Tell us a little about you!
Dear 2026 PDLC members -
I am looking forward to working with all of you - getting to you know you (or in some cases getting to know you better), and sharing this cohort experience with you.
While I serve as an Assistant Director for CCE Admin now -- I've worked for the system for 36 years - many different roles and capacities. I love what we do, and I am proud of the work that we do together. I think what I like the most is the peer to peer networks that we create - as staff, but also in our communities, supporting lifelong learning.
I am from the Syracuse area originally - but have lived most of my life in Moravia - a small village in Cayuga County. As for superpowers - probably my friends would say that I like to move things forward - going from just talking, to getting things done. That happens mostly by putting words on paper, making lists, communicating with others...and inching forward. When I'm not working - I'm creating, cooking, gardening, hiking, pet wrangling, and connecting with family and friends.
Here is to many good conversations and collaborations ahead for us!
HIII!
My name is Casey and I am a nutrition educator based in Wayne county, serving both Wayne and Ontario counties. I am an originally from just outside of Louisville, KY and about a year a half ago found myself craving... not KY ( as beautiful as she is <3) along with other job-related grievances (if you've ever worked in/around the medical field, need I explain?). I found myself applying to CCE with the encouragement from a friend from college who was (is) also working for CCE.
My main interests in extension work, primarily within health and wellness education, is that this is community health prevention work. With a background in reactive healthcare, working my current position allows for my focus to be more on the prevention healthcare/ addressing social determinants of health with the intent on decreasing instances through education in a community I have come to love in a short span of time.
Friends would say superpower is finding the silver-lining, there is always one. Sometimes we just have to bring our scope out a little farther to see it. Coworkers would say talking to anyone and everyone, there's a reason I am in a position that talks a lot I reckon.
In my free time you'll likely find me with my horse of a dog (as seen in above photo) Jethro camping, hiking, traveling via car everywhere around the US to see friends and family so I can bring said horse dog, listening to an audiobook, DIY crafts, or roller skating on sunny days!
I am excited to meet and get to know everybody!
I also have a picture there! 
I am new to New York and CCE as well. I moved out from Reedley, California in January of last year and was also craving a different environment. Nice to hear people appreciate silver linings. Sounds like you are doing good work in Wayne and Ontario counties :)
During my time at Extension, my work has involved nutrition, mindfulness, and general wellness education. I have supported our Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), Farmer's Market Nutrition Program (FMNP), Master Food Preserver's Program (MFP) and various other initiatives. I am looking to expand my work in new and exciting ways and pursue avenues like food systems exploration for youth and other policy, systems, and environmental initiatives that can support our communities.
I grew up in Orange County. NY and went to school in Massachusetts where I studied public health. Prior to working with Extension, I worked as a prevention educator for a domestic violence agency. I have additionally been involved in educational initiatives around carceral learning and progressive pedagogy that both worked to expand access to education as well as philosophical inquiry within traditional learning environments. I am very passionate about educational and health equity, love to learn new skills and knowledge, and overall be in community with others.
With that being said, I think those close to me would identify my ability to connect deeply with people as a superpower of mine. I greatly value dialogue and getting to know people, and I value making people feel comfortable to be their fullest selves.
In my free time, I love to enjoy traveling, spending time with loved ones, and enjoying my various hobbies- including things like photography, reading, dancing, and more!
- Cheers
Currently in the realm of The Stormlight Archive (Brandon Sanderson is a top author for me, love his writing style).
For almost twenty years I've held various roles in the field of community health, primarily focusing on school wellness and policy, systems, and environmental change initiatives. Currently, I manage CCE SLC's fruit & vegetable prescription and social care services programs, and assist with partnership building in an ag/local foods project. I am enthusiastic about collaborative efforts that promote wellbeing, supporting each individual and all our communities to thrive.
I grew up on Long Island but have spent most of my adult life in NY's North Country with a short stint in the Hudson Valley. I enjoy cooking, digging in my small perennial gardens, and hiking, snowshoeing, and walking outdoors. Most of all, I am delighted to be a parent and an aunt to beloved kiddos ranging from preschool to adult.
Hi all, so happy to be on this journey with you! My name is Tess, and I am a 4-H Educator in Madison County, with our office based in Morrisville, NY. I grew up just down the road in Cortland County and still live in my hometown of Cincinnatus with my almost 16-year-old son, Jackson, and our mutt Millie (full name: Mildred McDog who is the funniest mix of Airedale Terrior and Border Collie).
