Our director, Nat Shed, has many years of experience in the youth camping profession and a long history with Friends Camp.  He began work at youth camps during college, when he was a waterfront director; years later he spent seven years as director of Camp Unirondack a Unitarian Universalist camp in up state New York before coming to Friends Camp.  He has also worked as the Director of Development for the Family Planning Association of Maine, the Executive Director for the Boys and Girls Club in Waterville and the Director of the Foster Grandparent Program in Portland, Maine.

Nat's connection with Friends Camp started over twenty-three years ago when his stepdaughter Kelty attended Friends Camp in the early 1980s; his daughter Erica attended camp in the late 1990s.  He served on the Camp Committee from 1996 to 2000. During his time on the camp committee he helped with the fund raising campaign for the construction of Aviary Hall.

His relationship with Quakers started with his attendance at the Dover Friends Meeting when he was a student at the University of New Hampshire. For seven years he was active in the life of the Portland Friends Meeting.  He and his partner Julie de Sherbinin were married in 2000. They are both currently members of the Universalist Unitarian Church in Waterville, Maine. They consider themselves both Unitarian Universalist and Quakers, they also attend Vassalboro Meeting and Mt. Toby Meeting.  Julie de Sherbinin is a professor of Russian at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Nat's philosophy and his focus in working with the young people at Friends Camp are founded in his belief in the light of God and goodness that are in each young person, and his belief in the Quaker values of community, equality, integrity, peace, and simplicity.  By letting young people have some control over daily programming at Friends Camp and by empowering them to help solve problems that come up in the cabins and throughout camp, he believes that Friends Camp helps campers grow into wonderful and self-aware adults.