Benita Law-Diao confirmed as APA Commissioner

RAY BROOK| Adirondack Park Agency commissioners met this month with a newly confirmed, full board. The state senate approved Gov. Kathy Hochul's reappointment of Commissioner Arthur Lussi and Chairman John Ernst, and her decision to add Benita Law-Diao to the board, an historic choice. Law-Diao will be the first person of color to serve on the Park Agency Board of Commissioners. A resident of Latham, Law-Diao is one of the three commissioners who represent areas outside the Adirondack Park. She will take her seat at the July APA meeting. Opening the June meeting, APA Executive Director Barbara Rice said APA is excited to welcome Law-Diao. "Benita is going to be a tremendous asset to the agency board," Rice said. "She's not only a leader with non-profit organizations, such as John Brown Lives!, Outdoor Afro and the Adirondack Experience museum, but she's a passionate hiker, paddler and explorer who has made the Adirondacks her second home. "Her experience will provide a unique and important perspective on diversity and inclusion in outdoor recreation. And her professional background in health sciences will be particularly beneficial in understanding resource analysis and park planning. We're really fortunate to have her joining the board." Law-Diao grew up in the South Bronx and began hiking in college, having longed for outdoor adventure and camping trips as a child. In an article penned for Adirondack Life, published in May 2021, she shared how the dream to explore wild places led her to the trails in her undergraduate college years, and then to the Adirondack Park and membership in the Adirondack Mountain Club. Honest and compelling, "And Nature for All" shares how Law-Diao's family in Alabama inspired a love of the outdoors and how trails in the Adirondacks drew her to close to nature. "Luckily, the region was part of my territory through my job as a public health nutritionist at the New York State Department of Health. I traveled to 23 counties, and I got to know the people, places and some of the struggles of living in the North Country. I never considered traveling alone in the Adirondacks scary, but my Black male coworker said he would never venture into the region by himself or without a white person. He thought I was foolish to travel in some very remote places by myself," Law-Diao wrote in Adirondack Life. "But now that I have found my way to the Adirondacks, I feel quite at home. We are so lucky to have this incredible park in our state. I hope others will have the opportunity to experience the Adirondacks because they will learn to treasure it as those of us who know it do." Law-Diao's "Nature for All" is online: adirondacklife.com Environmental conservation leaders championed the senate confirmation to the APA board. "Benita Law-Diao knows the Adirondack Park region very well, serves on Adirondack-based boards like John Brown Lives !, teaches and mentors others, and recreates frequently in the Park's woods, waters and mountains," Adirondack Wild's David Gibson said in a statement. "As a leader in the organization Outdoor Afro, Benita has traveled widely to other parks and protected areas in the country. Her professional, science-based, nutritional health background should also serve her and the agency's responsibilities for park planning, resource analysis and protection very well. We thank Governor Hochul for nominating her and the State Senate for the wisdom of confirming her nomination." At the Adirondack Council, Executive Director William C. Janeway said Law-Diao's volunteer work, fostering access to wild places for people of color and her professional efforts to ensure that poor and elderly residents of the North Country had the nutrition and health care they need, would serve the park agency well. "Benita understands the challenges facing the Adirondack Park, but can provide a new perspective and view as we all work to make the park more diverse and welcoming to all New Yorkers," Janeway said. Law-Diao is also a focus group facilitator for the Young Abolitionist Leadership Institute at the Underground Railroad Education Center of Albany. Recently retired from DOH as a public health nutritionist, Law-Diao holds a Master's Degree in Nutrition from Cornell University.

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Benita Law-Diao confirmed as APA Commissioner

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