The University of Maine at Augusta (UMA) awarded York County Commissioner Justin Chenette with a Distinguished Alumni Award during its 2025 Commencement Ceremony. Chenette was nominated by the UMA Saco Center for his community leadership and work in the communications field. Chenette, a 2021 graduate of UMA’s Post-Baccalaureate Public Administration program, made history as the youngest lawmaker in Maine and the youngest openly LGBTQ+ legislator elected in the entire country. He currently serves as a York County Commissioner and works as Senior Director of Public Relations & Advancement at Sweetser, one of Maine’s largest and oldest mental health organizations. His career has been defined by breaking barriers and creating opportunity for others. He has authored and passed ethics reform legislation, founded a scholarship fund that has supported dozens of students over the past decade, and wrote a children’s book on civic engagement. Chenette has been recognized with several honors including being named to 40 Under 40 lists by Mainebiz and The Advocate magazine, earning a Harvard Kennedy School Fellowship, and receiving Presidential Volunteer Service Awards from two U.S. Presidents. “I’m a proud product of this institution and deeply appreciate this award in recognition of my passion for service to my community and state,” says Chenette. “We are so fortunate to host UMA in Saco. It’s a benefit to the entire region to have access to on-demand professional development and higher education for all ages.”
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York County Commissioner Justin Chenette has been named Maine County Commissioner of the Month for May 2025 in honor of his public service by Spirit of America Foundation’s Maine Chapter.
Justin was elected commissioner in 2022 and served a term as the Commission’s Vice Chair. As the first Millennial and openly LGBTQ+ individual ever elected to the York County Commission, Chenette led the effort to pass the first ever Pride Proclamation in the county’s history. On the Commission, he played a pivotal role in historic investments for substance use recovery and first responder training by committing funds and directing the start of construction for two state-of-the-art centers using ARPA money. He also supported efforts for the county to operationalize a regional dredge to protect coastal communities. “The work we do at the county level is meaningful and impactful,” says Chenette. “I share this recognition with my fellow commissioners in our efforts to ensure county level government provides real leadership on big issues like coastal erosion, homelessness, substance use recovery, and public safety.” WMTW Channel 8: Maine residents who visited Rome before Pope Francis' death find news 'hard to process'
It was a trip of a lifetime for Justin Chenette and his husband, Eduard. The Chenettes did a two-week bus tour in Italy and found themselves in the middle of Rome's St. Peter's Square. "Just to be in Vatican City for Holy Week and Easter Weekend, it was just a surreal feeling," Chenette said. Chenette and his husband have plenty of pictures from their tour of Italy. Little did they know last weekend how special this trip would be. They spent part of Holy Week in Rome. Good Friday and the Saturday before Easter. "We were seeing all of the setup to the pope's arrival for Easter Sunday, and as a result, there were a ton of people, you could not move in that Basilica. You could not move in Vatican City. I mean, it was wall-to-wall people. I can only imagine what it was like on Easter itself," Chenette said. "It was just a beautiful experience to be able to go up into the Vatican dome." They flew home on Saturday night, and it wasn't until Monday morning, when they were jet-lagged back in Maine, that they heard the news about the pope's passing. "It was hard to process because we were just there. We had just witnessed art, history, architecture, that feeling of something grander than yourself, and then to be hit with the news that the pope passed away, it was just hard to believe," Chenette said. "His goal was to make it through Easter, and he did." Our coastline should always demand our full attention. It’s critical that every level of government come together with solutions and actionable steps we can take to protect our homes, livelihoods, and natural resources. That’s exactly what the 6th annual Saco Bay Symposium tackled. Honored to join other government officials, scientists, and educators as a panelist for the discussion around how best Federal, state, local, and county governments can leverage our collective power to yield some good for storm mitigation, dune restoration, sand replenishment, jetty construction, and more. Appreciate the shout out at the HRC New England Dinner, being one of just approx. 1,300 LGBTQ+ elected officials serving across the country.
Here's the latest on the construction progress for the York County First Responders Training Center and the York County Substance Use Disorder Treatment & Recovery Center. “It’s great to see this coming together,” said Commissioner Justin Chenette. “I can see the progress the team is making.”
Commissioner Justin Chenette said both Ring and Clark make good points and that he has communities in his district that straddle the urban/rural line.
“What I’m missing is the blueprint and analysis … and what that looks like,” Chenette said. “We need the data. I need to see the plan or a draft of what that looks like.” |
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