Anna Conathan
Board of Advisors
South Portland, Maine
she, her, hers
Life & Leadership Coach
How do you spend your days? What are your passions? What is your occupation?
I'm a trained life and leadership coach with a background in the performing arts. In my 20s and 30s I was an actor, comic, and screenwriter in Los Angeles. Today I work with creatives, writers, and other humans looking to find their voice and bring their vision and purpose to fruition. (Gosh, it's fun!) Still a performer and storyteller, I'm developing a one person show about my summer job working as a sternman on a lobster boat, and my passion for lobsters, which premiered at the 2024 PortFringe Festival. I love being at the beach with my husband, teenager, and dog.
Explain your connection to the ocean. How does it influence your life?
The human body is 70% saltwater; a small ocean carried in each of us. The ocean is also our home; where we all came from. Being on or in the ocean is a homecoming for me. Just being near the ocean is a meditation. It has been proven that simply looking at water can calm our nervous system and put us in a more relaxed body and brain state. I live a block from the beach and I regularly use my access to self-soothe. "Blue Mind," as Dr. Wallace J. Nichols called this phenomena, is medicine.
The mission of Saltwater Classroom is to bring together young students, as well as learners of all ages, through an innovative approach to ocean education. How does this apply to your experience?
I am a tactile learner. Always have been. Nothing beats hands-on experiences in nature with educators who can show us what there is to love about it, and why we need to take care of it. The opportunity for students to be able to touch, smell, see, and explore concepts outside of the traditional classroom is a game-changer for so many learners. Giving students the chance to go on environmental expeditions in collaborative learning groups will help build strong communication in communities. I am a hell yes for the Saltwater Classroom's approach to teaching and learning.
What are your earliest ocean memories?
Growing up in the Mount Washington Valley in New Hampshire, trips to the seaside were enormously special. My parents would pack up a picnic lunch, load us all in the car, and we would drive over to Crescent or Scarborough Beach and spend the whole day collecting shells and exploring tide pools. It never mattered to me if it was sunny or grey, because being whipped around by the wind and salt air was always such a vigorous pleasure. Nothing could keep me out of the water. Being thrashed and tossed by waves, my arms and legs red and cold from the Atlantic’s love bites, made me feel more alive and expansive than anything else in the world. When I’d had enough, my mother would create a towel tent for me to change in, as wide and big as her arms could reach; all the safety I would need in the world and it fit inside a towel tent. And once I was in my cozy clothes, she would wrap me tight in a dry towel and I would nap, face down on our well-worn beach blanket. Perfection.
If you had to pick one thing, what is your favorite aspect of the ocean? We know, it's a broad question.
The mystery of it. All of the unknown, beneath the surface. So many life forms of all sizes. It's impossible to catalog it all. Also? A second thing (yes, I'm cheating) is floating! Being held up and lulled or tossed by the waves? What's better than that?
Is there a dream ocean destination on your list? Where would you travel to next?
So many places! The Galapagos, Greece, or Antarctica.
Anything else to add?