Orono, Maine â The Senator George J. Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine will co-host a talk by Fran Ulmer on why rapid Arctic change matters and how the science community can help from 3â4 p.m. on Monday, March 8. Fran Ulmer is an Arctic Initiative senior fellow at Harvard Universityâs Belfer Center at the Kennedy School of Government. She chaired the U.S. Arctic Research Commission from 2011 to 2020 and served as a special advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry on Arctic science and policy from 2014 to 2017. In June 2010, President Barack Obama appointed her to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. She has spent more than 45 years in public service and is a member of both the global board of The Nature Conservancy and the board of the National Parks Conservation Association.