I’ve been with Extension for nearly 8 years and have worked as an agriculture/ag economic development educator, as well as in my current 4-H role. As a kid who grew up in 4-H, I always kind of had a feeling I’d end up doing this work someday. In many ways, it took longer to get here than I expected, but I truly believe everything happens in the time it’s supposed to.
As I get older, I’ve realized I really love being home.... baking sourdough focaccia and reading (I average about 6 books a month!). I also love being anywhere my son is. He’s my whole heart and raising such a cool human is what keeps me going.
After polling a few friends and colleagues, I learned I have more “superpowers” than I realized! A few they pointed out were my ability to bring the humor, multitask, and what they described as a kind of x-ray vision... being really perceptive of people, their feelings, and how to read a room. Hearing that honestly made my week, so if you’re ever curious how incredible you are… go ask your people!
I’m really looking forward to learning with and from each of you during this program!
Hello, everyone, Some of you I know, others I have met; I am happy to have the chance to work alongside all of you. I was introduced to CCE by SNAP-Ed, starting work from home 2 weeks after shut-down, in 2020 (Wayne County - Finger Lakes region). I thrive in challenge and often lose myself without it. The timing of my start during COVID gave me plenty of challenge - as does our current time. I grew into the School Wellness PSE lead and the Statewide Organizational Sustainability Team while having amazing supervisors, some of my favorite teachers and coaches, who have taught me so much. I have been a fitness instructor for over decade now; I am passionate about Fitness Education, and frustrated by seeing exercise education, for physical and mental health, being neglected by public health at large. I will continue to grapple with this dynamic with an aim to highlight the need for Extension to teach fitness while curating space for belonging and mattering through shared physical movement.
I often push the boundaries of policies and systems. I tend to see things differently, and can struggle with putting my ideas into words. One of my top strengths is Ideation, coming up with new ideas, constructs and ways of operating. People often tell me I am gentle & knowledgeable, and I often receive appreciation for my vulnerability - which it feels weird writing out, but I am practicing acknowledging strengths rather than weaknesses.
I find Joy and Restoration in my family; My wonderful wife, Chantel, who, now that I have the pleasure to say, I have spent half my life with - who fills my heart along with our Doggy babies. Drago Horatio, and Cooper Claudius.
I love lifting weights, running, racquetball, photography, the hot summer sun, and practicing dad jokes.
I’m excited to be part of this Program Development Leadership Cohort and to get to know all of you!
I work in Delaware County with Cornell Cooperative Extension, where I serve as the Human Ecology Team Leader. I’m originally from Schoharie Valley and feel deeply connected to our rural communities and the people we serve. Over the last 4 decades, I have been connected to 4H Camp Shankitunk and have been part of various CCE Educational programs through my work as a Family and Consumer and Health teacher, so the transition to Human Ecology Team leader has been a natural and meaningful next step in my career.
What interests me most about Extension work is the opportunity to make a meaningful, practical impact in people’s everyday lives—whether that’s through education, building community partnerships, or helping individuals and families access resources that improve their well-being. I especially enjoy work that connects people to food systems, health, and hands-on learning.
Outside of work, I’m a hobby farmer, a mother of four, and a proud grandmother of one. I love spending time outdoors—especially skiing, hiking, and kayaking—and I share my home with four dogs who keep life interesting and busy!
If I had to name a “superpower,” my colleagues would probably say it’s my ability to connect people and ideas, and to keep moving projects forward even when things get complex.
Looking forward to learning alongside all of you!
I am a natural resources program coordinator in Chemung County and have been in the role for about 2 years. I consider myself a Finger Laker having grown up in Trumansburg, NY, but in my elementary youth I lived all over the US including California (birth state), Illinois, and Texas. I think my favorite part about Extension work is the freedom to teach my favorite topics to folks in my community and learning new things. I am pretty tall, so depending on who you ask, my [office] superpower is probably changing lightbulbs, but my best friends will [greenly] tell you I am good at everything.
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Good Morning
My name is Amanda Caughey, and I work at Cornell University with the New York State LTAP Center – Cornell Local Roads Program, where we support highway departments and DPWs across New York State. I recently stepped into the role of Program Manager in January, but I’ve been with the program for about 10 years, starting as the Event Coordinator, then serving as a Communications Specialist, and now in this role.
