Staff and Faculty

The Landing School Staff and Faculty

The Landing School Staff and Faculty are comprised of talented and dedicated professionals in the fields of boatbuilding, design, education, engineering and administration. The School also invites well-known specialists from the marine industry to present lectures and workshops on topics ranging from sail and pattern to sophisticated electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems, making to the latest methods of yacht construction and design.

Administrative Staff

Barry Acker, president of The Landing School, has held his current position since April 2005. His career spans three decades in both private and public education where he has served in a variety of capacities including headmaster, school superintendent, financial manager and teacher. Barry holds a Bachelor's Degree from Drew University, a Master's Degree from Ball State University and he preformed graduate work at the University of Southern Maine and the University of Washington. He is responsible for overall administration and financial/personnel management of the school.

Nicole Jacques, director of marketing and advancement, assumed the promotional and fundraising responsibilities for The Landing School in 2007. Nicole began her career in the marine industry in 1999 as a copywriter for an advertising agency in Portland, Maine, which had a concentration of boat-related business. She eventually managed the consumer and trade marketing campaigns for an array of marine clients including OEMs, event producers and nonprofit associations. Nicole holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maine and a Master of Arts degree from the University of New Hampshire. She is also an avid one-design sailboat racer and an active member of her local boating community.

Lee Ann Reed, director of finance, joined The Landing School in 2009. She attended the University of Maine with majors in Accounting, Finance and Business. Before joining the staff, she was a project controller for Hornbeck Offshore Services for the conversion of two 400′ sulfur tankers that are being utilized in the Gulf of Mexico oil fields. Prior to Hornbeck, she was vice president/controller for the Fitzgerald Group of SW Florida which specializes in real estate investment and development throughout the south.

Susan Gross, office manager, began working with The Landing School in the fall of 2005. Susan has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts in Boston. She was an office manager for Boston University and an office manager for York County Counseling Services early in her career. She took a 17-year professional hiatus to riase her three children, and then re-entered the workforce as part of The Landing School.

Wooden Boat Building Program Faculty

Jamie Houtz serves as the Wooden Boat Building Program manager and has been a faculty member since 1990. He started his career at Lydia Yachts after four years of Marine Biology at Florida Institute of Technology. After working at a number of yards in Florida building and repairing both wooden and fiberglass boats, he attended Penland School of Craft for furniture making. In 1979/80 he taught boatbuilding at Salt, Inc. in Kennebunk, Maine. Jamie was Foreman/Manager at Arundel Shipyard in Kennebunk from 1981 to 1988 and at Rumery's Boatyard from 1988 to 1990, where he supervised building, repair and restoration of many fine yachts.

Paul Barton, Wood Construction Course instructor, studied at Cornell University and served in the U.S. Air Force before becoming a student at The Landing School in 1982. He graduated from both the Boatbuilding and Yacht Design programs. He has worked for D.N. Kelly Shipyard in Massachusetts, and Oberg Boat Co. and Rivendell Marine in Rhode Island. Paul has extensive experience in boat carpentry and the repair and restoration of yachts and commercial boats up to 130′. He has been a Landing School instructor since 1986.

Rick Barkhuff, Wood Composite Construction Course instructor, attended The Landing School during its first year in 1978. Before beginning his boatbuilding career he received an Associate’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Greenfield Community College and worked for a year as a forester with the U.S. Forest Service. After his graduation from The Landing School he worked at Jeff Fogman's Boatshop on a 50′ schooner, and at George Patten Boatbuilding on a number of yachts. Rick has also worked for Portland Yacht Services on the repair and restoration of a variety of fine yachts. Rick rejoined The Landing School’s boatbuilding faculty in 1990.

Yacht Design Program Faculty

Stephen M. Dalzell joined the faculty at The Landing School in August 2001 as the Yacht Design Program manager. Steve has been a senior lecturer in Naval Architecture at the prestigious Southampton Institute in the United Kingdom, and an operations manager for the institute's Towing Tank. He received his degree in Naval Architecture in 1970 from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and he started his career as a research and development naval architect with Esso Petroleum Company, Ltd. He has held prominent positions as chief naval architect with firms such as Whisstocks, Ltd. Steve maintains an active consulting practice and he has more than three dozen designs to his credit ranging from a small 6.7m racing yacht to a 140′ steel motoryacht.

James Cumiskey, Yacht Design Program instructor, teaches strength of materials, construction and systems, and computer-aided design (CAD). Jim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law and a Master of Science degree in Engineering Management. He is a registered professional engineer and has 30 years of engineering, design and construction experience with such notable firms as Scientech Inc., Stone & Webster Engineering Corp., Ingalls Shipbuilding, Babcox & Wilcox, Quincy Shipyard and the U.S. Merchant Marine.

Marine Systems Program Faculty

Roger Hellyar-Brook, Marine Systems Program manager, joined The Landing School in 1998 to manage and teach the first class in marine systems. He had spent 15 years as a service manager at one of the largest marine service facilities north of Boston. In the years prior, Roger served as a marine engineer with the British Army, the Cunard Steamship Company and Mon River Towing in Ohio. When Roger’s not in the classroom, he’s often presenting to national audiences on marine topics.

Scott Lambert, Marine Systems Program instructor, is a 2002 graduate of The Landing School. Prior to his time at The School, he traveled extensively with the Navy as an aircraft mechanic and studied mechanical engineering at UCLA. He was also an owner of an electronics component manufacturing representative firm. In the years since he graduated from The Landing School, he has worked with yacht designers Walter Green and Dick Newick, and with boatbuilders Bath Iron Works and Hodgdon Yachts. His yacht design experience varies from 92′ tugboats to racing trimarans to replicas of circa-1500 Dutch frigates.

Nate Andrew, Marine Systems Program assistant instructor, is a 2002 graduate of The Landing School. He also holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Ithaca College. Prior to his marine industry career, Nate worked for the Air Traffic Control Division of Lockheed Martin, and following his Landing School graduation he became a technician at Handy Boat in Falmouth, ME, and then at Maine Yacht Center in Portland, ME. Nate performed refits and custom installations on boats in addition to general service work.

Composite Boat Building Program Faculty

Ken Rusinek, Composite Boat Building Program and Continuing Education Program manager, graduated from Webb Institute of Naval Architecture in 1972. Ken started his career developing boating safety standards at the U.S. Coast Guard R&D Center in Groton, CT, and also designed a 30' Surf Rescue Boat at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, DC. He has been the chief engineer at Pearson Yachts in Portsmouth, RI; at Regal Boats, in Orlando, FL; and most recently at Sabre Yachts in South Casco, ME. Ken also served as the technical editor at Soundings, and as the Yacht Design Program manager at The Landing School during the mid-1990s. Ken is the designer of the LS-26, and recently reopened his private practice. He returned to The Landing School as an instructor in 2002.

Matt Judge, Composite Boat Building Program instructor, is a graduate of The Landing School's Yacht Design Program. After graduation, he joined the multihull design team of Morrelli and Melvin in California where he contributed to the design of several high-performance sailing catamarans and managed the construction of an all-carbon-fiber, A-class catamaran. He also has experience in the design of powered cats for both the pleasure and commercial markets.