Dr. Dorothy Foote

Dottie Foote is the Head of School at The Community School, a private alternative high school located in Camden Maine, serving at-risk students from throughout the state. She holds a PhD in Education and Psychology and a MS in Human Development from The University of Maine.

After spending years in the banking industry, non-profit leadership, and teaching for UMaine, Dottie worked on issues of social justice, primarily with issues surrounding HIV/AIDS in rural Maine. Her work specifically with adolescents over 10 years prior to arriving at the Community School was in the development of a cutting-edge social justice program for teens aged 14-19 called the Diversity Coalition (DC). The goal of DC is to stimulate these young men and women to develop a heightened awareness of real-world socio-cultural issues, reflect on their own social positions within these issues (class, race, ethnicity, gender, etc,) and further are encouraged to fully engage themselves in the community at large through concrete and public social activism.

Dottie teaches Psychology of Adolescence for The University of Maine, is a member of the Shared Youth Vision Council as an advisor to the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet, and serves on the Commissioner of Education’s Advisory Committee for Truancy, Dropout and Alternative Education. Dottie is a Board member of The Restorative Justice Project and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. She lives in Rockport with her husband Charles and three children.