Select Board and Staff Biographies

Back row: Ned Chatelain, Assistant Town Manager Donna Kalinick, Town Manager Peter Lombardi. Front row: Caroline McCarley, Amanda Bebrin, Dr. Mary Chaffee, Harvey (Pete) Dahl

Dr. Mary Chaffee

Mary Chaffee has served on the Brewster Select Board since 2017 and as its chair during the COVID pandemic. She served for seven years on the Brewster Board of Health and also as its chair.

Mary served as U.S. Navy Nurse Corps officer for 27 years, retiring with the rank of Captain. She held a variety of clinical, policy and leadership roles including as Director of the Navy Medicine Office of Homeland Security. Following the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S., she worked in the nation’s emergency operations center in Washington, DC.

A graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mary completed bachelor’s degrees in nursing and public health and an internship at the Welsh National School of Medicine, Cardiff, Wales. In 1998 she received a masters degree in health policy and nursing administration from the University of Maryland Baltimore and interned in the office of U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI). She earned a PhD in nursing from the University of Maryland Baltimore in 2008.

Mary received a law degree from the University of Massachusetts School of Law–Dartmouth in 2017. She completed fieldwork with the Association to Preserve Cape Cod and the Buzzards Bay Coalition, as well as legal studies at Pepperdine University and comparative environmental law at Italy’s University of Insubria School of Law.

In 2017, Mary received a Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Scholarship for an article she published as a law student–one of only 10 students in the U.S. to receive the honor. She was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

A native of South Hadley, Massachusetts, the Cape has been part of Mary’s life since she was an infant. Her family moved to the Cape when she was in high school and Mary worked as a Town of Yarmouth life guard for five years. She became a part-time Brewster resident in 2004 while stationed in Washington, DC, and moved here fulltime in 2010 after her military retirement. She and her husband Don, a retired Navy Vice Admiral, have six children, four grandchildren, two cats and have restored a Brewster sea captain’s home and carriage house. Mary is an artist and open water swimmer.

Amanda Bebrin

Amanda Bebrin was elected to the Select Board in 2024. She brings a wealth of previous municipal service with her: four years on the Planning Board (including serving as Chair), two years developing the Local Comprehensive Plan (LCP) on the Vision Planning Committee, and two years serving as Chair on the Bay Property Planning Committee to develop the comprehensive plan for the former Sea Camps site.

She has been a full-time resident since 2012, having decided that a lifetime’s worth of yearly vacations to Cape Cod weren’t enough. A Connecticut native, she earned her BA in French and Secondary Education from Providence College but ultimately decided that teaching high school wasn’t quite the right fit. Once settled on the Cape, she spent the next 10 years as a local Realtor, helping educate clients on the current market, the buying and selling process, and the community in general. She has volunteered with the United Way, CCYP, Leadership Cape Cod, the Latham Centers, the Cape & Islands Association of Realtors, and the Cape Cod Foundation to give back to the community and train our next generation of leaders.

Alongside her municipal service, she has spent many years learning about and advocating for housing affordability to protect the vibrancy of both Brewster and the region. She is currently the Director of Housing Advocacy at the Community Development Partnership in Orleans, a local non-profit that nurtures a vibrant Lower and Outer Cape region where people can afford to live, work, and thrive. She runs and oversees a number of programs that provide resources, education, and support to municipal officials and residents to understand, advocate for, and implement strategies that promote housing production and benefit the year-round community.

Her spare time is spent walking her dogs, Fen and Georgia, at Nickerson State Park, bantering around the firepit with her wonderful friends, playing the piano with more enthusiasm than skill, and swimming in any body of water that isn’t shared with sharks.

Harvey (Pete) Dahl 

Harvey (Pete) Dahl has a history of municipal service. He served on the Brewster Finance Committee for nine years (five years as Chair) before being elected to the Select Board in May 2025.  Pete is also a member of Brewster’s Audit Committee. Prior to moving to Brewster, Pete was a member of the Town of Reading School Committee for nine years.

Pete had an extensive career as an Accounting/Finance professional.  He worked as a Division Controller and VP of Finance and Operations for two international sporting goods companies based in Italy and Norway before taking the position of CFO at the YMCA Cape Cod.

Pete earned an MBA from the University of Vermont and a BA in Psychology from the University of Delaware.

Pete and his wife Fran enjoy hiking throughout Nickerson State Park from fall to spring and really enjoy the Brewster Community Pool and the ponds in the summer.  Their five grandchildren love coming to the Cape in the summer and paddleboarding on Upper Mill Pond. 

