Climate Change & Regional Economic Development
How do we think about our climate work in relation to drawing in and encouraging green businesses? How does climate relate to regional and NY state economic development? And how does this relate to the work you're doing on a very local level?
Speakers: March Gallagher, Ulster County Comptroller and Judy Wicks, founder of All Together Now PA
To be recorded on May 27, 2021
About the Speakers
March Gallagher
March Gallagher is an attorney with master’s degrees in public policy and environmental studies. She is a mother and lives in Rosendale. March’s family owns three Main Street businesses: Jarita’s Florist in Woodstock, and Inquiring Minds Bookstores in Saugerties and New Paltz. She currently serves on Congressman Antonio Delgado’s Small Business Advisory Committee and on the board of the Farm and Food Growth Fund. March worked as Deputy Director of Planning/head of Economic Development for Ulster County from 2009-2013. After leaving county service, March worked as Chief Strategy Officer for Pattern for Progress where she wrote and presented regional studies on infrastructure and healthcare. Immediately before being elected County Comptroller she served as President and CEO of Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, an $80+ million charitable fund.
Judy Wicks
Judy Wicks is founder of All Together Now PA, a not-for-profit with a mission to unite urban and rural communities in building resilient, self-reliant regional economies. Judy also runs the Circle of Aunts & Uncles, a micro loan fund for local entrepreneurs without access to family & friends stage capital, which she founded in 2015. Judy is the founder of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia in 2001 and cofounder that year of the nationwide Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, now called Common Future. In 1983, Judy founded the White Dog Cafe, a pioneer in the farm to table movement, which she ran until 2010. She is author of Good Morning, Beautiful Business, published in 2013, which won a national gold medal for business leadership and has been translated into Chinese and Korean. Her numerous local and national awards include the Impact Award for Economic Justice from Social Venture Network, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs Lifetime Achievement Award, and the James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award.