Diane Magras, Director of Development, joined the Council staff in 2004. Her work includes writing grants, coordinating the major donor and annual fund campaigns, creating a planned giving program, handling special fundraising events, and managing public relations through a PR consultant and the MHC’s online newsletter. She has raised money and furthered program development and sustainability for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra in Burlington, Vermont; the Island Institute in Rockland, Maine; and the Arcady Music Society in Bar Harbor, Maine. Once a small-town newspaper reporter, Diane’s byline has appeared in The Ellsworth American, The Bar Harbor Times, and The Ellsworth Weekly. When not raising money, Diane works on her fiction, finding inspiration daily through writing-related conversation with her husband Michael, a freelance writer and novelist; and reading books to their son, Benjamin, who is developing a tremendous passion for books.