The Education & Training department is MaineHealth’s patient-centered communication resource for providers and staff. We use a variety of resources (patient education material creation and review, staff trainings, health coaching, healthy lifestyle classes, multimedia) to customize educational opportunities to help your staff achieve patient-centered goals.

What can we do for you?

How we can help you engage your patients:

• Health literacy review (plain language): Improve patient education materials so patient can understand what they need to do to stay healthy.
• Focus group facilitation: Discover if your services are meeting the needs of your patients with our trained focus group moderators.
• Staff education: Build your staff's competencies around patient-centered communication.
• Patient education: Connect with us for reliable and relevant health information to meet your patients' needs.
• Podcasts: We can help you record podcasts.
• Wellness & Health Coach Training: Learn how to use coaching tools and techniques to help motivate and support your patients who are trying to make healthy changes for life.

About us

The MaineHealth Education & Training department helps providers, patients, community members, and health professionals access credible, up-to-date, and understandable health information. We offer consultations with Health Educators, lending libraries, e-newsletters, staff trainings, and a variety of healthy lifestyle classes (online and in-person).

Connect with us! We can help you engage, educate, and connect with your patients and community members to improve health outcomes and increase patient engagement.

Our Learning Resource Center location

Scarborough Campus
100 Campus Drive, Suite 122, West Entrance
Scarborough, ME 04074

This center has information on a wide variety of health topics and specializes in providing information to patients and families who are dealing with cancer.

Get social with us!

Facebook:www.facebook.com/MaineHealthLRC
YouTube:www.youtube.com/MaineHealthLRC
Instagram:@MaineHealthLRC1

Meet our team

Our professional team is committed to helping our community be the healthiest it can be. 

Tina Pettingill, MPH
Tina is the Director of MaineHealth Education & Training. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from Indiana University and has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of public health and healthcare. Tina is also a Certified Prevention Specialist and is especially passionate about chronic disease prevention and improving the patient experience. Tina appreciates the living near the water and the mountains in a way that only a Midwesterner can and spends as much time as possible in and around both.

Jessica Begley, MPH
Jessica is a Senior Program Manager with MaineHealth Education & Training. Jessica received a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan and has experience in community-based public health, research studies, and healthcare system. She leads the system-wide Patient Education Transformation initiative to ensure patient education is accessible, actionable, and consistent across the MaineHealth system.

Jean Gould, BS
Jean is a Senior Program Manager with MaineHealth Education & Training. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maine. Jean has been working in the healthcare field for over 20 years. Since joining MaineHealth in 2001, she has enjoyed working with patients to provide tools and guidance that help them find high quality trusted health resources.

Bethany Sanborn, MPH, MCHES
Bethany is the Patient Education Manager for the MaineHealth Cancer Care Network, based in Portland, Maine. In this role, Bethany works will 11 member health systems to help create patient education that reflects the high quality of care that our clinical colleagues provide. Bethany’s passion for patient-centered communication is fueled by her professional training and 20+ years working in public health and by her experience trying to read and interpret patient education as a caregiver to family members.

Mary Bitterauf, B.S., NCHES, NBC-HWC
Mary is a Program Manager with MaineHealth Education & Training. Following a career in nursing and parenting, she earned an additional degree in Community Health Education from the University of Maine. She has since become certified as a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher through the University of Massachusetts Medical School and provides development, oversight, and implementation of the program for employees of MaineHealth and the communities they serve. She is also a Nationally Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) with advanced training as an instructor. She provides trainings for healthcare providers who wish to add coaching to their skill set. Mary enjoys her work, her grandchildren, and living in the beautiful state of Maine.  

Kayla Sargent, MPH
Kayla is a Program Manager with MaineHealth Education & Training. She earned her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service. Kayla believes that it’s everyone’s right to have health information that is easy to understand and written in plain language. She works to ensure that patient education is accessible to all patients and care teams.

Lynn Connolly, BA
Lynn is a Program Management Specialist with MaineHealth Education & Training. She received an Associate’s degree in Office Management from University of Maine Machias and a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design & Media Arts from Southern New Hampshire University. Lynn is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and has worked at MaineHealth since 2004. Lynn’s primary focus is transitioning our services to online platforms (books, audio books, healthy lifestyle classes) to ensure they can be accessed by everyone in the MaineHealth regions of care.

Julie Westerhouse, BS
Julie is the Program Coordinator for MaineHealth Education & Training. She earned a degree in Photography from Ithaca College. Julie has lived in Maine since 2003 and loves all that the state has to offer from the mountains to the sea. She strives to guide you in the right direction and help you find what you are looking for!

Bonnie Carleton, BS, CHES
Bonnie is a Health Educator with MaineHealth Education & Training. She received a BS degree in Community Health Education from the University of Maine at Farmington. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) from The National Commission on Health Education Credentialing and a Wellness & Health Coach through Real Balance Global Wellness. Bonnie is skilled in health literacy, plain language design, and patient-centered communication. She helps people find reliable health information and resources to live a healthy lifestyle.

Jenny Marcoux, BS
Jenny is a Health Educator with MaineHealth Education & Training. She earned a BS degree in Health, Wellness and Occupational Studies from the University of New England in Biddeford and is currently pursuing her Master of Public Health degree. Jenny is passionate about nutrition literacy, enjoys writing fun and informative newsletters, and likes to help people find meaningful information about their health.