Dr. Brendan Wiltse will be leaving Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) to assume the role of Executive Director at the Lake George Association (LGA).
He succeeds Eric Siy, who resigned in 2023, and Leigh Youngblood, who LGA hired earlier this year to serve as interim executive director.
Wiltse earned his B.Sc. in Field Biology from Paul Smith’s College and a Ph.D. in biology with a focus on aquatic ecology from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, in 2014.
He served as Science and Stewardship Director for the Ausable River Association in Wilmington, NY, for six years before joining AWI as Senior Research Scientist and then as Water Quality Director with a cross-appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Masters of Natural Resource Conservation program at Paul Smith’s College. Three years later, he was named Executive Director of the Institute.
Wiltse grew up in Watertown, NY, and spent much of his free time with family at nearby Lake Ontario, Lake Champlain, and Lake George at Ticonderoga. He has a broad range of interests in the field of limnology, including the use of paleolimnological approaches to reconstruct ecosystem responses to recent climate change and using environmental DNA to map the distribution of brook trout in the Adirondacks.
At the Ausable River Association he led work to understand and address road salt pollution in the Ausable River watershed, specifically Mirror Lake, in the Village of Lake Placid.
He serves on the Northern Forest Atlas Foundation board and as a scientific advisor to the Adirondack Lakes Alliance. He is also a Certified Lake Manager through the North American Lake Management Society, serves on the Professional Certification Program committee and is a member of the Global Lakes Ecological Observation Network (GLEON).
Wiltse lives in Saranac Lake with his partner Shelly and their dog Nico. When not at work, he is often out photographing nature to build connections between people and the natural world.
Wiltse’s last day with AWI will be Friday, December 13th, his first at LGA as its Executive Director will be January 2, 2025.
Photo: Brendan Wiltse on Upper Saranac Lake (provided).
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