The founding director of Countryside Conservancy, a nonprofit that nurtures small-scale farming in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and operates farmers markets, has stepped down as executive director of the group.
Darwin Kelsey, who has led the organization since its inception in 1999, is now director emeritus and Tracy Emrick, the nonprofit’s director of operations and partnerships, will serve as interim director, Countryside Conservancy said in a news release issued late Wednesday afternoon.
Kelsey will help guide the search for his successor and will work with Countryside’s board and employees in an advisory role through the end of this year.
Countryside’s efforts include Countryside U, which offers classes for gardeners, home cooks, farmers, and food producers in Northeast Ohio.
The group’s offices are in Boston Township. The outdoor farmers markets are in Howe Meadow, in a part of Cuyahoga Falls that is in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Highland Square in Akron. A fall-winter indoor farmers market begins in November, at Old Trail School in Bath Township, near Howe Meadow.
Prior to heading Countryside Conservancy, Kelsey developed and managed Lake Farmpark in Lake County. Previously , he served as director of the National Museum of the Boy Scouts of America in Murray, Ky., and worked for 16 years at Massachusetts’ Old Sturbridge Village, the country’s first historical farm.