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ARC Board of Director Updates
ARC Board of Directors at its Fall Meeting at Heaven Hill Farm, Lake Placid, NY. Pictured from left: Sunita Halasz, Michale Glennon, Dan Fitts, Dan Spada, Dan Castle, Eileen Allen, Gary Chilson, Bill Porter, Graham Cox, Joe Visalli, and Liz Thorndike. Missing: Chad Dawson, Jon Erickson, and Jerry Pepper. (Photo by Debbie Fitts)
Adirondack
Research Consortium
Board of Directors and Staff
Elizabeth Thorndike, President
Liz is currently Vice-President of ARC. She served for fifteen and a half years as a commissioner of the Adirondack Park Agency and seven years as a trustee of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. She is currently a board member of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). She has a PhD in the field of Natural Resource Policy and Planning from Cornell University where she is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning.
William Porter, Vice President
Bill has been active in ARC since its founding and, together with several others, leads the UMP-GIS project initiated by ARC. He is Director of SUNY-ESF’s Adirondack Ecological Center, Director of the Roosevelt Wild Life Station and Professor of Wildlife Ecology. He is past Executive Chairman of the Faculty at SUNY-ESF. He holds a PhD from the University of Minnesota in Ecology and Behavioral Biology.
Eileen Allen, Secretary/Treasurer
Eileen has been Secretary/Treasurer of the Adirondack Research Consortium since 2003. She teaches Introduction to GIS at Plattsburgh State University of NY. Since 1991, she has been mapping wetlands and watersheds in the Adirondacks, involving numerous undergraduates in research using remote sensing and GIS techniques. She earned her MA in Natural Resources at Plattsburgh State University and is one of the first certified GIS professionals in New York State.
Daniel Castle
Dan has 22 years experience working in both the commercial and government sector in environmental and land use planning in the Adirondacks, across New York State, throughout the US, and internationally. He currently is Manager of Environmental Planning for Ecology and Environment, Inc (an 800 person environmental and engineering company headquartered in Lancaster, NY) and is responsible for all Planning and Business Development activities in the Northeast Region of the US. His work experience includes managing Environmental Impact Assessments (under SEQR and NEPA) and related studies/permitting involving land development, natural resources management planning, Brownfield redevelopment, transportation and port infrastructure, solid waste management planning, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) studies, waterfront development, ecological restoration, eco-tourism studies, and commercial/industrial development projects around the country. Internationally, Mr. Castle's work experience includes watershed planning and management in China; siting wastewater treatment plants in Ireland; and transportation infrastructure in South America. Mr. Castle has a BA degree in Biology and Environmental Studies from Hartwick College in Oneonta NY (1983), and a MS Degree in Environmental Science/Land Use Planning from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse (1985).
Dr. Brian F. Chabot
Brian is currently a full professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. He has been on the faculty at Cornell for 32 years and was on the faculty at the University of New Hampshire prior to that. He holds a B.S. degree from the College of William and Mary and a Ph.D. in botany from Duke University. His general area of expertise is plant ecology specializing in the interaction of plants with their environment. A significant part of his academic career has been spent in administrative leadership rolls. These include chairperson of his department, Director of the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, Associate Director and Director for Research of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Senior Associate Dean and acting Dean of the College. Following 18 years of college leadership, Professor Chabot has returned to a faculty role where he teaches introductory courses in ecology and directs the Cornell Maple Program. The Cornell Maple Program involves conducting research and education programs for the maple sugar industry in New York and managing two research and education facilities.
Gary Chilson
Gary is Editor of AJES and one of the co-founders of ARC. He has a B.A. and a M.A. in Biology with emphases in ecology and aquatic entomology and a Ph.D. in Resource Development with emphases in natural resource management and policy, regional planning and community development from Michigan State University. He is a Professor in the Sciences, Liberal Arts and Business division of Paul Smith's College and teaches resource economics, sustainable development and politics of the environment.
Graham Cox
Graham works for Audubon New York as csed research survey across the Northern Forest for the University of Vermont, examining investment priorities with focus groups convened in four towns, Parkwide and across the four Northern Forest states. He retired from state service in 1997 after working in the environmental conservation department, the economic development department and finally with the Assembly ways and means committee staff. He provides occasional advice to DEC on open sustainable forest management criteria and indicators. He has a Masters degree from RPI in economics, a Ph.D. in ecological economics, also from RPI, and is a charter member of the US Society for Ecological Economics.
