Ciona Ulbrich, Associate Director, Community Relations

Ciona (she/her) moved into the Partnerships & Public Policy department at MCHT in 2025. Before that, she worked for over 26 years in the lands department at MCHT, based in the Mount Desert Island field office, working with land trusts, local government, state and federal government agencies, and other organizations.

Ciona lived in a number of places before she found her way to Maine, but spent nearly every summer with grandparents in Woods Hole on Cape Cod, giving her a love of the ocean. Before joining MCHT, Ciona’s work experience was primarily in international and intercultural relations. She lives on the Blue Hill peninsula and her hobbies include gardening, art projects, boating, and walks.

In 2022, Ciona was honored to be nominated for and awarded the Dr. Nancy Foster Habitat Conservation Award by NOAA and the American Fisheries Society, for demonstrating exceptional achievement and dedication to habitat conservation through her work with MCHT restoring fish passage in coastal Maine.

On land conservation: “Voluntary land conservation is an evolving field, involving land and people’s relationships to land. I appreciate having a job that gets me outdoors and seeing new places, and appreciate working with many different people who care about land, water, plants, and wildlife.”

On the job: Ciona will be working to help improve and expand MCHT’s role in the collective work of conservation, of restoration, and of land return. Ciona represents MCHT on multiple collaborations, including on the Conservation Community Delegation, as a non-native, non-voting member of the Wabanaki Commission on Land and Stewardship, and as a Catalyst for cultural access with First Light.