PORTLAND, ME — June 12, 2026. The World Affairs Council of Maine presented its 2026 awards Thursday, June 11 at their 49th Annual Membership Meeting. This year's program honored two Mainers whose work, in different ways, connects this small state to the wider world: Mary Allen Lindemann, co-founder and owner of Coffee By Design, was this year’s recipient of the Council's longstanding Bea Chapman Minott Award; and Khaled Habash, owner of The Scenic Route Tours, was honored with the Council's first-ever Citizen Diplomat Award. In addition to the membership, Board of Directors, and sponsors, Katherine Brown, President and CEO of Global Ties U.S. - the nation’s largest citizen diplomacy network, joined the celebration and offered remarks on the powerful impact local communities can have on strengthening U.S. relations around the world.
The Bea Chapman Minott Award: Mary Allen Lindemann
Presented annually since 1994, the Bea Chapman Minott Award honors the person who most exemplifies the spirit of the Council's founder, Bea Chapman Minott, a Portland educator, journalist, and civic leader who, from her base on Peaks Island, became a driving force behind the public diplomacy efforts that led to the Council's formation in 1977.
This year's award recognizes Mary Allen Lindemann, who has spent more than three decades building Coffee By Design into a Portland institution that is, in equal measure, fiercely local and deeply global. Under her leadership, Coffee By Design has developed long-term sourcing partnerships with farmers and cooperatives in Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Colombia, Guatemala, India, Honduras, and El Salvador, and works closely with the International Women's Coffee Alliance to advance women farmers' leadership, income, and decision-making power across the global supply chain.
She has also been a steadfast partner of the World Affairs Council of Maine. In 2021, she partnered with the Council on The Story of Coffee, a public program tracing coffee's path.
