As an infant, Adam spent his first summer visiting his relatives in Athens, Greece and unknowingly caught a relatively common disease called ‘Itchy Feet’ which has forced Adam to constantly seek adventure, cultural immersion, and awe-inspiring vistas. When Adam was 21, he set foot on the SS Universe Explorer and circumnavigated the globe by sea, cementing his passion for cross-cultural exploration and education. He loves nothing more than speaking with students and families to support them on their personal global adventures. Adam has led for 8 seasons with Global Routes to destinations such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, the Grenadines, Southern Africa, Tanzania, and Ecuador. He has more than 20 years under his belt as an educator, ranging from running summer camps, leading for Global Routes, teaching in the Boston Public Schools, and leading health and nutriton education programs across Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. During those rare moments when he is not leading, directing, or developing programs with Global Routes, Adam is on a mission to solve the worlds greatest health and environmental problems through his work as the Co-Founder of The Cookbook Project. Adam earned his Bachelor’s Degree in International Political Economy at Tulane University in New Orleans and his Master’s Degree in International Relations at London’s University of Westminster. Adam is a Food Education Scholar and Certified Health Counselor from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. He is a certified teacher in history, English, math, and ESL. Adam is a Propeller Accelerator Fellow and serves on the Board of Directors for Odanadi USA, and the Community Advisory Boards of the Tulane Prevention Research Center, the Healthy School Food Collaborative, Farm to School planning commission, and Tulane Young Alumni. Adam has traveled, volunteered, worked, and adventured in more than 75 different countries, and enjoys spending time with his partner Alissa (a 2012 and 2018 Global Routes leader herself), his two dogs Hoogli and Dorje, rock climbing, yoga, wilderness backpacking, sailing, and adventures in the Himalayas.

Julia is an experienced program director with a history of launching and growing mission-based organizations. She previously worked on a team that helped start and grow over 100 companies, both for-profit and non-profit in the sectors of food, health, education, and water management. Julia has a strong international background: she earned her Bachelor's of Arts in International Relations from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon; she has traveled to 27 different countries, and lived abroad in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and India. In 2015, Julia was one of 12 Fellows selected from around the world to participate in the Global Good Fund, a competitive leadership development program. Julia is passionate about volunteering and is actively supporting Mother Miracle, a K-12 school in India that serves exceptionally intelligent children from the slums. Julia also volunteers as a mentor for budding women entrepreneurs in India through the program WeConnect. Formerly, Julia was a founding member of the Awesome Foundation in New Orleans, and was selected to Grist’s list of 50 innovators to watch. Julia is an avid music lover and exercise enthusiast, who is known to be the first on the dance floor and the last to leave. Bringing people together and initiating positive experiences is what she does best.

Becca is an operations ninja with experience in marketing, systems improvement and communications. She previously contributed to a team that provides strategic marketing training to thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs. Becca excels in understanding strategic visions, executing tangibles and facilitating growth with efficiency and accuracy. Her background is in Psychology and Business, with a B.A. in Psychology and minor in Business from University of California, San Diego. Becca loves to experience new cultures and has travelled to 12 different countries in Europe, Asia and Central America. She has a passion for community service and enthusiastically volunteers weekly. When Becca isn't implementing process improvements for Global Routes, she is practicing silent meditation, hiking, gardening, doing yoga, playing basketball, or soaking up the beauty of nature with her loving partner.

Pam brings over 30 years of office management experience to the Global Routes team. She manages the accounts, human resources, and many of the nitty gritty activities that allow our leaders and Directors to focus their time on working closely with staff and families to deliver extraordinary life-changing programs for our students.

MA, International Education, School for International Training. BA, Anthropology, Connecticut College. Dianna is the Associate Director at the Gap Year Association. Dianna is an international educator with decades of experience. Bridging her work with her studies, Dianna dove into a masters program in International Education where she focused her research on cross-cultural communication in the classroom. She has traveled to Samoa to research the culture of tattooing, facilitated leadership and service learning programs in Bequia, paraded in the streets of Port Au Prince, Haiti with a band of clowns and musicians and most recently worked with underserved children in Northern India. Dianna then came back to the Global Routes’ family and worked with Global Routes as the director for 3 years. After four fantastic years, she now supports the development of Global Routes programs. In her down time, Dianna serves on the board of directors for Clowns Without Borders. She also spends time working with her mother as a floral designer and aspiring gardener and is the proud mother of a beautiful young daughter.

