Otsego Land Trust Welcomes New Executive Director
Otsego Land Trust will welcome Phoebe Schreiner as its new Executive Director in mid-January, to lead the organization into its next phase of growth and impact. “It is a great honor to join the committed board and staff of Otsego Land Trust in protecting and conserving land in our region, enhancing biodiversity, maintaining working farms and natural landscapes, and improving New York’s water quality,” said Ms. Schreiner. “I am privileged to build on the outstanding work of Gregory Farmer, the Trust’s outgoing Executive Director, in leading the Land Trust into its next chapter.”
Ms. Schreiner comes to the new position after eight years as Executive Director of the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship, Inc. (CADE), an Oneonta-based non-profit that supports thriving New York farm and food businesses. Ms. Schreiner successfully grew CADE from a small nonprofit serving five counties, to an organization that provides services to a client community of over 2,300 agribusinesses in 53 counties statewide. CADE established New York’s first farm and food business incubator and is the largest independent agribusiness service provider in the state.
“As Otsego Land Trust approaches its 40th anniversary, I look forward to deepening and expanding the organization’s impact in innovative ways,” Schreiner commented. “Otsego Land Trust’s mission is deeply personal. My grandmother, Catherine Kauffman Harwood White, was a founding member of the adjacent Schoharie Land Trust, and one of the first easement holders in Schoharie County. I not only inherited our beloved nine-generation historic farmstead, but also the conservation easement on the property. Thanks to my grandmother’s vision, our land is preserved for generations to come. Joining Otsego Land Trust has symbolic value to me, uniting my professional experience with my commitment to family legacy.”
Prior to joining CADE in 2018, Ms. Schreiner worked for nearly 20 years in international development with the United Nations, USAID, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and the Open Society Foundations. “I returned home to Schoharie County when my grandmother passed away and left me our family’s homestead, which coincided with becoming a mom. There is no more beautiful place on the planet to raise a family,” she says. “The global-to-local shift was a big one, but I wanted to put my skills to work locally. I saw agriculture as a path to economic development in our rural and underserved areas, which led me to CADE. The impact of climate change and development pressures are a major threat to farmland and New York’s capacity to produce food. To me, land conservation represents an urgent and natural next step to making a difference in my own community and beyond.”
Schreiner has been an invited member of Congressman Delgado’s Agricultural Advisory Committee for the 19th Congressional District, the Otsego County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Committee, the Farm-to-School Task Force of Delaware County, the Otsego County Energy Task Force Sub-Committee on Economic Development, Technical Committee of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, and the Schoharie County Land Trust. Ms. Schreiner earned her M.A. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and her B.A. in Government from Smith College.
Rick O’Keefe, Board Chairman of Otsego Land Trust, is enthusiastic about the transition. “We are grateful to our retiring Executive Director Gregory Farmer, who dramatically expanded acreage under protection, grew Otsego Land Trust’s regional visibility, and nurtured long-standing relationships with land owners, government officials, and local communities. We look forward to welcoming Phoebe Schreiner to advance our mission in the decade ahead.”
