Ethan Strimling

Ethan King Strimling (born October 19, 1967) is an American non-profit executive, television personality, and politician from Maine. Strimling was elected to 3 terms in the Maine Senate (2003-2009), one term a Mayor of Portland, Maine (2015-2019), serving one term. Strimling previously served as a Democratic state senator from 2003 to 2009. He was the Executive Director of LearningWorks, a West End non-profit organization, and has served as a political columnist and commentator for the Portland Press Herald. Early life Ethan Strimling was born and raised in New York City. His father, Arthur Strimling, was a Jewish theater director and midrashic story-maker based in Brooklyn. His mother was not Jewish but he was raised in Jewish culture. He attended the Juilliard School for Theater from 1985 to 1987. He earned a B.A. in History from the University of Maine. He also earned a master's degree in Education from Harvard University in 1994. After school, he went to Washington, D.C. to work as a legislative aide for then-First District Congressman Tom Andrews. He then came back to Maine to serve as State Senator Dale McCormick's Campaign Manager for her 1996 Congressional race. Strimling began serving as the Executive Director of Portland West, a non-profit social-service agency that works with at-risk kids and low-income families in Portland's West End, in 1997. Strimling has also served on the boards of several political and non-profit committees, including Maine Won't Discriminate, Casinos NO!, and the Maine NAACP.