SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. — The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) board of directors on July 1 announced that Elizabeth Cooper will succeed Kate Fish as executive director. Fish has led the rural economic-development organization for 12 years. Cooper will begin work at the association on July 12, ANCA said. ANCA is an independent, nonprofit corporation […]
SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. — The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) board of directors on July 1 announced that Elizabeth Cooper will succeed Kate Fish as executive director.
Fish has led the rural economic-development organization for 12 years. Cooper will begin work at the association on July 12, ANCA said.
ANCA is an independent, nonprofit corporation that works to promote economic development across a 14-county region of Northern New York, with a focus on entrepreneurship, local agriculture, and clean energy.
Cooper has “significant experience” in private sector, supply-chain analysis and management, and as a captain in the New York Air National Guard. She is recognized as a leader in community development and as an entrepreneur in the region, ANCA contends.
Cooper lives in Lake Placid, after having grown up in Star Lake in St. Lawrence County. She is CEO and owner of Coffee Fever in Star Lake, which she launched in June 2015, per her LinkedIn profile.
“Elizabeth’s experience as a small-business owner, her work in community development and her global experience made her stand out from a pool of 54 applicants from as far away as London, England; South Africa; Texas and Nevada,” Jim Sonneborn, chair of the ANCA board of directors, said in a release. “It will enable her to lead ANCA in strengthening local food and clean energy systems as well as the entrepreneurial economy.”
Cooper graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1999, before serving in the New York Air National Guard in both active and reserve capacities for nine years. In this role, Cooper was commander of the maintenance operations flight, supervising aircraft- maintenance personnel in both Scotia in Schenectady County and McMurdo Bay, Antarctica.
She worked in logistics for Target Corporation, before earning an MBA degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy in 2006. Cooper subsequently took a position with Accenture, a Fortune 500 multinational company that provides consulting and processing services, where she led an international team from its New York City headquarters in developing 24-hour supply-chain services for clients.
In 2009, Cooper returned to the Adirondacks, where she worked as community-development coordinator for the Towns of Clifton and Fine from 2009 to 2013. During this time, she coordinated efforts to rehabilitate the J&L site, increase broadband access, and administer local waterfront-revitalization grants.