Our Team
Natalie Barnett
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, BAR HARBOR
Growing up as a Navy brat, Natalie moved around a lot as a kid (Hawaii was the farthest flung place she briefly called home) before her family settled in northern New York state. The seven years she spent in rural Peru, New York instilled in her a love of ice cream (and most cow related products), apples, and cheap beer.
Natalie first visited MDIIC when she traveled to Bar Harbor as a prospective student at College of the Atlantic in 2006. She has been working for Linda since the summer of 2009 and after graduating COA, she decided to live in Bar Harbor permanently and work in the ice cream business year-round.
Her favorite flavor is the Callebaut Chocolate with rainbow sprinkles on a wafer cone (a classic!). Her favorite beer is Pabst Blue Ribbon and her favorite movies are the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Brian Lowit
PARTNER, WASHINGTON D.C.
After 20+ years of running his own label Lovitt Records, and 20+ years managing DC punk mainstay Dischord Records, Brian wanted his next project to be something even cooler... ice cream. Brian’s love of Mount Desert Island Ice Cream and friendship with MDI’s owner Linda Parker made him decide that Washington DC needed an MDI ice cream shop of its own. Brian is happy to have helped open DC’s premier shop in the NW DC neighborhood of Mount Pleasant with his longtime friend Melissa Quinley. On top of everything else. Brian is also on the board of trustees at Guilford College. When he isn’t working or going to see live music, he enjoys going to Washington Capitals games, being an extra on TV shows and of course spending time with his wife, Gwen, and their two rescue dogs, Philip & Porter.
Melissa Quinley
PARTNER, WASHINGTON D.C.
With a law degree under her belt and a long career of operating small DIY organizations, including working for many years with DC punk label Dischord Records, Melissa decided that her business experience coupled with her lifetime love affair with premium desserts could be put towards bringing MDI Ice Cream to Washington, DC. She runs the DC store with longtime friend Brian Lowit. In her downtime she enjoys playing music, watching others play music, entertaining her cats, and endlessly redecorating her century-old home in the Brightwood neighborhood of Washington DC.
Kelton Boyer
PARTNER, JAPAN
A jack of all trades, and a master of many, with a passport brimming with stamps, we like to affectionately call Kelton “the Renaissance Hobo.” Born in central PA, Kelton grew up loving ice cream and still has vivid memories of eating his grandpa's endless supply of homemade ice cream on their family farm. Kelton has lived in Japan nearly all of his adult life, having worked as a potter’s apprentice before opening up several locations of his own language school. His passion for live music moved him to start a company called Watari dedicated to sponsoring and promoting live music events. as well as providing a host of technical translation services.
Kelton loves a good gin and tonic, interesting conversation and the challenge of turning what is found in the fridge into a meal. Although Japan is his spiritual home, he still dreams of living near a beach somewhere in South East Asia where he can sip tequila and dance free style at his leisure.
Diana hernandez
GENERAL MANAGER, WASHINGTON DC
After 10 years as a baker and cake decorator in DC, Diana decided to work “a couple of shifts” at MDI on a whim when she moved to mount pleasant—cue the pandemic and the best staff in the city, and deciding to make the transition from ovens and piping bags, to freezers and scoops was a no brainer.
Moving originally from Mexico to Texas, then to California, before DC, there’s nothing she enjoys more than a beach and a scoop of chocolate ice cream. Whenever she travels, her stomach leads the itinerary and she never turns down a dessert menu.
When she’s not working, you’ll find Diana at a concert, with a camera in hand, learning a new skill, or spending quality time with her dog, Winston.
CHITOSE Kobayashi
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION, JAPAN
Chitose Kobayashi is a transplant from one of the hottest areas in Japan - Tatebayashi in Gunma prefecture. Of course, living in such a humid and hot place she developed a taste for all sorts of frozen treats as a kid. Chito eventually went to hairdressing school, and after working in Tokyo for a bit she moved to Nagano to pursue one of her passions - snowboarding. Through that she met her partner Ben, and together they moved to Canada for 3 years. She picked up English working at a popular cafe in Cranbrook, BC, got her snowboard instructing license, and developed an addiction to Dairy Queen Blizzards (strawberry cheesequake!). She is also quite crafty and enjoys knitting and sewing when she has time.
Chito first met Kelton at a Mitsukaze reggae gig, and reconnected with him when MDI first opened in Matsumoto. When she found out that MDI was opening a new location near her home in Azumino, she promptly quit her job at the city office to make Japan’s most delicious ice cream. Now that she is no longer working at a regular Japanese job, she is hoping one day to get her dreadlocks back.
RYOHEI yamazaki
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, JAPAN
Ryohei was born and bred in Matsumoto! (we added the exclamation point because he is so sophisticated you thought he was a city boy but.....surprise he is from Matsumoto!)
A love of English, Geography, and a general interest in Global Affairs led Ryohei to attend college at Chuo University in Tokyo where he majored in Global Economics. Senior year, he took a big leap to study for a year abroad at the University of Minnesota where he enjoyed soccer and the freezing cold! After graduating and before joining MDI, Ryohei worked in a variety of jobs including as a Travel Agent, Liaison for the removal of a Japanese Kominka from a Paris park, Apple Farmer, Irish Pubber, and in the hotel industry.
Ryohei always dreamed of visiting a craggy coast in the USA and in 2017 he found himself not too far from MDI when he visited Rockland, Maine during a trip that included New York City and Boston. A train and bus ride later, his dream came true and he was staying in a cottage beside the ocean!
Ryohei LOVES Soba and often visits various Soba restaurants on his days off. He also loves craft beer but lacking in the ALDH Enzyme he turns beet red after only two drinks!!
We are lucky to have Ryohei as Kelton's right hand man helping to run the business, and keep the atmosphere very cheerful!
LINDA MARIE PARKER
FOUNDER
Linda was born in the Philadelphia area, and studied at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. After graduation, wanderlust led to a series of unrelated jobs: Collegiate Consultant for a Sorority, Bartender in San Francisco, working for a Heli-Ski company in Salt Lake City before landing in Japan where she worked as a Middle School English teacher. Upon returning from Japan, she turned her love of computers into a full time job working in Web and Multimedia for a software company in the Boston area before founding MDI Ice Cream.
Unapologetic optimist, Terrace House super-fan, and binge runner, Linda loves to spend most of her spare time on the carriage roads of Acadia National Park. Besides a love of ice cream, she also loves wines above her pay grade, most particularly any wine with Montrachet in the name. Linda believes that Zelda, Breath of the Wild is the best game of all time, but will give Tears of the Kingdom a try. If prompted, she will share her imitations of Peppermint Patty and Mayor McCheese if the timing is right.