Adirondack Wilderness Advocates has recently added three new members to the Board. Please join us in welcoming Amy, Janelle, and Tim.
Read more about our newest Board Members below!
Amy
Amy Nelson is one of our newer Board members. Growing up and camping in Wisconsin, she has a vivid memory of getting lost in the wilderness, a humbling experience which formed a deep connection to the wild, heightened by her backpacking experiences in the North Country. After moving to the Adirondacks with her husband, Pete, they became denizens of a wilderness inholding at a high elevation. There, she has formed a profound bond with the flora and fauna of the deep woods, going so far as to naming many of her favorite trees. Amy is a public school music teacher and professional singer, performing around the North Country. She recently became music director for Borealis, a community group preparing to sing for hospice patients. As an educator, she strives to help young people foster a connection to the wilderness and share her growing knowledge of wild nature. She is drawn to the Adirondack Wilderness Advocates because it is small and doesn’t lobby and advocates for the Adirondacks both in the back country and in service to the park.
Janelle
Adirondack Wilderness Advocates welcomes one of our newest board members, Janelle Jones. We are thrilled to have a genuine wilderness professional with us. Janelle majored in environmental studies as an undergraduate and received her masters in conservation biology. Janelle moved to the Adirondacks over 10 years ago and works full-time as a land steward with the Northeast Wilderness Trust, protecting and practicing passive management of more than 92,000 acres of forever-wild lands across New England and Northern New York. As part of her job, Janelle leads hikes, walks the boundaries of protected lands, and protects “nature for nature’s sake.” Her philosophy aligns perfectly with Adirondack Wilderness Advocates, supporting wilderness, which can’t speak for itself. She is always looking to expand forever-wild areas and engage in conservation. Janelle has been an outdoor enthusiast her entire life. She is an active skier, logging more than 78 days on skis during the 2024-2025 season alone. She also adores canoeing and birding.
Tim
The newest member of the AWA board, Tim grew up on an apple farm in New Jersey. Although by no means remote, he spent countless hours exploring the orchards, surrounding forest, and streams. He moved to the Adirondacks in 2009 after retiring from Stony Brook University where he was Director of Choral Music. He was first introduced to the ADK on family ski trips, starting at the age of 7. He now lives in Elizabethtown where he enjoys sitting on the porch of the log cabin he built, gazing at the Giant, Hurricane, and Jay wilderness areas. A list lover, Tim has completed the Adirondack summer and winter 46, fire tower challenge, the Saranac 6er, and the Elizabethtown 5, among many other mountains. He is currently working on the 47 Laker. Tim loves nothing more than the quiet and being alone (or with his family or close friends) in the wilderness and strives to preserve remote areas not only in the Adirondacks but around the world in places where he and his wife have served as caretakers for more than 15 years. These include sub-Arctic Manitoba; a remote island off the coast of Tasmania; a lighthouse in Frederick Sound, Alaska; 3 other island lighthouses; and, most recently, a restored ranch in Rocky Mountain National Park.
