Hi, I'm Celeste Carmichael. I often go by "Cel" - just a shorthand, and it relates to my childhood nickname - "Shell". I work in Extension Administration and have worked for Extension in many different capacities over the years. When I'm not working, I love to garden, walk my dogs, hike, read, knit, and write.  I live in Cayuga County, and I'm from Onondaga County. In my spare time, I'm working on a PhD in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. My friends tell me that my superpower is documenting processes and memories so that we don't forget what we have done.  This is year 8 for PDLC - every year, I apply the cohort time to a project of my own...just keeping it relevant :).  Looking forward to working with you all!

Hello all, Scott Hudson from Onondaga County. I was born and raised here in Onondaga County, and was the 4th generation in my family to graduate from Baldwinsville Central School District (it's just what we do haha). I've been in my role here at CCE-Onondaga, as 4-H Youth & Family Development Team Leader, for almost 2 years now. In my position, I oversee 4-H clubs & programs, coordinate our summer camp program, and collaborate with the other wonderful program areas in our association. Moving forward, I'm looking to begin afterschool programming, parenting/family education, and youth mental health education. I love extension work because each and every day is different and we're constantly evaluating how we can better meet the needs of the communities we serve! My friends and colleagues generally say that my superpower is the ability to build connections and relationships with those around me, so that we can accomplish more with the time and resources we all have. In my spare time, I enjoy just about anything outdoors! I'm usually found hiking, biking, paddling, running, or just playing games in the backyard. I'm very much looking forward to this opportunity, and having the chance to learn from you all.

Hi All!
I'm Lynne Wahlstrom from Chautauqua County. I grew up here in but left after college to pursue my dream of being a 4-H Educator in Northeast Indiana. After 10 years away from home (and 6 years in Extension), it was time to come home and enjoy more time with family, so I moved back in late October of this year.  

I enjoy working in Extension for the youth.  I grew up in the program and am excited to see it grow and change to continue benefitting today's youth.  I'm excited to see our office fully staffed soon so we can get out of survival mode and thrive and grow.

I just closed on an Amish farm Friday April 4th, so when I'm not at work, I am helping get it move-in ready.  I also enjoy caring for the animals on my farm, driving my draft horse, showing my 4 dogs in performance sports, and making dairy products and soaps out of my goats' milk. 

Hi all, looking forward to working with you in a couple weeks as PDLC kicks off! I'm Leigh Miller, born in Steuben County and raised in Tompkins, where I currently live and work. At CCE Tompkins, I am a Community Energy Educator. I am on a team of energy educators from CCEs Schuyler, Chemung, Tioga, Broome, and Delaware who provide energy advising as part of the NYSERDA Southern Tier Regional Clean Energy Hub, also called Smart Energy Choices. Our Southern Tier Hub team is part of a statewide network of 12 Energy Hubs, several of which are based at CCE offices, and my picture is from our recent convening in Albany (I am in the white shirt). This represents one of my favorite aspects of Extension work - the collaboration and shared learning among our network of colleagues throughout the state. I also appreciate the free education offered to the community on a variety of practical topics; observing that as an intern with CCE Tioga is what drew me to my current role. And, that topic, philosophies of community education, is what I hope to explore via PDLC.  My colleagues would probably say my superpower is knowledge of internal systems and organization...and remembering the dates of their birthdays!

Hi everyone, I’m Carl Mierek. I have been working at CCE Oneida as a Food Systems Specialist since January. My role extends beyond the county, however, as I am working under a NYS program to increase the flow of food from the Mohawk Valley Region to NYC. I love working at extension because no where else could I spend one day on a farm visit, the next day at a conference discussing the latest scientific discoveries, and work alongside so many like minded and passionate individuals everyday. 

Growing up on a small dairy farm outside of Rome, NY fostered my love not just for agriculture, but also for nature and biology. I attended St. Lawrence University for conservation biology and subsequently worked at a variety of nonprofits and farms around the Capitol District and Western Massachusetts. When I returned to the area, I opened The Local Farm to Table, a cafe and grocer focused on sourcing ingredients from farms across the Mohawk Valley. I am happily married and a father of two kids, a dog, and some chickens. In my free time I love to explore nature and spend time working on our garden.

I think my super power comes from my diverse background that includes work in conservation, on farms, and in kitchens. This allows me to better view things through the lens of many different stakeholders. I hope to leverage my diverse background to expand the reach of my program, Bridging the Upstate-Downstate Food Network Divide, into NYC restaurants. 

Hello all! I am Linnea Haskin, and work as the Community Food System Educator for CCE Chautauqua. I am born and raised in Chautauqua, and have worked in food systems for most of my career. I love working at extension because I get to constantly meet new people, learn from them, and find/create ideas that lead to collaboration. I am very passionate about food security work, and am proud to have spearheaded the first mobile market in our county almost 10 years ago, and it is still running strong! I am currently very invested in assisting food pantries in better understanding our food needs, and working to connect food insecure individuals with local producers. In my free time I love to garden, cook and preserve food and spend time with my husband and our five cats.

Hi, I’m Colin Hostetter! I look forward to working with you all throughout the course. I’m a Farm Business Management Specialist, part of the Tri-County Ag Team (Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence County). I grew up in St. Lawrence County and that it where I am based now. Before CCE, I spent a decade at an agricultural lender as a loan officer and then credit reviewer. When not working I like to spend time with friends, play hockey, and raise chickens.

My friends would say that superpowers are having perspective to understand and consider all sides of an argument, and that I am very principled.

Hi All, I'm Mike. I just started a few weeks ago with the New York Sea Grant as an Extension Associate, where I am the outreach coordinator with the Cornell Climate Stewards program. Before that I was at CCE Schuyler, where I was a coordinator with the NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities program, and before that I did graduate work in oceanography.

