The
Hardy Girls Team
HG Staff
Christina Schechtman, Operations Associate
she/her
Christina brings a passion for social justice, that has been centered most recently in work expanding healthcare access across rural Maine. She has a professional background in prevention, community mental health and higher education. Christina uses her combined training as a project coordinator and engagement specialist to spearhead meaningful projects and develop strategic systems that center around equity.
Five Questions with Christina:
Favorite book: “The Shipping News” by Annie Proulx
Woman (dead or alive) to have dinner with: Lucille Ball
Favorite feminist anthem: “Don’t Hurt Yourself” Beyoncé ft Jack White
Favorite place to go on a feminist rant: Anywhere my mother, grandmother and I happen to be at the time.
Perfect day: Breakfast at a fabulous diner, time in nature, conversations with my family and a spirited game of volleyball.
Kathy Paradis, Director of Programming
she/her
Kathy brings over 25 years of experience in education and program development in youth-led initiatives. An advocate of feminine leadership and social justice, she has spent her career creating spaces where young people can lead, connect, and thrive.
Kathy lives in Freedom with her husband and their dogs, and is the proud parent of two adult children and one granddaughter. She enjoys gardening, starting craft projects, and finding things to put in her bicycle basket.
Five Questions with Kathy:
Favorite book: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Woman (dead or alive) to have dinner with: Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Favorite feminist anthem: Cinderella Snapped by Jax
Favorite place to go on a feminist rant: Work and my mom’s pool in The Villages
Perfect day: Wake up early with nowhere to go then whatever I fancy. Maybe a visit from the kids or we’ll take our bikes to Belfast and ride around town. Def a call to my mom, kids, and a yummy lunch.
Destie Hohman Sprague, Executive Director
she/her
Destie has spent her career improving systems for gender equity, especially prevention and response to sexual harassment and violence and feminist advocacy. She is passionate about organizational infrastructure, policies, and practices, and works to make sure that Hardy Girls is a place which reflects anti-oppression and feminist values. She believes Maine should be a place where all people can live free from sexism, racism, and misogyny. Destie lives in Bath with her partner, their teenager, and an enormous cat who will follow you home.
Destie is also the Executive Director of the Maine Women’s Lobby and MWL Education Fund. Together, our organizations are creating an alliance with shared staffing in order to have a greater feminist impact in Maine.
Five Questions with Destie:
Favorite book: Books are like kids – I can’t have a favorite
Woman (dead or alive) to have dinner with: Carol Mosely Braun, first woman to wear pants on the floor of the US Senate
Favorite feminist anthem: (currently) Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan
Favorite place to go on a feminist rant: Definitely work / or in my mom’s kitchen with all her girlfriends
Perfect day: Tea and bagels on the couch with my kid, a bike ride to the farmer’s market, a walk around Bath (our hometown), and a dip at Popham Beach. This is a year-round favorite.
HG Board of Directors
The Hardy Girls Board of Directors is made up of dynamic women from around the state. In addition to being passionate about girls and nonbinary youth causing a ruckus, these incredible humans are responsible for the financial health of the organization and for providing organizational oversight through participation in sub-committees on governance, fundraising and events. Board members are corporate professionals, nonprofit professionals, academics, parents and student representatives from our Feminist Action Board (FAB).
Interested in joining the Hardy Girls Board? Please submit your information via our board interest volunteer form*. If you’re looking for other ways to get involved, we encourage you to submit your info via our general volunteer interest form.
*Please note!! We seat new board members in June of each year. Recruitment for 2025 has closed, but you may submit an interest form at any time! We will reach out as soon as recruitment re-opens (around February 2026).
Executive Committee
Members At Large
HG Founders
Hardy Girls was founded by three incredible women. Two friends who’d made careers in nonprofits saw the third woman speak on girls’ development, and our conferences were created. A couple of years later, at a kitchen table, an organization was born. There were other founding mothers, but everything began with these three women.
Karen Heck
Karen Heck is a senior program officer for the Bingham Program, a philanthropy investing in the health of Maine people. Her work at Bingham is currently focused on the philanthropy’s initiative to change the cultural acceptance of violence against women and children.
Karen has 30 years of experience in non-profit administration and a long standing interest in the healthy development of women and girls. During that time she has been instrumental in starting the local rape crisis assistance and prevention program, the statewide abortion loan fund, and the statewide women’s policy center as well as Hardy Girls Healthy Women. Her connections to the community range from her leadership in such main-stream organizations as the Waterville Rotary Club, the Waterville Main Street Program and the local Boys and Girls Club to statewide organizations focusing on women’s reproductive health and social change including the Maine Women’s Lobby, the Maine Women’s Fund, the Maine Choice Coalition and the Maine Women’s Policy Center.
Lynn Cole
Lynn Cole is the Director of Development at Lincoln County Healthcare. She is a co-creator of Hardy Girls Healthy Women and a past president of the Hardy Girls Healthy Women Board of Directors. Lynn has a BS in Community Health Education from the University of Maine and an MS in Communications Management from Simmons College.
With more than 25 years of nonprofit direct service and administrative experience, she has consistently worked to support clients and staff alike in promoting the health and well-being of girls and women. She is the recipient of an American Association of University Women Career Development.
Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D
Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D. is a community activist and Professor of Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Colby College. She is co-creator of Hardy Girls Healthy Women, creator of the online teen blog, PBG, and co-founder, with Dr. Deborah Tolman, of the girl-fueled activist campaign, SPARK Movement.
When she’s not teaching or conducting research, she’s developing strength-based programs and materials to scaffold girls’ social change work for Hardy Girls. Lyn’s scholarship focuses on understanding the conditions that enable girls’ healthy resistance and dissent in the face of oppression. She’s the author of 6 curriculums and 5 books, including Meeting at the Crossroads: Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development (with Carol Gilligan; a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection Among Girls, and Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketer’s Schemes (with Sharon Lamb; winner of a Books For A Better Life Award). You can read more about Lyn’s work.