Berkshires of Massachusetts, an assistant land steward on Mount Desert Island, a digital media intern with the Northeast Wilderness Trust in Vermont, and as an Education Specialist with the Scarborough Land Trust.
Ari Amacker
Project Coordinator VISTA
Ariana is a traveler and artist serving DDW as an AmeriCorps VISTA. She has over a decade of international experience and pioneering work with design research and innovation, education, community building, architecture and urban design. Her enthusiasm for the pluralism of human creativity informs her practices, and she is driven to empower local creatives, entrepreneurs, doers, providers, makers, and educators of all stripes in the shaping of Westbrook’s local economy and its sense of place. In her role as a VISTA, she brings an ecological mindset and is honored to help ensure equitable access to practices of design and development and to the resilience, health, and quality of life in the community for all residents.