Chad Dawson
Chad is a Professor and Chair of the faculty of Forest and Natural Resources Management at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forest in Syracuse, NY. He has worked in teaching and research related to the visitor and natural resources management at SUNY-ESF since 1989. Previously, he worked 15 years as an educator and researcher at Cornell University and the University of Minnesota. Dr. Dawson is the Managing Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness and co-author with John Hendee of the “Wilderness Management” textbook.
Jon Erickson
Jon is a founding member, past vice president (1998-2000), president (2000-2002) and organizer of the third, seventh, and eighth annual meetings of the ARC. He initiated and maintained the Adirondack Research Consortium’s original web page and listserv from 1994 to 2003, first at Cornell University and then Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is currently Associate Professor of Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont, and is coordinating a project of the Northeastern States Research Cooperative entitled "Bottom-Up Strategies for Bio-Regional Policy: Designing Participatory Processes in Legislative Policy Formation" and co-editing a book on the Adirondacks with Bill Porter and Ross Whaley.
Michale Glennon
Michale Glennon grew up in the Adirondacks, graduating from Lake Placid High School in 1991. She then went to Dartmouth College and earned a B.S. in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology in 1995. Michale completed an MS (1997) and PhD (2002) in Environmental and Forest Biology at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. Her dissertation research was focused on the land she loves and examined the relationship between land use management and biotic integrity in the Adirondack Park. Since 2003, Michale has worked as an Associate Conservation Scientist for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Adirondack Communities and Conservation Program. She is responsible for research projects involving a number of wildlife species and local issues and is engaged in regional conservation priority setting exercises focused on a suite of focal species in the Adirondacks.
Sunita Halasz
Sunita is an ecologist and GIS specialist. She worked in the natural resources division of the Adirondack Park Agency where she initiated the Research Consumers and Producers program of the ARC, defining applied research needs to inform decision-making. Sunita helped make Park-wide GIS data available to researchers, local governments, and the general public through the creation of the Shared Adirondack Park Geographic Information CD. She is a founding member of the Adirondack GIS Users Group. Sunita holds BS and MS degrees from Cornell University in Plant Pathology and Forest Ecology, and conducted her thesis research at the William C. Whitney Wilderness Area studying historic patterns of forest disturbance and recovery.
Jerry Pepper
Jerry Pepper is director of the library at the Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake, New York since 1982. The museum library owns a large collection of historical books, maps, manuscripts, periodicals, audio recordings, and ephemera relating to the Adirondack Park. While at the museum Jerry had the opportunity to work on a wide variety of exhibits, publications, lectures, public programs, and Internet-based projects. He also serves or has served on the boards of the Southern Adirondack Library System, the Northern New York Library Network, Adirondack Architectural Heritage, and has been a consultant for a number of libraries, museums, and government agencies.
Daniel Spada
Dan is currently the Supervisor of the Resource Analysis and Scientific Services unit at the NYS Adirondack Park Agency and has been an Agency staff scientist for 21 years. He has an M.S. degree in Environmental and Forest Biology from SUNY ESF. Dan has been an adjunct lecturer at SUNY Plattsburgh for the course "Wetlands Ecology and Management" and regularly guest lectures at Cornell University and Paul Smith's College on wetlands ecology and landscape scale environmental assessment. He is a Society of Wetland Scientists certified Professional Wetland Scientist, and holds memberships in the SWS, Ecological Society of America, the New York Flora Association and the Dragonfly Society of the Americas.
Joseph Visalli
Joseph Visalli, recently retired, after 26 years of service to New York State, from the R&D Director position with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). In that position, Joe was responsible for programs dealing with renewable energy, transportation, power systems, environmental technology and research. He also directed the NYS Renewable Portfolio Standard program for large scale renewable energy. In his career, Joe has held several positions with NYSERDA, DEC, and DOT. Joe is a graduate of Clarkson University with a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering, and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Purdue University. In 1974, Joe was a member of the Peace Corps specializing in air pollution and urban planning in Chile.
Daniel Fitts , Executive Director
Dan was raised in Rouses Point, NY on the shore of Lake Champlain. He received a B.A. in Environmental Science from Plattsburgh State University, and earned a M.S. in Environmental Science with a focus on public policy and government at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY where he is currently the Chair of that school’s Board of Trustees. He has worked in the New York State Senate as a legislative director to Senator Ronald B. Stafford, and at the Adirondack Park Agency as Supervisor of Administrative Services and Executive Director.
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