Navigating change: Adirondack Mountain Club seeks dynamic leader

Interim director Julia Goren leads ADK’s charge in summit stewardship, visitor engagement

This is part of a series from the January/February 2025 issue of Adirondack Explorer magazine, “Green groups at a turning point: Environmental watchdogs change guard.”

Julia Goren, interim executive director, said what distinguishes the organization from others is its “boots-on-the-ground stewardship.” ADK runs visitor centers, conducts educational programming and builds and maintains trails.

A key initiative, the Adirondack High Peaks Summit Stewardship Program, aims to protect the fragile alpine ecosystem on the state’s tallest mountains.

Through hiring full-time and seasonal staff, the organization helps attract people to the park where they settle and build families, Goren added. “I think that’s a powerful way that ADK makes its mark in the Adirondacks.”

Since 2019, ADK has had two different full-time directors. It now has an interim director and is searching for a permanent one. Goren is a candidate. 

Neil Woodworth, who worked at the Adirondack Mountain Club for three decades and retired as its executive director in 2019, endorses Goren. 

He said he’s watched ADK focus on programming in the greater Lake Placid area, and less on constitutional issues impacting the Adirondack and Catskill parks.

Woodworth, ADK’s director for about 15 years, said the board sets the policy and emphasis and the board has changed. Woodworth, an attorney who lobbied for the group, passed the torch to another attorney, Michael Barrett, in 2019. 

Goren called Barrett a “change agent” who helped ADK “streamline and focus.” Under his leadership, ADK purchased the property to create its Cascade Welcome Center outside of Lake Placid and divested its administrative offices in Lake George. And under Barrett, the board consolidated. It used to be made up of members of ADK’s 37 chapters, plus others. There are now 15 voting board members.

Barrett resigned last July. A few months later, he took the top post with Habitat for Humanity of New York. In mid-October, ADK posted its search for “a dynamic, visionary, ambitious, and collaborative leader” with business acumen, fundraising experience and the ability to “refine the mission, vision, business model and engagement strategy.” 

Woodworth calls Goren “very qualified.” Barrett and Mickey Orta, president of ADK’s board, declined to comment about the search.

ADK is monitoring proposed amendments to the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan, the policy document covering the forest preserve. It has expressed concerns about an APA proposal that could expand motorized access to wilderness, canoe and primitive areas. 

ADK also plans to push for funding in the state budget and make sure that the funds are used for what they’re supposed to be used for, Goren said. State funds can be slow to get out the door. ADK, for example, is still awaiting a $500,000 Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation grant it was awarded in December 2021. 

— Gwendolyn Craig