Stan Kissel is passionate about helping people recognize their potential, build their skills, and find a path toward meaningful success. At the IAM at Clinton Community College, Stan connects individuals and employers with education, training, and professional development opportunities designed to strengthen both careers and the North Country workforce.

Working closely with businesses, students, and community partners, Stan helps create customized training, continuing education, and workforce development programs that give people the tools and confidence to take their next step, whether that means beginning a new career, advancing in their current one, or building a stronger team.

At the heart of Stan’s work is a lifelong commitment to developing people. Before bringing that passion to workforce development, he spent many years coaching and working in collegiate athletics, including nearly a decade with the Syracuse University basketball program as Director of Operations. Those experiences helped shape his leadership philosophy: success is built through relationships, preparation, perseverance, and helping people believe in what they can accomplish.

An Upstate New York native, Stan returned home after many years in collegiate basketball and is proud to call Plattsburgh home with his family. He continues to make an impact both professionally and on the court as Associate Head Coach of the men’s basketball coach at Clinton Community College.

Whether he is working with a student, an athlete, a local employer, or someone searching for a new direction, Stan’s goal remains the same: help people discover what’s possible and give them the support and opportunities to get there.

Ellen Nesbitt has spent much of her career doing what comes naturally to her: connecting people with opportunities and sharing what makes the North Country such a special place to live, learn, work, and build a future.

A native of Potsdam, New York, Ellen has always had a deep connection to the region. Throughout her career in higher education, she says one part of her job has always been “easy”—she gets to sell her home. Whether working with a prospective student, an employer, or a community partner, Ellen has a gift for listening to what people are looking for and connecting those needs with the opportunities available right here in the North Country. And as a lifelong local, she is always ready to share the inside scoop, a hidden gem, or the local knowledge that can make someone feel at home.

A communications major by education and a communicator by nature, Ellen brings an incredibly diverse background to the IAM at Clinton Community College. Her career has included roles as an Adirondack journalist, marketer, fundraiser, sales representative, grant writer, administrative professional, chocolatier, and small-business owner. Each experience has added another tool to a skill set built around communication, creativity, organization, relationship-building, and getting things done.

At the IAM, Ellen is one of the people who keeps everything moving. She coordinates classes and schedules, supports grant administration, assists with communications and program coordination, and helps Billy and Stan manage the countless details behind the IAM’s day-to-day operations. She is also the second floor’s unofficial “techie,” often helping turn an idea, or a technical challenge, into a solution.

Ellen and her husband, Tom, both found their niche in higher education and have devoted much of their careers to helping others through it. After leaving the region for college and different career opportunities, Ellen found herself returning to her beloved North Country again and again.

Today, that connection to the region is an important part of what she brings to the IAM. Ellen doesn’t simply help people navigate programs and opportunities—she helps them see how those opportunities can become part of a life and future right here in the North Country.