About the Symposium

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  3. About the Symposium

North Country Symposium Steering Committee

Bob Ahlfeld, Business Development Specialist, St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency

Ron Burke, Superintendent, Canton Central School District

Jon Cardinal, Director of Economic Development, Office of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer

Mark Cernero, Director of Community Support & Corporate Sponsorship, WPBS-TV

Elizabeth Cooper, Executive Director, Adirondack North Country Association

Ben Dixon, Steering Committee Chair and Executive Director of the St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce

Felicia Neahr, Regional Director for the North Country, Workforce Development Institute

Paul Redfern, Vice President for University Communications, St. Lawrence University

Dale Rice, Executive Director, Small Business Development Center, SUNY Canton

Leigh Rodriguez, Director of Economic Development, Village of Canton, NY

Brooke Rouse, Director of Tourism, St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce

Mitch Teich, Station Manager, North Country Public Radio

Doug Welch, Sustainability Activist

Patricia Wilson, North Country Economic Development Manager, New York Power Authority

Ex Officio:

Kathryn Morris, President, St. Lawrence University

 

About the Ellen C. Burt ’42 Endowment for North Country Education

Ellen Cuthbert Burt (SLU '42), her husband, Stewart, and their three children, Jeffrey, Laurie, and John, gifted St. Lawrence University with an endowment to support education in New York's North Country in 2002. With family ties in St. Lawrence County back to 1835, the Burt family has watched the continual decline of the North Country's economic strength and environmental quality, and the subsequent negative effects on educational achievement in our schools and migration of young people out of the area. The Burt family recognizes that the region's educational institutions -- its colleges and its public schools -- carry the potential and the responsibility to reverse these economic and environmental trends, and their endowment gift was given with this in mind. It was an act of extraordinary benevolence and faith in our human resources in the North Country. The Symposium was conceived as one of the primary initiatives to be sponsored by the endowment. In past symposia, we have mourned the passing of Stewart Burt in 2003 and Ellen in 2006, and we remember them for their vision, benevolence, and good spirit. Jeff, Laurie, and John continue their support and thoughtful engagement with the work of the North Country Symposium.



North Country Symposium Steering Committee