Graduate and Professional Center
The Maine Center is located in Portland’s Old Port and was made possible through a $55 million investment by the Harold Alfond Foundation. The Maine Center provides interdisciplinary, experiential, and market-driven graduate and professional programming across business, law, policy, and engineering and computing to meet the needs of Maine’s employers and future leaders. The building hosts the University of Maine School of Law, MBA and engineering programs and is being expanded to further connect students, entrepreneurs and researchers throughout the state.
The Maine Center Delivers Integration and Innovation: Professionals and business leaders must work with teams and across disciplines to advance projects and pursue opportunities. Graduate and professional education must deliver the same integration to meet the needs of employers and serve students seeking to upgrade their skills and opportunities for career and leadership development.
The Maine Center Continues to Perform: The $55 million investment in the Maine Center Graduate & Professional Studies programs follows on prior gifts from the Harold Alfond Foundation to advance curriculum innovation, real-world relevance and stronger connections among educators and employers. The ambitious work is being led by Seth Goodall, Maine Center Ventures CEO which includes serving as the Executive Director of the University of Maine System’s Graduate and Professional Center (“The Maine Center”). In these roles, Goodall is responsible for leading The Maine Center and Maine Center Ventures, a tax-exempt nonprofit focused on expanding industry partnerships and ties to the state’s business, civic and legal communities.
The Maine Center Brings Us Together: A vibrant, growing Maine economy needs a critical mass of leaders who are connected, highly prepared, and focused on the knowledge economy. The Maine Center is helping build a dynamic education and workforce development community in the state through innovation and experiential learning delivered through clinics, practicums and internships. The result is stronger ties across the globe to any place where workers who are pursuing opportunities with Maine-based projects, our employers and educational institutions reside.
“The Maine Center takes an approach to student needs that thinks much more expansively about what is possible. It allows us to deliver professional and graduate degrees that link learning across disciplines, allowing us to provide more comprehensive career and leadership preparation to our students. The expertise and community connections at the center are enhancing our ability to design curriculums that are responsive to the needs of the employer communities today.” – Leigh Saufley, Dean of the University of Maine School of Law
The Maine Center Is Building: The UMS TRANSFORMS Maine Center initiative is being led by Seth Goodall, CEO of Maine Center Ventures and Executive Director of the Maine Center. With focused coordination, Seth will work with leadership from Maine Law, the University of Southern Maine, and the UMaine School of Business, as well as faculty, donors, and workforce partners to build a global brand and reach for University of Maine System graduate business, law and policy, along with engineering, computing, and information sciences. These programs will come together in a new state-of-the-art building in Portland that, by design, will strengthen connections throughout Maine and its higher education community.
Learn more about these programs and schools: