Staff Leadership

… Mark Swann, executive director of Preble Street, said Gorman volunteered at the agency’s Portland soup kitchen every Wednesday morning for 12 years. Swann announced that the agency’s volunteer of the year award will be named the Leon Gorman Volunteer Service Award. Swann remembered getting a call last winter from Gorman while Gorman was sitting … Read more

PORTLAND, Maine -A 6-page, 45-question survey is being conducted in local communities to find new ways to help vulnerable young adults. Preble Street Resource Center is conducting the study in seven counties. Preliminary results show that many young adults are homeless. Teens that couch surf, camp out or find other ways to survive are being … Read more

Mark Swann is the Executive Director of Preble Street, a Portland Organization that finds solutions for those who are experiencing homelessness, hunger and poverty. A finalist for the Congressional Medal of Honor, 51-year-old Swann has been with Preble Street for 23 years.  You were one of our earliest guests when you first came on Love … Read more

How do we handle ourselves when life throws us a curve? Bruce Fitzgerald, Director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency, and Joshua Frances, Director of Emergency Management at Maine Medical Center, give us valuable information about emergencies, how we might be impacted and how we can best prepare. Preble Street Executive Director Mark Swann discusses what happens … Read more

"I was driving back from Boston, gripping the wheel, thinking to myself, ‘Be careful what you wish for’," Mark Swann ’84 said, describing the advent of his remarkable career to a roomful of students at the McKeen Center. While Swann dreamed of being able to make an impact on the most needy, he also knew … Read more

Executive director of Preble Street, Mark Swann grew up in Massachusetts. Swann graduated Cum Laude from Bowdoin College with a bachelor’s degree in History. He then went on to earn a master’s degree in Public Affairs from the University of Massachusetts. Swann discussed his move back to Maine at the age of 28 to pursue … Read more

Mark Swann understands the realities of city living. "Being a great city entails a lot more than just having a vibrant arts community," he says. "It’s also about caring for your poorest. Half the state’s homeless population is in Portland, and we focus on the lives and experience of these people." This past year Swann … Read more

No doubt, Mark Swann should receive recognition for his long-term efforts on behalf of the many homeless helped by Preble Street and its affiliates. If it were possible, those very people now and in the past would give him a medal. As it is, I am quite sure that they have a heartfelt gratitude that … Read more

The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation has selected Mark Swann ’84 as one of 20 national finalists for an award honoring “those ordinary Americans who become extraordinary through their indomitable courage and selflessness.” Swann was selected from hundreds of nominations nationwide for the Citizen Service Before Self Honor for his decades of helping the homeless … Read more

PORTLAND — Mark Swann will know by Monday, March 12, if he will be honored by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for his work in 21 years at the helm of Preble Street. Nominated by U.S. representative Chellie Pingree for a prestigious national award called Citizen Service Before Self, Swann probably couldn’t have imagined … Read more