Kelly Chezum

Name: Kelly Chezum

Age: 44

Residence: Canton

Job title/Employer: Vice President for External Relations at Clarkson University

How long have you been living in the Adirondack region?: My husband, Brian, and I moved to St. Lawrence County in 1993 when he took a visiting faculty position at St. Lawrence University.  We had grown up together in rural Iowa and our sense of “home” quickly resonated with the regional community here –  its wide open spaces (definitely not as flat as the Midwest!), its winter recreation and more importantly, its people who are true neighbors with a genuine commitment to community.

In my role advancing opportunities at Clarkson and as a member of dual career family, my advice to people seeking to make a livelihood in this region is to think broadly about your professional and personal goals in order to see how you can make a difference and stay on track for a rewarding career.  Sometimes one or even both of you need to make a shift to the left or right of an original career goal to make this work.

Advice for newcomers to the Adirondack North Country region: make winter your friend and embrace the recreation, sporting venues and scenery that makes this a great place to live.

Career Accomplishments: While I have been responsible for building successful marketing and fundraising campaigns, forming alliances in professional organizations such as Association of Independent Technological Universities (AITU), my efforts closest to home are very rewarding, too.  Clarkson’s connection to the Adirondack Initiative for Wired Work has been especially gratifying for its potential impact on economic opportunities in the region and it’s been an honor to chair Forever Wired, an annual conference for community and seasonal residents, elected officials and technology experts in order to promote broadband adoption and bring attention to the broadband needs of people living in the greater Adirondack North Country.  The 2011 Forever Wired event with a focus on entrepreneurs and small business telework opportunities will be held Tuesday, Oct. 4 in Potsdam. On a personal front, I am concluding 11 years of service in April to the Board of Hospice and Palliative Care of St. Lawrence Valley, serving six of those years as its vice president and then president.  It is a tremendous organization of volunteers and staff who give compassionate end of life care and services to families across St. Lawrence County.

Favorite place: With a son who is totally into youth hockey, I really enjoy going to all of the small ice rinks around the region and sharing in the community pride that each of these facilities reflects.  Thank you to all the local businesses and organizations with banners and boards that represent your support of these youth opportunities.  Plus, rink food represents its own food group to add variety to any diet!

What do you love about living in the Adirondack region? While the Raquette River Valley and western boundary of the Adirondack Park create a spectacular view from Clarkson’s Hill campus and reminds us of the backyard we share with recreation enthusiasts and wildlife alike, I think it is the people who make living in the Adirondack North Country great because they are the true stewards of community values and the natural habitat – those values can get lost in larger urban settings or bureaucracies run from afar.

If you could change anything about living here, what would it be? The Adirondack North Country has been a great place for me and my family to live, learn and work.  There are many people with tremendous work ethic and integrity that also want to keep calling this region home yet struggle to find meaningful economic opportunities. We need to remain vigilant to the creation of new jobs and innovative prospects for economic sustainability so that everyone who chooses to call the region home can live with dignity and prosperity.