“With educated passion, you really can change the world.”
In the autumn of 1970, 20-year-old Margo Nottoli walked through the mists at Table Rock Base Camp with a sense of wonder. Recalling that day, Margo says, “I can still touch, I can feel the mist. I connected so deeply with that place. There’s something that happened in that moment that connected one of the most important threads of my life.” Growing up in Brooklyn, and getting lost in the woods of Milford, Pennsylvania every summer of her childhood, Margo had unexpectedly found her place among the mountains and forests of Western North Carolina.
Her dear friend, Joe Beckham, had invited Margo to accompany him to Table Rock after declaring, “You have to know about Outward Bound. It’s the most exceptional, transformative program there is.” She said yes—a word that would come to define her career—and thus began Margo’s remarkable journey with North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS).
On September 30, 2025, 55 years after Margo’s first visit to Table Rock, the NCOBS Board of Directors honored her long service to the School with The Spirit of the River Rock Resolution in recognition of her myriad contributions to Outward Bound and to the field of experiential education. In the future, this award will be given to staff members who exemplify Margo’s character, tenacity, quiet leadership, and lifelong commitment to our mission of changing lives through challenge and discovery.
“For me, her impact has always been personal—and profound. The Outward Bound School that inspires me is one which values Margo, the forceful quiet leader who shows student and staff and board how to dig out our best effort. Margo is the standard. If in doubt, I look to Margo.”
-Marjorie Buckley: NCOBS Founder, Board Member, Board Chair, Life Director
Margo’s extraordinary career has spanned both decades and continents, and the depth and breadth of her roles in experiential education is likely unparalleled. It began in 1974, when Margo helped to found the Connecticut Wilderness School, where she served as Field Instructor, Program Follow-Up Counselor, Writer, and Cultural Journalism Teacher. It was there she discovered the power of the wilderness experience for students. In a 2002 article written for The Heartstone Journal, a publication of Warren Wilson College, Margo writes this:
“What’s nature got to do with it? Ten young people hike across an ancient mountain range to reclaim their lives. A carefully honed change process unfolds. Where? Not in the classroom, not in the city, but under the stars, deep in the woods. Nature is the medium of choice for this transformation… these young people drop their defenses, examine their lives, and dare to have dreams under a canopy of stars, trees, sunsets, and the violence of summer storms. Their experience of nature helps to dissolve resistance at a deeper level. They come, in the best possible way, unhinged from the presence of their past and are freed to imagine the future. Parallel processes. Nature helps to open a window to their deepest, most authentic self.”
It’s not hard to imagine Kurt Hahn, legendary educator and Outward Bound founder, nodding enthusiastically upon reading these words. They so perfectly distill the essence of this work we do—the work Margo has taken on over a period of nearly six decades.
It is important to document the diverse jobs that Margo has held at North Carolina Outward Bound School and Warren Wilson College. To simply hint at her various responsibilities would be a disservice to Margo and all who have been on the receiving end of her immeasurable contributions.
Margo has served North Carolina Outward Bound School in countless capacities since 1972, when she began working as a summer base camp volunteer before enrolling as a student on the first NCOBS Everglades Course two years later. Then, from 1983 to 2025, with a 12-year hiatus at WWC, pivotal consulting and administrative roles followed: Director of Scholarship Programs, Managing Director of Sales, Marketing & Development, Interim Development Director, Interim VP for Development, Development Director, Interim Executive Director, and ongoing consultant work, including the School’s landmark 50th Anniversary.
Margo’s daughter, Sofie, witnessed her mother’s initial roles at NCOBS, those that would come to inform Margo’s leadership with the organization years later. “These were the days that I became more aware of her work to create partnerships, inspire others to invest in outdoor education, and work with a small team of very committed people to achieve a mission.” Colleagues, School directors, and board members alike have been eager to expound upon Margo’s contributions to NCOBS.
“I knew Margo before I knew her. A beacon of deep institutional knowledge, wisdom, and light, Margo’s name was mentioned—many times—before I had the great pleasure of meeting her. NCOBS has had the good fortune of receiving many of Margo’s gifts, chief amongst them being her astute ability to write strategic, poetic prose. For three decades, Margo has captured the impact of NCOBS through beautiful stories and left an indelible mark on all she’s worked with and touched with her words.”
-Bea Armstrong: NCOBS Executive Director
“In the fourteen years I served as the School’s Executive Director, I turned to Margo for guidance, information, authentic writing, and even to serve as the Interim Director of Development. Not once did Margo shy away from these tasks, and she always outperformed my expectations. It also was wonderful simply having Margo in the Town Office. Margo’s steadfast and systematic approach to fulfilling her responsibilities is a shining example of ‘To Serve, To Strive, and Not to Yield.’”
-Whitney Montgomery: NCOBS Executive Director (2007-2020)
“Margo embodies the qualities I most admire. She is unique in her abundance of wisdom, generosity, concern for others, loyalty, and modesty. Her loving spirit and her courage to be her true self in challenging situations are especially remarkable.
Whether working together on behalf of NCOBS, hiking to the floor of the Grand Canyon, paddling on the Sea of Cortez or simply “hanging out” and sharing thoughts, Margo has been one of my most important teachers simply by being who she is. My friendship with Margo is one of the greatest gifts of my life.”
-Ann Baruch: Former NCOBS Board Member and Director of Development
“Margo’s influence at NCOBS has been felt in several ways, but her principal contribution has been as a confidential advisor to Board Chairs and senior staff. Her calmness under pressure is subtle, while her intelligence and compassion are powerfully evident. And she has been a loyal friend to so many in her community.”
