Marilyn Wyman has joined Cornell Cooperative Extension in Cobleskill and Cooperstown as its new interim executive director, effective September 1.
Ms. Wyman is assuming the leadership reigns of the organization from Don Smyers, who had announced his retirement following 14 years of service, first as executive director of CCE Schoharie County and then from the consolidated Schoharie and Otsego Counties Association, which he helped create.
Ms. Wyman retired from CCE of Columbia and Greene Counties in 2019, where for over 25 years she created programs relating to natural resources, agriculture, and rural community development.
She holds a BS in biology and a master’s degree in natural resources, with a focus on forests.
Among the highlights of her CCE career, she helped establish CCE’s Agroforestry Resource Center and the 140-acre Siuslaw Model Forest in Greene County, which provides science-based natural resource education and outreach programs.
“I feel very comfortable assuming the role as interim Executive Director and look forward to working with the Extension community to bring on board a new, full-time Executive Director who will take CCE Schoharie and Otsego forward in the best possible ways,” Ms. Wyman said.
Ms. Wyman and her husband, Rick, have owned a small farm in Schoharie County for more than 20 years, where they have grown vegetables, raised pigs and chickens, and cultivated shiitake mushrooms.