Tanya Tobias-Tomis
President – Tanya has two decades of non-profit experience, and is currently the Executive Director of The Lake George Arts Project. Tanya has a BFA in Art History from U Albany, and a MA in Arts Administration and Museum Education from Skidmore College. Tanya is a past Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader Scholarship Award Winner and has been an Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader Award Panelist, as well as an exhibition juror and guest speaker for many local and regional arts organizations. Tanya lives in Hadley with her husband, their four year old daughter, a feisty Akita mix, Odin, and the sweetest cat in the blueline, Meepers. Before she had a toddler, Tanya enjoyed doing yard work, woodworking and gardening. Tanya fell in love with The Adirondack Folk School while participating in an open forge night and when she has time again will be signing up for a blacksmithing class.
Mary Stevens
Vice President – Mary Stevens has returned to the Adirondack region after a few years in North Carolina, spending quality time with two little granddaughters. Born and raised in Suffern, NY and graduating from SUNY Cortland where she met her husband, Mary has lived in upstate New York, western Massachusetts, and the Hudson Valley, where she and her husband raised their two children, Sarah and Daniel. Mary has worked in a number of educational, municipal government and non-profit organizational positions, including Zoning Board of Appeals, Planning Board and Village Board (Deputy Mayor) as well as Assistant to the Director at Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls, NY. She was the Program Manager at the Adirondack Folk School from 2011 through 2018, where she worked very closely with instructors, getting to know their special talents, and is excited to participate in a different capacity as AFS continues to grow and flourish.
David Riihimaki
Treasurer –David Riihimaki has been a member of the Adirondack School Board of Directors since 2015 and a resident of Corinth since 2003. He has worked as a commercial banker for Glens Falls National Bank since 2013, helping business owners in the Capital region with their financial needs. On occasion, Dave’s wife, Meghan, and their children, Anna and Lila, can be found at the Folk School enjoying a slice of pizza from the on-site wood-fired pizza oven that Dave operates. The rest of the time, they make him feel like the luckiest guy in the world. Dave got involved with the Adirondack Folk School because it provides hands-on engagement with great projects and wonderful instructors and helps him feel more connected to the Adirondack region.
Patricia Goldberg
Secretary – Patricia worked as a mainframe computer programmer and owned her own consulting company for 25 years, working at many major companies in the New York and New Jersey area. She has been involved with the Adirondack Folk School since before it opened and has served as a board member, secretary, teacher and volunteer, but her favorite role is as a student. Patricia’s taken over 50 classes so far and has no plans to stop. She says there’s no place else where she can have so much fun learning a huge number of wonderful skills taught by amazing teachers. Patricia also hopes that her involvement in the Adirondack Folk School will be one way she can give back to the area she loves.
Cal Austin
Board Member – Cal splits his time between Hadley, NY and Manhattan, where he works in Innovation and Customer Experience at Pfizer. Buying a weekend getaway on the Hudson River 18 years ago gave Cal and his wife Annie a deep appreciation for the beauty and traditions of the Adirondacks. A maker and craftsman at heart, he was delighted when the Adirondack Folk School opened their doors in 2010. His first class had an immediate impact and he is happy to continue on the learning journey as well as contribute to the future growth and success of the school.
Susie Brandt
Board Member – Susie Brandt is an artist and teacher who grew up downriver and around the mountain in Queensbury, NY. She now divides her time between the Adirondacks and Baltimore, Maryland where she is on the faculty of the Maryland Institute College of Art. A self-described “textile generalist,” she brings an abiding interest in forging communities through craft to the Adirondakc Folk School.
Stephen Fisk
Board Member –
Steve Gurzler
Board Member – I was born in New Jersey and earned a Batchelor’s Degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Newark College of Engineering at NJIT in 1979. I spent the next 42 years working in design and construction of water and wastewater treatment and conveyance systems, always striving for the most energy – efficient and sustainable solutions.
As a young fellow, I spent many years involved in the Scouting program, often spending summers in the Adirondacks, hiking, camping, canoeing, and ski touring, which gave me a deep appreciation for the Adirondack region.
Blacksmithing fascinated me from an early age, and in the early 80’s I built my first forge and borrowed an anvil. I hacked along for many years, making simple items for camp cookery and basic medieval style armor for my friends and myself for recreational armored combat.
When we moved to the upstate region my skills improved when I began working with other blacksmiths in the Capital Districts Blacksmiths’ Association. I also spent 15 years as the Blacksmith at Fort Klock in St. Johnsville, NY focusing on colonial era blacksmith work. I became involved with the Adirondack Folk School through the Open Forge Night Program about 8 or so years ago and soon jumped in to do demonstrations for the AFS at craft events, Teddy Roosevelt Days in North Creek, and Fort Wm. Henry. Lately I’ve been running the Open Forge Nights and helping coordinate the blacksmithing program.
I now reside in a small energy – efficient log house we built a few miles up the road from the AFS in lake Luzerne with my musician wife Beth and our greyhound Clay.
I look forward to continuing to teach classes at AFS and to serving on the Board to help further the goals of the AFS.
John Haller
Board Member – In 2022, John Haller founded Saratoga Joinery, a community woodworking shop located in Saratoga Springs, NY, with a mission to make woodworking accessible to all. Before discovering his passion for woodworking, John spent decades as a software entrepreneur founding software businesses including MapInfo where he pioneered the Desktop Mapping marketplace – spatial analytics and GIS tools.
Jim Schreiner
Board Member – Jim Schreiner of Great Sacandaga Designs and master-level woodworker, is a former National Team Kayak racer who has been building rustic and traditional furniture professionally since the early 1990’s. Jim works and lives in one of three octagonal log cabins that he and his family built with his family in the 1970’s and 1980’s on the South Shore of the Sacandaga Lake in Day NY.
Dennis Wilson
Board Member – After a ten-year career teaching English abroad, Dennis moved to Chestertown, NY in 1985 to teach English at North Warren Central School. He retired in 2002. Always interested in wood carving, he saw beautiful examples of chip carving one summer at the Fletcher Farms School in Vermont and then took classes there. He has been chip carving ever since. He teaches chip carving at AFS and joined the board in 2020. Dennis loves teaching this ornate style of carving for its own sake, but also loves introducing it to students because it is little known and little practiced even among experienced woodworkers. Teaching at AFS is helping him to help others discover chip carving. Being a board member gives him the opportunity to help influence the school’s development. AFS has plans for expansion to accommodate increasing interest in the folk arts, and it is exciting for him to be part of this effort.