Wynn Abrahamson

Wynn Abrahamson has grown up spending her summers with her family in Schroon Lake, NY. She currently lives in New York City and tries to spend as much time in the Adirondack Park as possible. As a strong advocate for the environment, Wynn is excited to begin her position on the Next Gen Council and join the team!

Giulia Casella

Giulia Casella is based in Glens Falls and works for the Lake George Land Conservancy as Fundraising & Events Manager. She is currently the Secretary of the Next Gen Council. Growing up in the area, she spent her childhood hiking, swimming, and exploring the Adirondacks. She graduated from SUNY Binghamton with degrees in Economic Policy Analysis and Environmental Studies. Her work and studies have fostered her civic responsibility and a passion for her local community. She is excited to further her involvement in advocacy and efforts to protect Adirondack Park. She enjoys gardening, biking, listening to music, running, and spending time outdoors whatever the season may be.

Caroline Dodd

Caroline Dodd (she/her) is an avid runner, skier, and paddler originally from Saranac Lake. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the Next Gen Council. She earned a B.S. in Environmental and Sustainability Sciences and Music from Cornell University in 2019. She has since worked as an environmental advocate for the Adirondack Council’s Albany office, as a Research Assistant in the Council's Elizabethtown office, and as an Event Manager for the Olympic Regional Development Authority. Caroline is passionate about equitable policy development and implementation to address climate change and its impacts. She is a master’s student in environmental policy at the Institute for a Sustainable Environment at Clarkson University. She represented Clarkson at last year’s COP27 UN Climate Negotiations in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt. Caroline works on the LEED for Communities recertification efforts in the New York Olympic Region, intending to help the region achieve recertification for Spring 2024. Her thesis research focuses on how sustainable holistic planning systems (SHPS) and regionally implemented climate policy impact community-scale resilience to climate change. She is advised by Professors Erik Backus and Stephen Bird. Caroline is also the Assistant Coach for Clarkson University’s cross-country and Nordic ski teams and a youth advisory board member for the Adirondack Youth Climate Program. Caroline is honored to join the Adirondack Council’s inaugural Next Generation Council.

Joe Dolan

Growing up in Central New York, Joe spent countless summers in the Adirondacks with family in Inlet, NY, and at scout camps. While the beauty and immensity of the Adirondacks have captivated Joe's attention for as long as he can remember, it was in the 9th grade, when he read the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan, that his enduring interest and fascination with Adirondack history—both human and natural—and our interaction with the land truly ignited.

Today, Joe lives in Long Lake and is the Public Programs Assistant Manager at the Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake. In his role at ADKX, he oversees select events, manages seasonal interpretive staff, coordinates daily and external programming, and operates the boathouse on Minnow Pond. He is a New York State Licensed Guide, Certified Interpretive Guide, and overall loves to share the great history of the Adirondacks. You can find Joe out and about skiing, hiking, mountain biking, swimming, or boating across the Adirondacks.

Monica Dore

Monica was raised in rural Washington County, just an hour outside of the Blue Line. She grew up taking hiking and paddling trips to the Park with her family, which inspired a respect for the environment and appreciation for working lands at an early age. Monica graduated from SUNY Oneonta with a degree in Biology and a Concentration in Ecology, and is currently the Conservation Project Manager for the Lake George Land Conservancy in Bolton Landing, NY.

She is honored to serve on the NextGen Council and is excited to further the Council’s goals of protecting the natural communities within the Park, while supporting its residents and visitors. Monica currently lives in Saratoga Springs. In her free time she enjoys hiking, paddling, dabbling in tennis, and botanizing.

Ian King

Ian R. King, P.E., who was raised on Long Island, grew up spending summers with his family exploring and falling in love with the Adirondacks. Now a resident of Brooklyn, Ian continues his family's tradition by making annual pilgrimages to the park with friends and loved ones to enjoy the mountain air and earn more of those coveted mountain-summiting accomplishment patches. Ian - a New York State-licensed professional structural engineer currently employed as a building code and zoning official in the City of New York - has professional experience in the fields of structural design, forensic engineering, building code and zoning interpretation and implementation, and government administration and management.

Anthony Kordziel

Anthony Kordziel grew up in the Adirondacks in Wilmington, NY. He was introduced to hunting and fishing by his father as a child, which sparked his passion for the outdoors and the Adirondacks. He is an alumnus of Lake Placid Central School District and earned a bachelor’s degree in Forest Ecology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He is a Certified Forester recognized by the Society of American Foresters.

Anthony represents the hunters, anglers, and trappers throughout the state as the New York State Conservation Council’s representative on the New York State Conservation Fund Advisory Board.

Anthony has worked as a forester, natural resource manager, and mapping specialist for non-profit organizations, as a private consultant, and for local government agencies. He knows the proper methods to manage natural resources and wildlife to improve property values, maintain biodiversity of ecosystems, improve water quality, and allow for recreational activities.

Anthony is honored to be an inaugural member of the NextGen Council and is excited to collaborate with and educate people about proper management of our natural resources and the tradition of hunting, fishing, and trapping in the Adirondacks and New York State.