Caroline McCarley

Caroline was elected to the Select Board in 2025.  Her prior service to Brewster includes a year Chairing the Sea Camps Advisory Committee, two years as an at-large member of the Bay Property Planning Committee, a year on the Planning Board, two years on the Ladies Library Finance Committee, as well as serving as a library volunteer.

Caroline was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama.  She first experienced New England while attending Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, for two years.  She then transferred to Davidson College in North Carolina where she earned a B.A. in Economics and met her husband, Dan Harkinson.  She worked in professional and scholarly books and journals publishing for approximately 40 years.  She was active in New Hampshire state and local politics, serving 17 years on the Rochester, N.H. School Board, 6 years in the New Hampshire Senate, and 5 years as Mayor of Rochester.

Caroline, Dan, and their three sons have visited and vacationed in Brewster since 1983.  When the opportunity to build a home in Brewster arose, she and Dan were happy to wash ashore.

Laurel Labdon

Laurel Labdon joined the Brewster Select Board in 2026.  Laurel is a lifelong Cape Codder who grew up in Brewster.  Her earliest memories are of Brewster…swimming lessons at Long Pond, T-ball at Brewster Recreation and weekly trips to Brewster Ladies Library.  She is an alumni of Stony Brook Elementary and the Nauset Regional schools.  She received her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Third World Development from the University of Colorado at Boulder.  

In 1990 she suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury that resulted in significant permanent paralysis and reliance on a wheelchair.  She chose to turn literal paralysis into purpose and after graduating from CU she worked as a teacher’s aide at Orleans Elementary School for eight years, and worked as an advocate for the Cape Organization for the Rights of the Disabled before founding the non-profit advocacy and spokeswoman competition Ms. Wheelchair Massachusetts Foundation.  She worked as the Executive Director of The Studio on Slough Road, an alternative art space and gallery.  

An avid sailor her entire life, she spent a year sailing with her family from Cape Cod to Venezuela on their vintage wooden sail boat in 1983-84.  She credits this experience for developing her sense of public service and commitment to human rights.  Knowing personally the healing benefits of the wind, the sun, a sail and the sea, Laurel has been active in establishing adaptive community sailing programs at Sail Cape Cod in Hyannis and Pleasant Bay Community Boating in Harwich.  She currently serves as Chairwoman of the Brewster Housing Authority and as a member of the Community Preservation Committee until winning a seat on the Select Board.

Peter Lombardi, Town Manager 

Peter Lombardi has served as Brewster’s Town Manager since 2019. Prior to serving in Brewster, Peter was the Town Administrator of Wenham, Massachusetts. He had previously served as the City of Newburyport’s Director of Policy and Administration and as the Grants Administrator for Winthrop, Massachusetts.  While attaining his masters degree, Peter interned at the state house for his then-State Representative. Prior to his career in public service, Peter worked in the marine industry.

Peter holds a master of public administration from Suffolk University where he received the “Outstanding MPA Student” award. He is a member of Phi Alpha Alpha, the national honor society for public affairs and administration, serving as the Suffolk University chapter president for several years. He has a bachelor of arts in political science and history from the University of Vermont. Peter is a member of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and the Massachusetts Municipal Managers Association (MMMA).  He is committed to supporting the next generation of local government leaders, chairing the MMMA’s Future Managers Committee and serving in a variety of mentoring roles at Suffolk University.

Peter, his wife, and their three sons enjoy Brewster’s beaches, ponds, walking trails, and golfing, as well as sailing on Pleasant Bay. They feel proud and privileged to call Brewster home.

Donna Kalinick, Assistant Town Manager 

Donna Kalinick has worked for the Town of Brewster since 2011 including serving as Assistant Town Administrator/Manager since 2017. Donna holds a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She earned National Public Manager’s Certification through Bridgewater State University in 2018 and is a Massachusetts Certified Public Procurement Officer. Donna is a member of the Brewster Affordable Housing Trust and is the administrative liaison to the Brewster Recycling Commission and the Pond Property Planning Committee. She is part of Brewster’s Finance and Budget team, and is the Town’s Procurement Officer. She served one term on the Brewster School Committee.

Donna raised two children in Brewster who were educated in the Nauset Public School system. She has a passion for baseball and has volunteered regularly through the past ten years for the Brewster Whitecaps, including serving on their community outreach committee and being a host family for Whitecaps players. Donna spends her free time working an oyster grant on the Brewster Flats and walking trails with her dog throughout the Cape. 

Donna is very proud of her service to the Town of Brewster and its residents, particularly her work in expanding housing options and support services in the community.