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Updated: 2 hours ago / 2025 40 Under 40 honorees

40 Under 40: Alexa Coulombe McGovern is a mom on a mission to fight plastic pollution with kelp

Photo / Tim Greenway Alexa Coulombe McGovern, 31: Founder, Dirigo Sea Farm
Alexa Coulombe McGovern, 31 Founder, Dirigo Sea Farm Read about all the other 40 Under 40 honorees and a special event to recognize them.
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Greatest achievement: My daughter

Passion project: Beekeeping; it’s my first year and I have two hives.

Lightbulb moment: I first read about microplastic statistics when I was pregnant with my daughter. Reading things like microplastic was being found in placenta and breast milk shook me deeply. It hit me that if plastic was meeting her before I was, and contaminating the most natural process, what else was it capable of? When she was eight months old, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. This led me down another path of researching environmental toxins and how they can lead to chronic disease. Becoming a mom and a cancer patient made me wake up to everyday toxins and realize I needed to do something to limit exposure.

Influential book: “When Breath Becomes Air,” by Paul Kalanithi

Favorite movie: I watch what my daughter watches right now and love “Moana” just as much as she does.

Personal heroes: The generations of women in my family

Favorite quote: “Change is the only constant”

Best way to recharge: Gardening and reading

Maine’s biggest challenge: Making it an easy “yes” for companies to build and stay here

Dinner party guests: Jane Austen (she’s the only author I re-read. Talk about ahead of her time); Frances Perkins (I hope she’d host the dinner at her place in Newcastle, and I’d want to hear her talk about reimagining systems and creating influence); and Sylvia Plath (similar to Jane, I love her work, but I want to meet someone who trailblazed with no support and in systems that weren’t meant for them).

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