Lori Arsenault

Lori is responsible for directing the logistics and publicity of over 100 music concerts and events each year held by the School of Music. She manages a work study staff of 20-25 students, and several volunteers. She is additionally coordinator of the four USM Summer Youth Music and Theatre Camps: USM Theatre Academy, Southern Maine Music Academy, Southern Maine Junior Music Academy, and Southern Maine Youth Band Day Camp. She is also interim public relations director.

A 1999 graduate of the University of Southern Maine, Lori holds a Bachelor of Music in Performance (Classical Guitar). As a work study student under the direction of Mary Snell, she has managed the School of Music Web site since 1995. In 2002, while continuing to volunteer for the School of Music after graduation, she became Administrative Manager in USM's Office of the Dean in the School of Applied Science, Engineering, and Technology. Following the University's reorganization, she became the Special Assistant to the Dean for Communications and External Affairs in the new College of Science, Technology, and Health in the Spring of 2011, until she accepted her current position in the School of Music in the fall of that same year.

Since 1998, Lori has been one of the music directors (4 p.m. Saturdays) at Sacred Heart / St. Dominic Catholic Parish in Portland, and since March 2011 also directs music at St. Anne's Catholic Church in Gorham (10:30 a.m. Sunday). She freelances in communications and Web site management for several musicians and organizations, including orchestral conductor Lawrence Golan, jazzman Scott Reeves, the MaineFIRST coalition of robotics teams, and several others.

Her community service positions include clerk on the board of directors of the Regional Transportation Program (RTP); recording secretary for the Governance Commitee of the Community Partnerships for Protecting Children of Cumberland County; member of the organzing committee for the 2013 Pine Tree Regional "FIRST Robotics" Competition; webmaster for and member of the Maine Entrepreneurship Week Coalition; Career Fair presenter for Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce; participant in the Maine Math & Science Alliance's "Reach Center" design conference; co-founder of the annual event, CreateMaine, a presentation designed to inspire young people in Maine to start their own business; volunteer entertainer at the Barron Center, the skilled nursing facility operated by the City of Portland; and a volunteer audiobook reader for librivox.org.

Within the University community, she served two consecutive terms as treasurer of the Universities of Maine Professional Staff Association (UMPSA); and three consecutive terms on the Professional Staff Senate, which included being chair of the communications committee, newletter editor, and professional staff representative to the Faculty Senate. She returned to the Faculty Senate in the fall of 2012 as their official staff recorder of minutes.

In her free time, Lori enjoys drawing, painting, biking, refinishing wooden furniture and most especially, artistic dance roller skating. In July she competed in the Novice B division at the 2012 National Roller Skating Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska, representing the New England Region.

"It's all about the music. Whether you dance, or skate, or draw or paint, or sing or play an instrument, create something beautiful or useful, read a book outloud, smile, say a kind word, heal someone who's sick, or fix something that's broken--no matter what it is that you create--you don't really set out just to listen to the music, or play the music. For your hobbies and activities to really fulfill you and those around you, your goal must be to actually become the music."  -Lori