WATERVILLE, Maine — May 13, 2026 — Maine Children's Home's board of directors has appointed Daniel Booth as executive director,/ after he served in the interim role since February 2026.
Booth, a former Maine Children’s Home board president and longtime board member, stepped into the interim position earlier this year during a leadership transition. He succeeds Candace Marriner, who became executive director in August 2023. Marriner followed longtime executive director Rick Dorian, who led the nonprofit through a period of organizational growth and change beginning in 2016.
“Dan continues to bring stability, clarity and strong mission alignment during an important transition for our organization,” said Steve Doyon, board president of Maine Children’s Home. “His leadership and operational experience make him exceptionally well-positioned to lead this next phase of our work.”
Booth assumes the permanent role as the organization prepares to open the Maine Children’s Home Center for Families, which will bring mental health counseling and therapy, adoption services, targeted case management and young parent services into a more coordinated system of support. The center is designed to enhance collaboration between programs, streamline referrals and provide more continuous support as client needs change.
“For many families, navigating multiple systems can be overwhelming,” Booth said. “The Center for Families allows our teams to work more closely together so support feels connected, responsive and centered around the needs of each individual and family.”
The center will be located at 93 Silver St. in the 7,600-square-foot Lunder Building on the organization’s Waterville campus. Supported in large part by $525,000 in federal funding secured through U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and approved in 2023, the renovation modernized the 60-year-old facility with trauma-informed spaces for counseling and family support services.
The project is expected to expand mental health service capacity, allowing the organization to serve more clients and add clinical staff. Clinicians will begin seeing clients in the center by late July ahead of a planned September 2026 grand opening.
Maine Children’s Home has served children and families across the state for more than 127 years through programs focused on family support, adoption, counseling and youth services. In a typical year, the organization reaches nearly 3,000 people of all ages across the state.