Safa Mammeri

Safa Mammeri is an interdisciplinary advocate and environmental lobbyist who grew up on Treaty 6 where she spent much of her childhood hiking and exploring the great outdoors. As a 2023-24 Clarence Petty intern, she learned the ways of government, the mysteriously veiled decision-making process, and the relationship between war and warming. This experience cemented for her the three requisites needed for a fair and just society: the decolonization of information sharing systems, the creation of meaningful communal networks, and a love for land and all its inhabitants. She is currently pursuing a master’s in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Policy with a focus on land use conflicts; a degree she hopes to use to contribute to Indigenous sovereignty at home, and abroad.

Mike Schaefer

Mike Schaefer was born and raised in Schenectady, NY and from a very young age he was introduced to the Adirondacks at his family camp near North Creek. He went to HVCC for Digital Media and currently photographs weddings and events, along with working at a professional film lab in Albany. He volunteers with the ADK Mountain Club doing trail work and helping with local trash clean-up efforts. In the winter he is a Director at Royal Mountain Snowsports School. There, he loves spreading the joy of winter in the mountains with students and his staff.

Through past experience in Boy Scouts and further self-education, he teaches friends and strangers about low-impact recreation, wilderness safety, and how their voice can have a larger impact towards conservation; much of which he shares through his landscape photography in galleries and on social media.

Still living in the capital region, Mike enjoys the close proximity to the Adirondack Park and takes advantage of it often. Depending on the season you can find him skiing, biking, hiking, or paddling. He is excited for the opportunity to join the Next Gen Council and hopes to grow support for the wild character of the Adirondacks!

Charlotte Staats

Charlotte is the Trails Manager for the Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK), where she is responsible for the operation and long-term development of ADK’s professional and volunteer trail crew programs. She has her bachelor’s degree in environmental science and policy from Clarkson University. You can find Charlotte enjoying the Adirondacks while hiking, biking, paddling, or skiing.

Allison Stefanelli

As a founding member of the Adirondack Council's NextGen Council, Allison is continuing to show her commitment to the protection and preservation of the Adirondack Park for current and future generations. Allison worked as a Clarence Petty Legislative Intern in 2021 and Legislative Research Assistant in 2022 for the Adirondack Council where she tracked legislation, managed legislative correspondence, and researched conservation and environmental policy issues on which the Council engages. She grew up in Albany, NY with a family who enjoys camping and fishing in the Adirondack Park, and she graduated from the University of New Hampshire studying Wildlife and Conservation Biology. Now, Allison lives in Washington D.C. working for the Government Relations department at Defenders of Wildlife, helping to advance their policy agenda of establishing a National Biodiversity Strategy and upholding the integrity of the Endangered Species Act as attacks from Congress continue to be introduced.

Aaron Thomas

Aaron Thomas has lived in the Champlain Valley since 2011 when he first attended SUNY Plattsburgh and earned his bachelor's degree in environmental science. He has since worked for the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts and the Natural Resource Conservation Service in St. Albans, Vermont. He currently is the Farmland and Stewardship Specialist with the Adirondack Land Trust working to protect farmland throughout the Adirondacks through conservation easements. He is passionate about an equitable and accessible local food system, land access, and preserving family farms throughout the region.

Natalee Wrege

Natalee is the current Chair of the Next Gen Council. She grew up in a small town in Central New York. She received her bachelor's degree in environmental biology from the SUNY ESF in 2018. This is where her love of science and environmental education and was ignited. Natalee moved to Saranac Lake in the Spring of 2022 and joined the Paul Smith’s College Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) as the Environmental Educator. She is currently a graduate student at Paul Smith’s College studying Natural Resources Conservation with a focus in Sustainable Communities where she applies problem solving and concepts of human interaction with the environment to identify long-term and realistic solutions for preserving ecological integrity. She is a New York State Licensed Guide, Certified Interpretive Guide, a Leave No Trace Master Educator and uses these skills regularly teaching about the Adirondack Park. In her free time, she enjoys paddling, mountain biking, skiing and art.

Tim Yeskoo

Tim Yeskoo’s love for The Adirondack Park has been lifelong. Witnessing the effects of climate change in the Park firsthand motivated him to devote his career to mitigating the effects of climate change with a focus on sizable and immediate impact solutions. For his full time job, Tim works on Strategy and Business Development at Intersect Power, a developer, owner, and operator of clean energy assets at the gigawatt scale. Tim holds a BA in Physics and Geography from Colgate University. He also holds a MS and PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University, where he specialized in optimization techniques to enable higher levels of renewable energy on the electricity grid. Tim lives with his wife Christa and dog Maple in Saranac Lake. If he’s not shreddin’ the slopes of Whiteface on a snowy morning or sailing an Adirondack lake on a windy afternoon, you might find Tim exploring the endless depths of the Park both on and off the beaten track.

Cedar Young

Cedar Young (she/her) was born and raised in Saranac Lake, NY. Cedar has been involved in the climate movement since she joined her high school environmental club and started attending the Youth Climate Program's Adirondack Youth Climate Summits at age 15. She served as a member of Saranac Lake's Climate Smart Communities Task Force for three years, during which time the Village earned bronze certification. She interned with the Youth Climate Program at The Wild Center and attended the first-ever White House Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities in September of 2023. Currently, Cedar is a member of the North Country Clean Energy Hub's Advisory Board and will finish her bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and Government at St. Lawrence University in December of 2024. Cedar is honored and excited to join the Adirondack Council's Next Gen Council.