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