-John Webster: Former NCOBS Board Member and Interim Executive Director
Margo’s career at Warren Wilson College (WWC) between 2000 and 2024 has been equally impressive. Her numerous roles included Sustainability Consultant, Chief Sustainability Official, and President’s Leadership Team member. She was also Executive Director of Warren Wilson’s Environmental Leadership Center (ELC) after serving as its Program Consultant, Director of Community Outreach, and Associate Director.
Sofie sees this period in Margo’s career as a time when she “fully embraced her skills, strengths, and experience and stepped into her power as a leader. She transformed into an innovator, continued to be a trusted advisor to college leaders, built constituencies critical to sustain curriculum, and truly shaped and influenced the direction of environmental sustainability at WWC and beyond.”
“I was privileged to have Margo as a friend and colleague as we served our two sister institutions: Warren Wilson College and NCOBS. Margo was a master bridge-builder in helping bring together these two kindred spirit organizations through their shared values of holistic education, stewardship of the environment, valuing nature as a classroom and reaching out to our diversity of external communities. Her visionary leadership has been highly impactful and will be everlasting.”
-Doug Orr: President Emeritus, Warren Wilson College, Former NCOBS Board Member
“When I need wisdom–which is all too often–I know where to go: Margo. Wisdom is her thing, her superpower. She always has plenty to share with mere mortals like me. That’s why she has become my presidential whisperer. Like all wise individuals, she has the ability to bring out the best in everything: people, institutions, flora, fauna, and even baked goods. And she does so with a quiet, assured, simple elegance that glows with essential care. We all need a Margo in our lives. We at Warren Wilson College have ours—the original. For that, we are grateful and joyful, and, oh so much better off!”
-Damián Fernández: President, Warren Wilson College
A list of Margo’s professional accomplishments should not overshadow the most important job of her life. Margo’s role—and her first priority—as a mother has never wavered. Not surprisingly, Margo’s children have all become remarkable individuals who lead meaningful, purposeful lives. Each is an Outward Bound graduate who spent time in the field as an experiential educator. And each has followed her lead in choosing careers that serve the greater good. There could be no better legacy in Margo’s life than Sofie, David, and Dylan. Their comments reflect Margo’s extraordinary success as both parent and professional.
“Throughout our lives, our perception of our mom was that we were always her first priority—her work, her career, was important but her family always comes first. I don’t think she ever struggled to choose, but…she certainly struggled to juggle it all and maintain balance. She made it look seamless.”
-Sofie
“The paradox of Margo Nottoli is that she has more energy and intensity than any five normal people, and yet somehow she seems very relaxed and centered. It’s easy to be around her and to think that you’re also feeling relaxed and calm, until you realize that you’ve somehow hiked ten miles, had several intense conversations, planned out your next year, and gained a new understanding of a couple of esoteric subjects. Margo brings that level of curiosity, intensity, and dedication to everything she does. In all the various roles she filled at NCOBS over the decades, Margo brought her supernatural level of energy to the School. And in turn, her children were nurtured by the ethos of the School… And growing up in that way has shaped the direction of all our lives in profound ways. The lasting influence of NCOBS on me was also the touch of my mother’s hand. An organization, after all, is nothing more than the people who make and re-make it over the years, and Margo has represented the best that Outward Bound strives to be.”
-David
“My mom built a kind of invisible protection around her kids. That was her real work, more than any job she ever held. She created a world where we could grow up believing the ground beneath us was solid… The miracle wasn’t that she kept it all running. The miracle was that she made it feel normal. Over the past few years, I’ve come to understand that my mom is a kind of warrior. Not the loud, dramatic kind—the quiet kind. The kind who doesn’t announce her strength, just carries it. The kind who stands between the storm and the people she loves.”
-Dylan
It’s not at all surprising that, in any discussion of her career and accomplishments, Margo is quick to deflect the attention to her three children and Paul, her husband of twenty-one years. “My children grew up in Outward Bound and in them I see inordinate strength and drive to effect good… My husband understands my passion for Outward Bound. An alum of his own NCOBS educators course, he understands its purpose and ethos. It resonates, and he walks its talk. His style—as a partner, a parent, a sailor, or an educator—is to embody. To model. And in this way, he gently transforms.”
In every conversation about Margo, the same themes of leadership and service emerge. She is the quintessential “servant leader” as envisioned by Robert Greenleaf, who posed these questions in his seminal work, “The Servant as Leader:” “Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?” It is not a leap to assume that every student, every colleague, and every friend would reply to those questions with a resounding “Yes” when reflecting upon Margo’s quiet leadership, wisdom, and generosity of spirit.
“Yes” has defined Margo’s personal and professional philosophy in life. When repeatedly asked to step up, Margo has always—with or without hesitation—said “Yes.” Her belief in these institutions, our missions and educational outcomes simply did not allow for “No.” When contemplating her career, Margo laughed and said, “I’ve spent most of my lifetime supporting facilitation in nature for transformation. I was needed, so the least I could do was step up and help. I was quite unsuccessful at keeping boundaries with Outward Bound. I was a retirement failure.” Undoubtedly, Margo’s failure was our gain.
When asked what she would want people to know about her, after a moment of reflection Margo offered this: “That I am still full of wonder. I am still in awe of the transformation that can happen when this magic mixture of nature and wilderness and human beings in this endeavor come together.”
Author Bio: Deb Follo Caughron has been involved with NCOBS since 1982. She has served the School as Logistics Chief, Field Instructor, Course Director, Director of Invitational Programs, Board Member, Board Chair, and Consultant. Deb counts Margo among her dearest friends.
