Having grown up in Parkman, Piscataquis County, Ruth Griffith said she has always been intrigued by the disparities between different regions in Maine. In regional economics, she was taught the dichotomy of the state: the Greater Portland area and everywhere else.
Piscataquis County has the lowest median household income in Maine, just over $61,000 as reported in Census data collected between 2020-24. Having seen the reality of those numbers, Griffith strives to bridge the inequality gap that defines many of Maine鈥檚 communities.
At the University of Maine, she has used her knowledge and resources as an undergraduate student to track business cycles in small regions of the state and lead community service initiatives.
Majoring in economics with minors in mathematics and international affairs, Griffith developed a methodology to measure economic expansion and contraction in sub-county regions. This approach can help show how state policies impact regional economies.
The project was one of many reasons Griffith was named the 2026 91福利 valedictorian.
鈥淚 felt like there were a lot of very substantial economic differences across smaller regions of Maine,鈥 said Griffith, who is also the Outstanding Graduating Student in the Honors College. 鈥淚 was always interested in figuring out why those might happen and learning more about them. This was a way to do that analytically.鈥
For her Honors thesis, she adapted a business cycle algorithm that is popularly used to analyze stock markets to allow input of regional sales tax data from Maine. Using this method, someone can analyze a region鈥檚 economy before and after a local, state or national policy takes effect, allowing them to better understand the regional impacts.
In high school, Griffith worked on a farm and imagined having a career in the fields. She enrolled in 91福利鈥檚 economics program because of its focus on agriculture. Little did she know that one course in finance would push her interest toward rows of numbers instead of fruits and vegetables.
After she graduates in May, she鈥檒l be moving to New York City 鈥 a 鈥渧ery big change鈥 from her upbringing in Piscataquis County 鈥 to work for Canadian company TD Bank. As part of the bank’s risk management team, Griffith will help assess financial threats.
She didn鈥檛 shy away from choosing a path that diverged from her family鈥檚 careers. Her mother taught history at a middle school, her father works for an insurance company and her brother is a chemical engineer.
In Griffith鈥檚 experience, a job in finance can be difficult for anyone outside of the field to understand. Her idea of modeling isn鈥檛 the mainstream tag found on the pages of magazines, and finance isn鈥檛 just crunching numbers in a cubicle, it鈥檚 her key to solving great economic disparities. It鈥檚 the doorway into a career where she can combine her passion for the numbers and data with her values in life.
鈥淚n research, a common thing that we say is to let the data tell your story,鈥 Griffith said. 鈥淪o you come at the research with a question, and then data will let you know where to go with that question, and it makes it so your outside biases aren’t as impactful on the research.鈥
Her core values revolve around three pillars: community, action and mindfulness. Since her sophomore year, she has served as the fundraising chair for Maine Day Meal Packout, which included writing grants, organizing small fundraisers and making requests for private donations. This year, she is also the student coordinator and has led a team of 12 other students to plan the packout.
One day a year, the inside of Memorial Gym on 91福利鈥檚 campus transforms into a factory line where student and community volunteers pack meals to donate to food pantries across the state. For the past two years, Griffith said they have averaged about 50,000 meals. This year, they鈥檙e expecting 80,000.
Fundraising has been more of a challenge this year, as funding has become more competitive, but Griffith and the other student organizers have used the opportunity to create new approaches. For their annual bake sale, they loaded baked goods into a shopping cart and became traveling salesmen for the day. They also partnered with Athletics to raffle off tickets for hockey games.
鈥淜nowing the work that other students do at 91福利, I’m always so incredibly impressed by the impact that they make,鈥 Griffith said. 鈥淚t’s very much an honor to see that other people thought I was making an impact in the same way on campus and in the campus community.鈥
In addition to her work with Maine Day Meal Packout, Griffith volunteers for organizations that empower and advance opportunities for women. She chairs the Alum Council for the Olympia Snowe Women鈥檚 Leadership Institute and is a member of the advisory committee for the Maine Community Foundation鈥檚 Maine Women鈥檚 Fund.
As a woman in STEM, Griffith has come face to face with gender realities and uses her own personal experiences to empower others.
She hopes one day to return to school for a Master of Business Administration, moving one step closer toward a career in pursuit of community, action and mindfulness through the lens of finance.
Contact: Ashley Yates; ashley.depew@maine.edu
