Ely Bowdoin Key

Founder, Dialogue? Projects
Strategic Advisor | Trauma-Informed Certified Coach | U.S. Coast Guard Licensed Captain | Wilderness First Responder

Ely Bowdoin Key is an entrepreneur, strategic advisor, and writer based in Midcoast Maine. Through Dialogue? Projects, he works with people, organizations, and creative ventures navigating complexity, growth, and meaningful change.

Raised between New York City and rural Vermont, Ely developed an early appreciation for seemingly opposite worlds—urban life and wilderness, creativity and entrepreneurship, thinking and making. Childhood was equally shaped by city streets, competitive sports, tree houses, afternoons with a BB gun, and long days outdoors. Those contrasting experiences continue to shape the way he approaches people, organizations, and ideas today.

Founded in 2003, Dialogue? Projects has remained the thread connecting Ely's academic, entrepreneurial, and creative pursuits. Over the past two decades, his work has spanned entrepreneurship, organizational leadership, operations, sustainability, photography, writing, filmmaking, and human development.

Ely earned a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Studies with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from the University of Michigan, where organizational psychologist and bestselling author Adam Grant served as his academic advisor. Additional post-baccalaureate study at the University of Maine in Human Development, Anatomy & Physiology, Human Nutrition, and Chemistry for the Life Sciences further informs his interdisciplinary approach.

Today, Ely lives and works in Midcoast Maine, where Dialogue? Projects continues to evolve through strategic advisory, writing, and interdisciplinary projects.

Education

University of Michigan
Bachelor of Science, Organizational Studies
Concentration in Entrepreneurship

University of Maine
Post-baccalaureate Study
Human Development, Anatomy & Physiology, Human Nutrition, and Chemistry for the Life Sciences