I grew up on Long Island (Patchogue, NY), came to the area for school, and ended up staying. I welcomed my first daughter this past September and have been enjoying every minute of this new chapter. 
Outside of work, I enjoy staying active and taking advantage of everything Upstate New York has to offer, especially hiking, kayaking, and paddleboarding.
I’ve been told my superpowers are organization and patience—and that I’m basically Leslie Knope from Parks & Recreation 😂
I’m looking forward to meeting everyone!
I’m originally from Pennsylvania and have really enjoyed getting to learn more about agriculture in New York over the past year. I especially enjoy the hands-on, field-based side of my role and being able to connect research directly to what growers are seeing and dealing with in real time. What draws me to Extension is how dynamic it is; no two days are the same. I spend much of my time in the field working on research trials, pest scouting, and supporting extension programs.
In a work setting, my “superpower” is adaptability, being able to shift quickly between tasks. Whether it’s fieldwork one minute, data the next, or helping with events in between. Outside of work, my friends and family often describe me as 'a pillar in the chaos of a storm'. Service is one of my core values, and I try to be someone others can rely on. Whether that’s being a calming presence, stepping in to help, or finding a practical solution.
Outside of work, I enjoy spending quality time with the important people in my life. I love feeding people, exploring new cultures, and finding ways to recharge through hobbies. Especially baking (a friend once gave me a “having a mental bake-down” sticker, which feels very accurate 😅). I also enjoy being outdoors, whether that’s picnics or hiking.
Looking forward to learning from everyone and getting to know you all!
Excited to see you're going to be in this cohort too! We sat at a table together during a small farms program at Ag In-service and discovered we were both on regional teams we've never heard of! Looking forward to chatting!
I really relate to "two days are never the same"! It is the same with SNAP-Ed. Always need to be ready to pivot and stay adaptable, even in chaos.
I love the pictures!
This is Eric Antrim, currently residing in Watertown, NY. I am relatively new to New York and CCE, working as a Crop & Soil Specialist for the Tri-Count Ag Team, serving Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Counties. I moved here in January of 2025 from Reedley, California where I was a biological technician in a plant pathology lab for the USDA Agricultural Research Service and an adjunct Plant Science instructor at Reedley College. What interests me most about extension is the opportunity to work in a fun environment where everyone is focused on helping others and getting to use my education to assist the agricultural community. My super power (which can also be one of my biggest flaws😉) is determination, once I put my mind to something I’m all in.
In my free time I enjoy hiking with my partner Hannah and our two dogs Patches and Bruce, rock hounding, playing bluegrass music, and flyfishing. 
Looking forward to meeting everyone next week!
It seems like there are quite a few common interests in and out of work between us. Connection to DOI and flyfishing among other things! Hope to connect throughout the cohort and after! You are fortunate to be so close to Chaumont and the Black - what awesome water!
-Jeremy
I'm currently an adjunct on top of my position with CCE, and this is something I've noticed with quite a few CCE Educators. Rockland's Horticulture educator is an adjunct at Rowan as well, for example.
My name is Leslie Pude and I am late to the game but looking forward to meeting you all tomorrow.
I am the 4-H Team Leader for Monroe County. I have worked in my current position for just over a year, much of that time I have spent rebuilding out team after some restructuring. Before that I worked for three years as a 4-H educator and come from a career in education.
Our county is different than many as we have youth from urban, suburban, and rural areas and, what we do well is building relationships and plan impactful hands-on experiences that meet the different needs of the youth we work with.
My husband I are raising out three children in Honeoye Falls, New York where we keep chickens and honeybees and grow lots of fruits and vegetables. We also have two cats that we are obsessed with, that take up much of the photo space on my phone.
My superpowers are logistics and herding cats (really I mean little kids 😂).
See you soon!
How fun to hear about all of your interests and adventures! I'm Melanie, current Executive Director in Ulster County after having led the 4-H department for over a decade there. My life has been guided by experiential learning, and that's what I like about Extension work. I like learning about other cultures and languages and speak Spanish and French fluently.
I'm sometimes told I'm brave, although it's not always something I feel about myself. I have a degree and lots of practice in Conflict Transformation and Intercultural Management, and a superpower I have is the practice to say things others are struggling to articulate due to conflict avoidance. I'm not great at following rules just for the sake of rule-following or tradition, which can get me in trouble.
P.S. This might be the only time I got three dogs to listen :).
