Pieper to lead Pitney Farm
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Pitney Meadows Community Farm, Inc. has named Mary Pieper, an experienced consultant to non-profit organizations, its firstever executive director.
She will lead Pitney Meadows,
located on West Avenue, through its first year of full operation, focusing on the development of a strategic plan, establishing the organization’s management structure and strengthening fundraising.
The board of directors approved a part-time, interim position specifically to help support the strategic planning aspects of this new non-profit organization.
“This is a pivotal period in our launch of Pitney Meadows as a community farm dedicated to sustainable farming, education, and the training of young farmers,” said Sandy Arnold, board chair. “Mary’s long experience in management and education and her inclusive style of leadership will serve us well as she develops Pitney Meadows into a vibrant, successful organization.”
Pieper, a Wilton resident, joined the board last fall and has been chair of community outreach, an area she’ll continue to have chief responsibility for as executive director. The 166acre farm, the last remaining active farm in Saratoga Springs, was acquired by the non-profit Pitney Meadows Community Farm Inc., in December. Pieper has had a varied career. She started out as a practicing family therapist in the Boston area and had a three-year stint as director of a public health prevention center in the Boston metro area.
Then she spent four years as director of development for the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, followed by subsequent assignments in new business development and marketing. Such experience is expected to serve her well as she starts to shape Pitney Meadows with both non-profit and business-like models.
“I am always looking for sustainable, solution- focused approaches, no matter what role I have had,” Pieper said. “The farm will be an exciting next step for me, as we consider how to develop a sustainable resource for our community.”
In 2012, Pieper was named executive director of Scotia- Glenville Traveling Museum, an all-traveling museum that which covered 12 counties. With substantial sales and marketing components, that position led her to forge partnerships with “many wonderful organizations all over the region, especially in Saratoga County,” she said. “An important part of my role included developing working relationships with businesses like Global Foundries, economic development groups, schools, local colleges and BOCES, early childhood providers, and other non-profits. This will provide a strong foundation as we begin to cultivate a partner network for the farm.”
Pieper is a native of Baltimore who earned herunderg raduate degree at Mount Saint Mary’s University and master’s at the University of Pennsylvania.
“I joined the Pitney Meadows initiative because I was intrigued by the notion that this city would care enough to not only preserve this farmland, but to create a community-focused teaching farm,” she said. “I look forward to finding ways to make sure everyone understands that Pitney Meadows is their farm, too.”
Pieper and her husband, Fred, live at a five-acre property that includes a large organic garden and fields that are used by a local Schuylerville farmer for planting feed corn. Their son, Kristofer, is working in the environmental studies field in the Boston area and their daughter, Emily, is preparing to pursue her masters degree in public health at Yale University.