A longtime advocate for Carbon County and the Lehigh River is retiring as the head of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor.

Elissa Garofalo promoted recreation, history and tourism in her two decades with the organization.

The heritage corridor announced Thursday that Garofalo has retired from her position after taking a medical leave last fall. She will be succeeded by Claire Wildermuth Sadler, who has served as interim director of the corridor since September.

D&L board Chairman Mike Drabenstott said in a letter to supporters that Garofalo has been the face and force behind many of the D&L’s accomplishments in the past two decades.

“She has a true and unbridled passion for the outdoors, regional industrial history and landmark connectivity. We know that she will continue to be a passionate voice for progress along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor.”

Before Garofalo joined the staff of the D&L in 2000, the vision for a trail following the canal towpaths along the Delaware and Lehigh rivers had been in place for over a decade. Garofalo’s role, particularly after becoming executive director in 2012, was to find the funding to realize that vision.

Dennis DeMara, who worked with Garofalo in his roles with DCNR, Carbon County and the Wildlands Conservancy, said Garofalo put together the pieces of the puzzle and the links in the chain.

“She was just a consummate professional and had the vision and drive to move the heritage area forward. Her fingerprints are all over the corridor, and the projects that have been completed,” DeMara said.

The heritage corridor oversees the acquisition, design and building of the trail, but it is operated and maintained by local municipalities. A big part of Garofalo’s job was creating those partnerships and keeping them in place.

While her work helped communities from Luzerne to Bucks County, Jim Thorpe and Carbon County have arguably been the largest beneficiaries of Garofalo’s work.

Long before she joined the D&L, Garofalo worked for the Mauch Chunk Historic District, helping businesses on Broadway build their curb appeal.

At the D&L, she helped make Jim Thorpe’s historic train station into a visitors center.

Last piece of the puzzle

One of the biggest and most complicated pieces of the D&L puzzle was the Mansion House bridge. The 700-foot pedestrian bridge cost $5.3 million, and linked 57 miles of trail between White Haven and the Lehigh Valley.

After a long road to completion, in September 2019 the bridge and a trail connecting it to the Lehigh Canal Park in Weissport opened to the public. A few months later, an explosion in the popularity of cycling and outdoor recreation caused by the global pandemic helped the D&L to have its most popular ever.

During each month from May-October, the monthly trail volume was higher than the highest single month in 2019.

Making the Nesquehoning Junction railroad bridge a link between Lehigh Gorge State Park and downtown Jim Thorpe was another major project. Connecting the trail south to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center was yet another.

In an interview last year, Garofalo said that her favorite part of the job was making other people realize the vision of the D&L trail. One of her best known converts was state Sen. John Yudichak, who hiked and biked the entire 160-mile D&L corridor in 2018.

Yudichak said that Garofalo’s leadership of the D&L and her life’s work to close trail gaps helped turn heritage tourism into an economic force in the region, and improved the quality of life for residents.

“Elissa, as she has been for everyone who loves the trail, was with me for every step of my journey to raise awareness for the scenic D&L National Heritage Corridor. Elissa will be greatly missed as she was a true steward of the trail and our region’s rich history,” Yudichak said.

D&L board member Sierra Fogal said that Garofalo has been a longtime mentor, dating back to the days she worked at Pocono Whitewater for Fogal’s grandparents.

“Elissa’s life’s work has always been to better her community. She’s always had an unwavering amount of energy and dedication to the area,” said Sierra Fogal, a D&L board member. “I am definitely sad to see her retire, but excited for her, and I hope she’s able to spend more time on the trail and to enjoy some of the things she put into place.”

Claire Sadler

Garofalo’s successor shares her passion for connecting communities located along the trail. Sadler has worked with several organizations promoting greenways around the region, and most recently served as Garofalo’s deputy, overseeing trails and conservation.

Fogal said she believes the D&L is in great hands going forward, noting that Garofalo hired Sadler to join the organization.

“Claire knows what’s needed, she’s been with the organization many years. She knows the work that it takes, and she’s learned from the best. She’s learned from Elissa,” Fogal said.

Sadler has been with the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor since 2014, when she started as the organization’s Conservation Coordinator. Sadler previously held the roles of director of trails & conservation, deputy director and most recently, interim executive director. In these roles, she has overseen trail development, served as the internal lead for Lehigh Valley Greenways, one of Pennsylvania’s eight conservation landscapes, and went on to provide leadership for both the Trails & Conservation department and organization as a whole.

Sadler holds a degree in environmental studies from Dartmouth College. Before her work with the D & LNHC, Sadler was a special programs coordinator for Delaware Highlands Conservancy and director of education at Fernbrook Farms Education Center, Bordentown, New Jersey.

In her ascent to leadership, Sadler led the brand development and launch of one of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor’s partnership programs, THE LINK Trail Network, and stewards the range of partners that make possible the work of the trail commission. Her role as deputy director and later interim executive director, moreover, prove her deep understanding of the mission of the organization,

while already providing executive leadership in hiring, onboarding, strategic planning and grant seeking.

Priorities for Sadler, as she formally steps into the role of executive director, include restoring stability to an organization that had to exercise so much resilience in the past year. Sadler plans to focus on filling vacancies and building the leadership team to prepare for a new D&L Strategic Action Plan.

Sadler looks forward to building on the trail commission’s strength of making connections and closing gaps, especially focusing on the Lehigh Valley Gap and the D&L Trail’s northern terminus in Luzerne County.

“I care deeply for the organization’s mission and team; understanding the struggles we’ve been through, I look forward to furthering team camaraderie and new ideas through this significant transition,” Sadler said. “I am grateful to the board for trusting my abilities and for Elissa’s example of unwavering dedication to the mission.”