Stories of Impact:
Monhegan & Fellow Liz Dudley

Island Institute Fellow Liz Dudley arrived on Monhegan in September 2025, bringing dedicated capacity to a community working to address critical infrastructure needs. She is supporting a community-led process to redesign the public wharf and strengthen the breakwater to withstand sea level rise and stronger storms. Together, these long-term resiliency projects aim to create a more protected harbor and ensure Monhegan’s only deep-water access remains usable and useful well into the future—supporting the businesses, residents, and livelihoods that depend on this vital connection to the mainland.

Liz’s work on Monhegan includes:

• Advancing long-term resiliency planning for the wharf, including coordinating the next phase of engineered design, permitting, and funding for Monhegan’s only deep-water access.
• Supporting the breakwater resiliency project, including coordinating work on wave modeling, concept designs, regulatory review, and future improvements to better protect the harbor.
• Managing grants, funding opportunities, and project partnerships while helping maintain momentum on complex, multi-year infrastructure projects. Monhegan has already received funding for the next phase of wharf design and completed an initial breakwater resiliency study.

“The idea is to have infrastructure that is useful for the community, regardless of what the future ocean conditions are.” — Liz Dudley, Island Institute Fellow

Monhegan is a small, remote community of about 70 year-round residents, where neighbors rely on one another to manage the necessities of island life. The wharf is the community’s only regular access point, bringing people, freight, mail, and supplies to the island. The breakwater protects the harbor and wharf. As sea levels rise and storms intensify, both are increasingly at risk.

Monhegan’s municipal leaders identified these projects as a priority, but moving major infrastructure projects forward requires significant time and capacity. First Assessor Jim Buccheri and Municipal Administrator Carley Feibusch serve as Liz’s Fellowship advisors, supporting her work while continuing to manage the many day-to-day responsibilities of running the Plantation.

“There’s so much that happens on the day to day here that it’s hard to be more forward thinking with these projects […] and so it’s easy to lose momentum if you don’t have somebody kind of seeing it through and pushing it forward. And it would be really hard to make as much progress as we have been without that help.” – Carley Feibusch, Monhegan Plantation municipal administrator and Island Institute Fellowship advisor

The Island Institute Fellows program helps island and coastal communities build the capacity to tackle projects they have identified as important to their future. Fellows bring dedicated time, skills, and expertise to work that communities may not otherwise have the capacity to advance. On Monhegan, Liz is providing that added capacity—helping the community to turn its vision for a more resilient waterfront into action.

To learn more about Monhegan’s shoreline infrastructure projects, visit: monheganplantation.gov