Blake Burks

Whitewater Program Manager

“Its fine, you're fine, everything is fine!”

Biography

Growing up in Central Virginia, Blake spent his spare time riding mountain bikes on the Blue Ridge Parkway trails, taking day hikes on the Appalachian Trail and learning how to paddle. Blake played year-round soccer in high school and attended Lenoir-Rhyne College where he studied Psychology. After college, he began working in the child mental health field supervising foster homes. Since 2012, Blake has been teaching experiential education and leading high adventure overnight trips. Blake rediscovered his love for rivers in 2012 and began paddling more whitewater. He has been paddling a whitewater canoe since 2014 and has loved the sport and teaching other ever since!

Alyssa Casey

Mountains Course Director

Cliff Coy

Mountains Course Director and Instructor

“We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are…..we are.  One equal temper of heroic hearts, made weak by time and fate; but strong in will.  TO strive, to seek, to find………and not to yield.”  -Sir Alfred Tennyson

Biography

Cliff has worked for the school in several roles and fields.  A former Army officer, Cliff left the military and found a new home with Outward Bound. He was first hired as support staff in a logistics staff member role, but he quickly transitioned to working as an instructor. Over his tenure, Cliff moved back and forth between instructing courses in the mountains of North Carolina and at-risk programs in Florida, all the while sharpening his technical wilderness skills, as well as his family mediation skills. 

Caroline Feeney

Associate Program Director at Cedar Rock Base Camp

Lark Gardner

Mountains & Patagonia Field Instructor & Virtual Instructor

Biography

Lark's outdoor adventure roots stem from a robust childhood in girl scouts and family encouragement to explore around her hometown of Louisville Kentucky. She moved to Asheville NC at the age of 18 to study Experiential Education and shortly after graduating from college began her career with Outward Bound. She has worked in a variety of roles including Course Director and Program Director through her most treasured role is that of Field Instructor. 

Jeff Goldberg

Outward Bound Professional Senior Facilitator

"To serve, to strive and not to yield."

Biography

As a professional facilitator for over twenty-eight years, Jeff has designed and delivered dynamic workshops and programs that create learning experiences focusing on team development, leadership development and cultural understanding.  In addition to working with Outward Bound since 1990, Jeff has also worked with the Anti-Defamation League for over 20 years as a Training Specialist.

His extensive and varied experience, combined with an M.A. in Community Counseling, has enabled Jeff to work with many Fortune 500 companies, major universities, and schools across the US.

Sarah Goldman

Mountains and OBX Instructor, OBP Facilitator

“Try to be one of those people on whom nothing is lost.” -Henry James

Biography

In 1982, Sarah’s mother Cecele attended an over 30 adult renewal course at Table Rock here at NCOBS. Soon after, her father Michael attended an Outward Bound course in the Boundary Waters at the Voyageur Outward Bound School. Both courses served as pivotal life experiences for her parents and therefore growing up, Sarah was consistently told, “you don’t have to college, but you do have to go to Outward Bound.” In 1993, Sarah had the opportunity to embark on her own Outward Bound experience in the Pacific Northwest spending 21 days in the Cascade Mountains. That experience not only served as a familial rite of passage but also solidified her interest in the outdoors and doing hard things.

Sarah attended university at Virginia Tech and returned home to the Washington DC area after school. 

Trish Haitz

Florida Base Camp Program Director; Sea kayaking and Mountains Instructor; Veterans Program Instructor

“'Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all.' ~ Helen Keller"

Biography

Trisha was inspired to work for Outward Bound as an opportunity to give back to the world and make an individual attempt to educate young people about the world around them.  This intention has never waned. Trisha continues to seek out personal inspiration by taking time for adventures and challenging herself to gain new skills. 

Spencer Huffman

Climbing Program Manager

Addie Hurwitz

Mountains Instructor

“Trails are like that: you’re floating along in a Shakespearean Arden paradise and expect to see nymphs and fluteboys, then suddenly you’re struggling in a hot broiling sun in dust and nettles and poison oak... just like life” - Jack Kerouac 

Biography

Addie grew up in the Boston area, doing a lot of skiing, running, and sports in general. A desire to do something challenging led her to do 3 summers of backpacking and trail crew teen trips in the White Mountains of New Hampshire while in high school. After entering college very undecided, she randomly found the Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Management major. She felt that a career in the outdoor recreation realm would certainly be something that she could truly enjoy and be fulfilled by. 

Karthik Maddineni

Mountains Lead Instructor & Climbing Specialist

Ann McElfresh

Outward Bound Professional Facilitator

"There is more in us than we know."

Biography

Ann has a passion for creating effective work environments.  As a business coach and group facilitator, she has helped thousands of people in corporations & educational systems to discover blind spots and adjust to maximize what works.

Ann’s work as a compassionate consultant, trainer, and group facilitator spring from her years as an operating room nurse. In that close and sometimes intense environment, Ann learned about personalities, interactions between people and helped clients manage these interpersonal dynamics to produce solid results. 

Eli Mills

Mountains Course Director and OBP Facilitator

"Your quality of life is in proportion, always, to your capacity for delight. Your capacity for delight is the gift for paying attention." ~Julia Cameron

Biography

Eli grew up on a small farm in north central Iowa. His thirst for exploration started with bike rides on endless gravel roads, forts built on the banks of the Winnebago River, and annual cross-country vacations in his family's big blue van. Eli graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor's degree in Child, Adult, and Family Services in 2006 and found his way to North Carolina to accept a position as an instructor in wilderness therapy shortly thereafter. 

