Staff
Uliana Ahashkova
Uliana is the Economic Agricultural Development Specialist, she is focused on developing educational programs for agricultural marketing, business development, tourism, and public relations in Ulster County. She is fond of studying and applying gained knowledge into actionable steps. She graduated...
Abby Bravo
Abby is an Ulster County native and holds a BA from The College of Saint Rose in Communications and Journalism. She has experience in both journalism and film and a passion for storytelling and uplifting community voices through her work. Abby also enjoys writing, going to concerts and hiking in her...
Kathryn Brignac
Kathryn Brignac brings a background of 5 years working in Farm to School and Agricultural Education in the Hudson Valley along with a B.S. in Environmental Science with a focus on Ecology. Prior to coming to CCE, Kathryn was at a farm with a diverse vegetable CSA and a focus on food justice and...
Courtney Churchill
Courtney joined CCE in February 2019 as the Administrative Assistant and Agricultural Program Assistant and in 2022 became the Master Gardener Coordinator. Courtney grew up in Ulster County. She attended SUNY New Paltz and obtained her B.S. in visual art educations, B.F.A. in ceramics and Master's...
Melanie Forstrom
Melanie stepped in to the Executive Director role in 2023, having served over 11 years as the CCE Ulster 4-H Issue Leader. She has initiated and worked in campus-county collaborations and leadership roles at State and National levels, and she authored and delivered 4 Cornell Cooperative Extension...
Lenora Grable Grant
Lenora Grable Grant is the Regional Finance Lead for the Hudson Valley Shared Business Network.
Tanya Jurcic
Tanya received a Master of Arts in Biology from SUNY New Paltz, a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from SUNY New Paltz, and a Commercial Horticulture Certificate from the New York Botanical Garden. She manages the grant reconciliations, payroll allocations, and various other accounting tasks as a...
Max Kelly
Max is a watershed educator with the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program (AWSMP). He graduated with a bachelor’s in environmental science from Mercyhurst University and a Master’s in Ecology from the University of Georgia. At the University of Georgia, he conducted research on how large...
