COA board names two new trustees, elects new chair
Andrew Griffiths and Chris Groobey both join with three-year terms, while trustee Cynthia Baker moves into the lead role.
Elected to the board were Chris Groobey and Andrew Griffiths, both of whom share a love for COA and the college’s mission to prepare students to create meaningful lives, help solve global problems, and contribute to their communities through a human-ecological perspective.
New board chair Cynthia Baker, a trustee since 2018, takes the helm for a four-year term. She steps in as Beth Gardiner, a trustee since 2014, completes her four-year term. Baker, who is Senior Development Director for Duke University and a proud COA parent, lives in Washington, D.C. and Southwest Harbor with her husband Jon Zeitler and sons.
Gardiner was awarded the 2025 Samuel M. Hamill, Jr. Distinguished Service Award by a grateful Board of Trustees at the annual meeting.
Chris Groobey is an angel investor, board member, and mentor to young companies and their founders, primarily in the areas of energy, climatetech, and hardtech. Previously he practiced corporate and finance law for 25 years, concluding his career as an equity partner at the technology-focused law firm Wilson Sonsini. He has served on the board of a public clean energy company and multiple private companies where he is an investor or advisor.
Groobey first became involved with COA through the COA Summer Institute and trips to the college’s marine research stations, and is excited now to be able to contribute to the college in a more substantive and year-round manner.
Groobey grew up in Washington, DC, and attended Hampshire College and the University of Chicago Law School. He and his wife Carolyn lived in Annapolis, Maryland, for many years and now split their time between Southwest Harbor and Miami, Florida. The two are active sailors and boaters, have raced sailboats together for many years (including on MDI’s Great Harbor) and have transited the Panama Canal and crossed the Atlantic Ocean in their own boat.
Andrew Griffiths was COA’s Administrative Dean and CFO from 2004 to 2019, with a one-year interim role as COA’s sixth president before Darron Collins.
Griffiths started his career as an electrical engineer after graduating from Brown University in 1962, but in 1972 shifted gears and left his position at MIT’s Lincoln Lab to help start a nonprofit in the Massachusetts criminal justice system, primarily developing jobs for ex-prison inmates. After financial positions in the Massachusetts state government during the Dukakis administration and then at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he settled down at WGBH public radio in Boston. He served at this leader in public broadcasting as its Treasurer and VP for Finance and Administration for 25 years before joining COA.
Griffiths lives with his wife Susan at Birch Bay in Bar Harbor. Since retirement, he has been active on several boards, including six local nonprofits and two mission-driven, for-profit corporations.