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By Tatiana
Zarnowski
Published:
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Daily Gazette
SARATOGA COUNTY — Longtime executive director Judy Ekman is
retiring from the Prevention Council of Saratoga County after 30
years.
Ekman plans to retire June 30, or sooner if the right candidate
comes along; the Prevention Council is conducting a search for
her replacement.
She joined the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention Project in
1979, a time when preventing substance abuse was a new field
with no research about what works.
“We used our experience as educators to develop prevention
programming,” Ekman said. “Now there’s a large body of
prevention science, and there’s been a lot of research about
what works.”
It turned out, most of what they did instinctively was backed up
by science later, Ekman said.
Ekman became executive director of that agency in 1993 and
merged it with the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Council of
Saratoga County three years later to form the Prevention
Council. She also helped found Saratoga Center for the Family
and served as its first educational coordinator before starting
at the Prevention Council.
For the past 10 years, Ekman has served as a trainer for the
Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies,
a training arm of the US Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
She served as a founding co-chair of the NYS Prevention
Credentialing Board and was recognized in 2008 for her
contributions to the field of addiction in New York state.
“The agency is very demanding, and I think it’s an appropriate
time for somebody to come in whose energy is totally focused on
the agency,” Ekman said.
She plans to visit her children and five grandchildren more
during retirement.
“My kids are scattered around the country. Right now my
attention is definitely turning more to the family and personal
kinds of things that I would like to be doing.”
Ekman, 64, lives in Greenfield with her husband, the Rev. Jay
Ekman, minister at the Presbyterian-New England Congregational
Church.
Jay Ekman will keep working but will have some time off to
travel, too.
The couple are avid campers and tented until a few years ago,
when they got a pop-up camper. They visit Prince Edward Island
every summer.
“When I’m camping, I feel totally relaxed,” Judy Ekman said.
Search Begins
The Prevention Council has been working for the past five months
to put together a search committee and prepare for the
transition; they will start after Jan. 1.
Former board president James Lee is heading up the eight-member
search committee.
“We’re looking for the best possible candidate, whether that
comes within the agency or outside the agency,” Lee said. The
board has hired Joanne Dittes Yepsen and her consulting company,
Coltivare, to help with the transition planning.
Lee said Ekman has been preparing her staff for her departure.
“Fortunately, she leaves the agency in a great position, which
will attract strong candidates to replace her.”
Ekman is well-liked in the community and is still a passionate
advocate for keeping young people away from alcohol, drugs and
crime, said Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy III,
who has worked with Ekman on a few initiatives.
“She’s an icon in her field, and she knows everyone; she can
open doors on every level of government,” Murphy said. “Her work
at the agency has made a difference in thousands of young
people's lives, preventing them from committing crime,
preventing them from substance abuse.”
The Prevention Council works with Murphy’s office to recognize
businesses that don’t sell alcohol to minors.
“They are proud of that,” Murphy said of the businesses that get
“Unstung Heroes” awards.
Murphy is on the search committee.
The agency also has worked closely with Saratoga Springs City
School District to educate children about the dangers of alcohol
and drugs.
“Judy has been an incredible leader,” said Michael Piccirillo,
assistant superintendent for secondary education. “It’s going to
be a huge loss for Saratoga County, and more specifically for
our school district.”
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