I grew up in Ithaca, and am happy to be back in the area, now with a family in tow. I am constantly inspired by the direct impact Extension has in communities across the state, and am excited to be a part of it. In my free time I enjoy playing lots of music, and my superpower is injecting Tom Petty into every discussion I have.

Hi all, I'm Joseph Amsili from Tompkins County, where I was born and raised. I've worked at Cornell in soil science for about 10 years already (in two stints --> time flies). I just got promoted as a senior extension associate and will now be leading our New York Soil Health Initiative here at Cornell. This will be a big adjustment for me and I look forward to using this course as an opportunity to think about how I might want to shape the extension aspects of our program. I've wanted to take this course in the past, but I was always too busy juggling work and my employee degree program. I love doing extension around soil health and sustainable soil management practices like reduced tillage and cover crops. My favorite part of extension is getting to build relationships with wonderful people all over the state and to meet them where they are at and try my best to provide useful resources/information for their questions. I love gardening and hanging with my partner in crime Watson, the soil health sniffing expert. My favorite days are when I can bring Watson with me on my soil sampling road trips. I have been active in the Youth Farm Project here in Tompkins County since it started in 2010. Not sure about the superpower question --> maybe that I am very attuned to details - whether that's with numbers in an excel sheet or identifying weeds in the field.

Hello Everyone! I am excited to meet you all next week. My name is Rachel Bortin (she/her) and I am the Camp Director at Primitive Pursuits 4-H in Tompkins County. I have been working for extension for almost 4 years within my current role. I moved around a few times (within NYS) when I was younger and moved to Cortland, NY for graduate school in 2019. Shortly after I graduated in 2021 I got my job in Tompkins County and moved to Brooktondale (right outside of Ithaca) where I live with my fiance, 8 month old puppy, and two cats.

The thing that interests me most about extension work is the variety of people, work opportunities and programs. There is always something new to discover or someone new to talk to. I specifically came to CCE because I love summer camp! Programs such as camp have made a huge impact on my life and I want to continue that positive impact to the future generations! Plus it is fun! :D

When I am not working I am enjoy playing board games, hiking, biking, playing with my puppy and cats, watching basketball or learning something new!

Hi everyone, Simone White from Chemung County. I am a Program Coordinator in Natural Resources and have been with CCE for about 3 months. I was born and raised in Elmira/Horseheads in Chemung County. My favorite part about working at CCE is being able to connect with different people of similar interests in my community and across the state and figuring out how we can work together to better our communities. In my free time, I enjoy anything having to do with being outside; hiking, biking, gardening, skiing (although admittedly I have not been in a couple years). I'm looking forward to this opportunity and meeting everyone!

Hello Cohort! I'm Mel Sheffield (they/them), the Extension Administration Front Desk Admin. (You may have seen me during various Zoom meetings or received an email from me.) Although I have been with Extension for just under a year, I genuinely enjoy my role and the opportunity to work with many different people and teams across the state. My superpowers include creating welcoming environments and facilitating effective communication, with a side of diplomacy.

I will be supporting Celeste throughout the PDLC kickoff this year and look forward to meeting all of you.

Hello! My name is Tricia Carvalho, and I started at Seneca County CCE as Horticulture Program Educator last May.
I took the Cornell Climate Stewardship course in 2021 with my project being to get a community garden up and running in the Town of Seneca Falls. I reached out to CCE Master Gardener volunteers to get advice on how to get a new garden up and running and was blown away with the support I received. I ended up taking the master gardener training myself the end of the first season in the community garden and was offered a job the following Spring.
Like many others have mentioned, I appreciate the flexibility with a job at extension. CCE is very open and accommodating to learning opportunities for both staff and participants which is able to open so many more avenues for potential programming. I enjoy that we are able to build our own programs based on our county needs, making it all that more meaningful and impactful. I enjoy opportunities such as this to connect with other counties and programs to try and implement more ourselves.

This is a picture of a portion of our pollinator pathway that master gardener volunteers helped plant and care for last year!

Hi, I'm Stephanie Somerville Zamora. You can call me Steph :) I work at Cornell Lab of Ornithology with the K-12 Education team. I've lived in Danby (Tompkins County) for two and a half years now, with my husband and 14 month old. However, I am a tropical bird as I was born and raised in Costa Rica. Growing up on a family farm surrounded by nature, and inspired by my wonderful science teachers, I studied Biology at the University of Costa Rica. That is where I fell in love with environmental education and interpretation, which led me to get my masters in EE&I at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

I love connecting people with nature and advancing conservation efforts, so I jumped at the chance to work with the K-12 Education team at Cornell Lab. Birds are such charismatic animals and serve as a great entry point to inspire people to learn about the natural world, our human impacts, participatory science and nature-based science inquiry. I like having the chance to reach educators, by developing materials and leading workshops, that help them develop meaningful connections between our natural world and their students.

I look forward to meeting and learning from everyone this week!

Hello new cohort friends,
I'm Jennifer Coe and I'm currently the Camp Overlook team leader for Franklin County, where my position oversees the year-round vision for the camp including rentals, field trips, school visits, and our summer camp program. Camp will be celebrating it's 80th anniversary this summer. I started my position here in October, so I'm fairly new to the camp, but not new to positive youth development, program development and camp. I grew up in Chautauqua County and have directed summer camps in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Wyoming, Niagara and Suffolk counties. Super power? I've had some staff say that I have an amazing way of dealing with kids, which I think is pretty cool. Since many have shared their pets and scenic views, I'll do the same.

Hi All,
I'm Sarah, an Extension Support Specialist with Eastern New Youk Commercial Horticulture Program. Looking forward to meeting you all shortly!