What interests me the most about extension is the wiggle room to create and implement programming that I see fit, so long as it fits the needs of my growers, my team, and my county-counterparts. I enjoy giving talks about anything berry related, creating my own small fruit track for the Eastern NY Winter Conference, and teaming up with the WNY Berry Specialist for Empire Expo. I also am really interested in collaborating within my teams and other programs, which I do often. I work a lot with people who specialize in tree fruit, vegetables, and members of counties, Cornell IPM, HarvestNY, AgriTech, and LOFT.
I think my superpower is using my sense of humor in an otherwise technical environment. I find using humor brings levity to dense, research-heavy talks or recommendations, and makes connections with growers and colleagues. We all find ourselves doing very program-heavy, research-heavy, anything-heavy tasks and projects, so a bit of humor and lightheartedness can remind us to have fun and connect with others. From what I hear from my colleagues and supervisor, I'm incredibly willing to collaborate and make people feel heard.
The picture I'm sharing is me giving information to my colleagues at the HVRL, as we just planted a berry planting last week called the Hudson Valley Climate Smart Fruit Demonstration! I am indeed showing them a hand-drawn map I made, because sometimes its easier to draw it out than put it in Excel!
Hello!
My name is Amanda Cappadona.
I am the SNAP-Ed Nutrition Educator for Rockland County CCE. I am part of the Hudson Valley Regional SNAP-Ed team. I also adjunct for a Public Health and Community Nutrition graduate course at Lehman College outside of my work with CCE.
I grew up in New Jersey in Somerset County, and now live in Bergen County NJ. As much as I love working in Rockland County, Jersey will always be my home. I live with my husband and cat, and will soon be moving less than 2 miles from my best friends. I love sci-fi and horror (especially Star Wars) in any medium including novels, tv shows, and movies.
What interests me most about extension work is the variety and creativity that comes with it. I also love doing what I can to support my community, and I feel very fulfilled by the work I do.
My superpower is probably data. I find data and data evaluation fun and interesting, and I try to present it in a way that ties our work together and informs what we do.
My background is in environmental, garden, and food education, and I earned my degree in Food Systems, so I’m especially excited to be part of Extension, where those interests intersect in meaningful ways. What draws me most to Extension work is the opportunity to connect people to food in a way that supports personal, community, and environmental well-being.
In my spare time, I like to hike, travel, and spend time with the humans and non-humans I love. My friends say I have a knack at helping people feel comfortable.
Hi everyone! My name is Debbie and I am the director of the New York Center for Organics Recycling and Education (previously the Cornell Waste Management Institute). I am located on main campus, in Bradfield hall, and work statewide. I have been involved with extension since I finished graduate school almost 9 years ago. I love working directly with farmers, community members, and stakeholders across NYS and beyond.
Outside of work, I love playing soccer, hiking, cooking, and just being outside. Most importantly I love hanging out with my son (11 months old), husband, and dog.
I came into Extension after working as a vegetable farmer in the Hudson Valley of NY for most of my twenties, and was motivated by the goal to help Extension better support farmers in my community. I also have my own farm business (so two full time jobs, really!) called Buttermilk Bean, and enjoy having the perspective as both a grower and educator/researcher in my work with Extension.
Some other things about me: even though I work in "field crops" (i.e. grains and forages), all of my graduate research and one of my post-grad jobs were in vegetables. I spent nearly 4 years living in Singapore, working for their govt (working with high-tech and soil-based veg farms) and as a postdoc at NUS working on food waste recycling with black soldier flies.
I have two postions with CCE. I am the Tompkins CCE Compost Outreach Coordinator and I am an Ext. Specialist for Cornell-Garden Based Learning.
I am orgininaly from Louisiana and was there until I finish college and then moved out west to be in the Conservation Corps which is what got me into community education and programming, especially in agriculture. I was hired by the Blackfeet Nation Stock Growers Association and a Blackfeet Led Food Access Nonprofit while living in MOntana and I gain so much from the intensly community informed way of serving. I also found a passion for supporting those working in the food system, and families on the consumer side. I love that I get to continue that work through Cornell garden Based Learning programs like Seed to Supper. And with my work for CCE Tompkins Compost porgram I have discoved the last connecting peice int he food system that is often forgotten, food waste, to be a really empowering topic to teach about and give the public tools to manage their waste in a way that alignes with their values.
I spend my free time hiking, fishing, and gardening
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