University of Southern Maine

News Releases

Institute for Child and Family Policy To Be Named in Honor of Catherine E. Cutler

June 23, 2005

The Institute for Child and Family Policy, a research and public service unit within the University of Southern Maine's Muskie School of Public Service, will be named on July 1 in honor of a woman who worked for a half century to improve family services and mental health care reform throughout the state of Maine.

As of July 1, the Institute will become The Catherine E. Cutler Institute for Child and Family Policy in recognition of gifts in Catherine Cutler's honor from members of her family and friends. The gifts will support construction of a new home for the USM Muskie School.

"My brothers and I and our families are grateful for the generosity of so many of Kay Cutler's friends," said Eliot R. Cutler of Cape Elizabeth, chair of the USM Muskie School Board of Visitors. "Their extraordinary support for the mission of the Muskie School has made it possible to honor our mother's lifelong commitment to improving the lives of Maine's children and families. It is a privilege to attach her name to an institute that has earned a national reputation forÊits programs and its innovation. She would be delighted."

Catherine E. Cutler of Bangor, Hancock Point and Portland died in February of 2003. A graduate of Wellesley College and a trained economist, Cutler began her career in community mental health and social services following World War II. She had returned to her hometown of Bangor with her husband, the late Dr. Lawrence M. Cutler, for whom the Health Center at the University of Maine in Orono is named.

She was a leader in persuading the Maine Legislature to improve the delivery of mental health care by moving mental health services from the Bureau of Prisons to a separate agency. As president of Family and Child Services of Bangor and the founding president of the Eastern Maine Guidance Center, she advocated successfully for the merger of those agencies into what is now known as the Community Health and Counseling Center. The Center, which serves five eastern Maine counties, is the largest such community mental health organization in northern New England.

In the mid 1960s, she received a federal grant to establish the Women's Information and Advisory Service in Bangor. The program, the first of its kind in Maine, provided career counseling to women who wanted to resume or begin new careers. Cutler later helped found Spruce Run in Bangor, a shelter and agency for victims of domestic violence. Together with author May Sarton and photographer Berenice Abbott, she was one of the first three recipients of the University of Maine's Maryann Hartman Awards, which recognize women's contributions in public service, professional life and the arts.

"The Institute for Child and Family Policy's mission is to improve the quality of programs that, in turn, strengthen families and promote the well being of family members," said USM Muskie School Dean Karl Braithwaite. "To link the Institute with the legacy of Catherine Cutler sends a powerful message about the importance of our work, and underscores our focus on advancing academic and professional standards of excellence."

The Institute houses numerous programs and services, among them a state project promoting the professional development of early childhood educators and The National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement, which provides technical assistance to state child welfare agencies throughout the nation.

Planning is under way for a new home for the Muskie School on USM's Portland campus. USM's Muskie School -- named for the late governor, senator and secretary of state -- also offers graduate degrees in community planning, health policy, and public policy.

The Muskie School fund raising is part of the University's $25-million capital campaign, "Transforming USM." The campaign's centerpiece is University Commons, a redevelopment of University-owned land on the Portland campus that runs between the Abromson Community Education Center and the Glickman Family Library.

The Commons will be the building site for the national headquarters of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which offers programming for citizens ages 55 and older; the USM Muskie School of Public Service; an expanded Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education; and a redesign of the Glickman Family Library so that the main entrance faces campus, rather than Forest Avenue. The Commons also will feature landscaped, public open space.

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