Kate Lemos McHale
Executive Director
klemosmchale@portlandlandmarks.org
207.774.5561 ext. 105
Kate Lemos McHale joined Greater Portland Landmarks as Executive Director in July 2024 and is thrilled to be back in Maine. Kate grew up in Damariscotta Mills and on the water around Muscongus Bay, received degrees in architectural history and historic preservation from Brown and Columbia University, and has been active in historic preservation in New York City for more than two decades.
Kate brings her passion for history and culture, and a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to her role at Greater Portland Landmarks. She has expertise in preservation policy, advocacy, and design, and many years of experience in effective community engagement, leadership, and grant funding. She loves to build consensus and support for historic preservation in concert with other important local goals and to find creative solutions to complex issues involving historic buildings and neighborhoods.
In her career in both the public and private sectors, Kate has worked to inform and guide restoration, adaptive reuse, interpretive exhibit design, master planning, and new design in historic settings. Most recently, she was Director of Research at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, where she led the designations of architecturally and culturally significant landmarks and historic districts and created interactive tools to make their embodied history more accessible.
Kate has relocated from Brooklyn to Cumberland with her husband, an architect who hails from Ireland, and their son and family dog. Always a Mainer at heart, she has stayed closely tied to her home state and is very excited to engage meaningfully with historic preservation in Greater Portland.
Alessa Wylie
Manager of Education Programs
awylie@portlandlandmarks.org
207-.774.5561 ext. 104
Alessa Wylie joined the Greater Portland Landmarks staff in May 2015. A New York State native, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Union College, Schenectady, NY. She served as Director for Old Fort Johnson National Historic Landmark in Fort Johnson, NY for 14 years before moving back to Maine with her husband in 2014.
While in New York she served on the board of historic Green Hill Cemetery in Amsterdam, NY where she created and led walking tours, including popular evening candlelight tours. She was also part of a four person team that researched and produced a book Uncovering The Underground Railroad: Abolitionism and African American Life in Montgomery County, New York 1820-1890.
She is excited to be back in Maine and working at the Portland Observatory, the very first historic site she ever volunteered.
Jessie Brakenwagen
Administrative Coordinator
jbrakenwagen@portlandlandmarks.org
207.774.5561 ext. 103
Historic building lover, snowboarder, and mother of two (plus one 80 lb. fur baby), Jessie Brakenwagen joins the Greater Portland Landmarks staff in this newly created position.
Originally from Ohio, she has been working to preserve history, both built and otherwise, since graduating from Muskingum College (New Concord, Ohio) in 1996. Jessie’s varied professional career has taken her from being a Maine carpenter, to an Ohio electrician’s assistant, to Boston-based genealogical society member representative. Along the way, she graduated from the University of Vermont Historic Preservation Master’s Degree Program and worked in building maintenance at the Shelburne Museum (Shelburne, Vermont) on their historic structures collection.
Jessie and her family moved back to Maine 5 years ago to work on their own little sliver of history, a 1927 modified Cape in South Portland. At Greater Portland Landmarks, she is excited to continue learning about Portland’s unique fabric of architecture and history of place to teach future generations.