Taylor Petty

Mountains Instructor

Stiles Rader

Mountains Program Director; Patagonia Instructor; Whitewater Specialist

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose” – Dolly Parton

Biography 

Stiles grew up spending every weekend and holidays in Jonas Ridge, NC with her family. Table Rock and the outdoors quickly felt like home even as a kid. Stiles’s love for the outdoors blossomed in college when she spent time working in Brevard NC, Alaska, and in Boone NC. During her time at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, Stiles spent a great deal of time working for the school’s Outdoor Programs, Recreation Management Department, and at Watauga High School’s Mountain Alliance program. She received a degree in Recreation Management with a concentration in Outdoor Experiential Education. Stiles was recently the recipient of Boone NC’s Appalachian Adventure Achievement Award for her involvement in the mountain community and dedication to mountain sports.

Hannah Blue Rose

Instructor; Course Director; Whitewater Specialist

“It was through her actions of reciprocity, the give and take with the land, that the original immigrant became indigenous. For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.” -Robin Wall Kimmerer  

Biography

Michelle Sissine

Outward Bound Professional Facilitator

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." ~Plato

Biography 

Michelle Sissine has nearly three decades of experience facilitating groups on outdoor challenges and in the classroom.  She concentrates on growing the soft skills necessary to  become more intuitive and effective leaders.

Michelle believes that experiential learning is key in unwinding ineffective behavior patterns and embodying new ways to move through the world.  “Engaging in safe processes under the care of skilled facilitators, in environments conducive to physical, mental, and emotional risk-taking, encourages the development of individuals and teams from the inside out. It improves leadership and positive change within communities and at at every level of organizations.”

Anthony Sousa

Mountains, Outer Banks and Florida Instructor

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Biography

Anthony grew up playing in the outdoors with his family in Maine and never stopped his lifetime interest in outdoor experience and education. Anthony discovered Outward Bound and began his journey toward being an instructor as a student on a veterans program course in the Florida Everglades. In Outward Bound he found a community that shared his ethic of service beyond self, love for the environment, and dedication to improving lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. Anthony has been a volunteer leader with the Sierra Club and their youth outings program for several years and found many parallels in Outward Bound.

Hillary Stradtman

Mountains, Florida, Outer Banks and Intercept Instructor; Mountains Course Director

Eric Strickler

Mountains Instructor

Biography

Eric grew up near the waters of the Great Lakes state and the theme of water has always played a large role in his life.  From kayaking and swimming in the waters of Lake Michigan as a child to tubing down the rapids of the New River near his father's orchard in southwest Virginia Eric's adventurous spirit was born on the water.  After graduating with a BS in natural resources management Eric headed to the pacific northwest where he worked at Mt Rainier National Park, facilitated local conservation events around Seattle, and worked on a sailboat upon the waters of Puget Sound teaching both sailing and marine science.

Bob Stout

Outward Bound Professional Facilitator

Lizzie Thompson

Mountains and Florida Instructor

"I believe COMPASSION -- for our world, each other, and ourselves -- is at the heart of every Outward Bound course. Engaging with students in discovering what that means is why I instruct. "

Biography

Lizzie sees her role as a North Carolina Outward Bound instructor as that of an educator, risk manager, mentor and constant learner. In her years with NCOBS, the thing she's loved most is getting to see students overcome challenges -- be they physical, mental or interpersonal -- that they never thought they could. Their strength is what keeps Lizzie coming back to NCOBS and what she thinks will keep her working in education in some way or another for the rest of her life. 

Before coming to Outward Bound, Lizzie grew up in Washington, DC. In college, Lizzie became involved with a pre-orientation backpacking program, which sparked her excitement about education in the outdoors. 

Michelle Tuday

Mountains Instructor; Climbing Specialist

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." ~Albert Einstein

Biography

Michelle split her time studying Outdoor Experiential Education and playing Varsity Field Hockey while attending college at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Prior to education focused in the outdoors, Michelle grew up participating in the Girl Scouts and exploring the woods and creeks near her home in Delaware. She has worked in residential and wilderness therapeutic settings, summer camps with special needs as well as gifted students, and had a year long stint as a head naturalist, leading environmental and early childhood education programs at a state park. 

Lindsay Ward

Mountains and Florida Instructor and Course Director

Biography

As Lindsay’s mom will tell you, the one thing she never wanted to be growing up was a teacher. (Astronaut, gardener, rally car driver, and fitness professional were all more highly ranked than teacher.) But to everyone’s apparent surprise, Lindsay discovered a passion for teaching others about nature and leadership and has adjusted smoothly into life as an outdoor educator. Lindsay has instructed many of the different course types offered at NCOBS, including backpacking, whitewater canoeing and rock climbing in the North Carolina mountains and coastal canoeing in the Florida Everglades. Her favorite courses to work are all-girls courses, which may stem from her history as a lifelong Girl Scout. The opportunity to use personal challenge to empower students to care for themselves, for others, and for the world around them is what keeps Lindsay coming to work every day.

Elena Wong

Outward Bound Professional Facilitator

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” ~Maya Angelou