Joe Dadey, PhD

Executive Director

Joe possesses a Bachelor’s degree in Forest Biology from SUNY-ESF in Syracuse, New York, a Master’s degree in Outdoor Recreation from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois and a PhD in Environmental Policy/Environment Communication from SUNY-ESF. He taught for twenty years at the college-level, including eight years in the Recreation, Adventure Travel and Ecotourism (RATE) program at Paul Smith’s College (PSC). Joe worked a couple of seasons as an Assistant Forest Ranger in the Adirondack High Peaks and has co-led numerous 40-day expeditions with adjudicated youth through Project USE of New Jersey. He has also co-instructed sixteen month-long outdoor leadership expeditions in the Adirondacks, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and traveled with PSC students to study ecotourism in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize, the Dominican Republic and New Zealand.

Joe likes sharing nature with people, outdoor adventures, charismatic megafauna, the Doobie Brothers, constellations, tennis, the literary works of Victor Hugo and John Irving, Scrabble, Syracuse University sports, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and, without apologies, Cream of Wheat.

Jack K. Drury

Senior Advisor

Jack has been facilitating experiential learning at an international level for over 25 years and has provided training to educators throughout North America, the United Kingdom and the Middle East. He is Professor Emeritus of North Country Community College having founded and directed the college’s Wilderness Recreation Leadership Program for nearly twenty years. He is past president of the Wilderness Education Association and co-author of the definitive wilderness leadership text The Backcountry Classroom: Lessons, Tools, and Activities for Teaching Outdoor Leaders as well as The Camper’s Guide to Outdoor Pursuits: Finding Safe, Nature Friendly, Comfortable Passage Through Wild Places. He is a contributing author to Hiking and Backpacking, Adventure Education: Theory and Application, and The Wilderness Educator.

Being Senior Advisor at Adirondack Hamlets to Huts means one thing….Jack’s old. Jack uses his career experience of nearly fifty years as an educator, education consultant, small business owner, and having served on or worked for nearly a dozen non-profit boards over his career to provide Joe with guidance and advice.

Jack’s strengths include seeing the big picture but focusing on the details required to complete a project. He’s deadline-oriented and recognizes that although any project can be worked on infinitely, there comes a point when you must declare the task complete and move on to the next one. He’s fiscally conservative and finds ways to make a dollar stretch a mile.

Jack resides in Saranac Lake, NY with his wife Phyliss where he actively supports many Adirondack Park issues. They have four adult children.