Steering Committee Chair:
Dr. Jim Shuman, Chair, Department of Education, St. Lawrence University, jshuman@stlawu.edu

Members:
Lisa Cania, Vice President of Community and Employee Relations, St. Lawrence University
Wade Davis, Executive Director, Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority
Ann Heidenreich, North Country Point of Contact, NYSERDA Local Government Focus Program
Pat McKeown, Executive Director, St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce
Linda McQuinn, Director of Economic Development, Town and Village of Canton
Leigh Rodriguez, Business Services Coordinator, St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency
Gregory Slack, Director of Research and Technology Transfer, Clarkson University
David Sommerstein, Reporter and Producer, North Country Public Radio
Karen St. Hilaire, County Administrator, St. Lawrence County Government
Susan Todd, Superintendent, Heuvelton Central School District and Member, St. Lawrence County Council of Chief School Officers
Doug Welch, Chair, St. Lawrence County Planning Board
Bob Zimmerman, President, St. Lawrence Leadership Institute
Keith Zimmerman, Director, St. Lawrence County Planning Office

Ex Officio:
William Fox, President, St. Lawrence University
Lynn Fox, Senior Adviser, US Federal Reserve Board
Benjamin Dixon, Symposium Coordinator and Coordinator of Regional Development & Sustainability, 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.