M.B.A. Yale University; B.A. Magna Cum Laude, Sociology, Magna Cum Laude. Kenneth has been working in experiential education for 27 years. Prior to founding Global Routes with Andrew Rivin, he was an educational consultant and college administrator. He has traveled throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas and has led Global Routes programs in the United States, China and Thailand. Kenneth enjoys running, cycling and playing with his children, Jonah and Sarina. In his spare time, he serves in the leadership of his community’s synagogue. Kenneth continues to provide stellar advice and supports our staff with trainings, program developmen, and the 30,000 foot perspective of Global Routes lofty mission.

TANZANIA LEADER AND AFRICA PROGRAM DEVELOPER: A 5-time Global Routes Leader (Tanzania x 4 and Nepal) Mary is an explorer, a boundary pusher, a pump-up giver, a lover of humanity, and a hopeless believer in the good. She spent her youth moving around to five different states before finally settling into life in Colorado. Once settled in the land of mountains, sunshine, and smiles she stumbled into her passion of human equality and women’s empowerment. Beautifully powerful people surrounding her along with an open-mindedness created the perfect opportunity for further developing her passion of female empowerment and exploration. She immersed herself in these passions while serving in the Peace Corps. Nothing has ever been as wonderfully difficult or as magically soulful than her time in Tanzania. She has been privileged enough to see the profound impact that integrating with villagers has had on not only herself and the communities, but her students as well. After years of working with student travel programs like Global Routes and Carpe Diem Education, Mary bravely chose to create not one but two businesses, Mama Dunia and Live Dunia. The intention behind these businesses is to create positive impact through sustainable collaboration in Tanzania, specifically with marginalized women. In different ways, both organizations aim to connect mindful consumers and travelers to women's co-ops, and local villages, in effort to increase income, access to education, health care, and empowerment of the entire community. Live Dunia is, for her, the way to keep the stream of consciousness, joy, and peace flowing through humanity. Mary prides herself on her guac making abilities, can spit a mean Swahili rap, affirms others like there is no tomorrow, and loves cracking jokes. The way to her heart is through a good, strong cup of coffee, friends, laughter, nature, and a fan blowing in her face. What lights her fire is empowering those around her to explore the world, believe in themselves, and know that they can make a positive impact in this beautiful world.

COSTA RICA LEADER & PROGRAM DEVELOPER: Liz is one of Global Route’s most seasoned and valued trip leaders and has supported Global Routes in program development from 2014-2018. She was Valedictorian at Sierra Nevada College and holds a holds a BA in Humanities. Her certifications include: Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certification, TEFL International, Wilderness First Responder w/ CPR, PADI Rescue Diver, and ACA Sea Kayak Instructor & Guide. She has left her wake in every ocean but the Arctic. Liz has studied, worked, volunteered, and traveled throughout Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. She is fluent in Spanish and spends her free time exploring and paddling in new places, visiting family/friends, singing monster rock ballads at open mics, and breaking taco-eating records in obscure port towns.

Brighid Carey is an international exchange and program management professional. She supports Global Routes operations in almost every regard. She has worked for a variety of international exchange organizations in the U.S. and abroad, including five years in Colombia with WorldTeach as a volunteer and program director. Brighid has also lived in Ecuador, Spain and Guatemala. Brighid has a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from the University of Connecticut, and will receive her Master’s degree in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management at SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont. In her free time, she loves riding her bike, hiking, playing rugby, reading and exploring new places.

Laura is an international development & communications professional. At Global Routes, she helps keep internal systems (both tech and procedural) running smoothly. Before joining Global Routes, Laura worked in varied roles from editor, writer and researcher, to web cartographer and program coordinator. Laura has worked in Uganda, India, Brazil, Ecuador and the US, and has traveled to more than twenty other countries. She received her MA in International Development at The New School in New York City, where she examined participatory governance models in urban East Africa, and her BA from Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied design and popular resistance movements in Latin America. You can usually find Laura playing ultimate frisbee, dreaming up ways to create a kinder world, exploring New Orleans, or planning her next trip.

TANZANIA LEADER Avy is a perpetual student, a passionate educator, an avid wilderness lover, and a community cultivator. Born and raised in the foothills of Colorado, her wanderlust has taken her around the world several times over. From teaching in South Korea to working with former child soldiers in Uganda, reforestation work in Ethiopia to leading experiential programs on 6 continents, Avy is continually inspired by the communities she has learned and lived with around the world. Now her home base is in Portland, OR, where she lives in a yurt, is pursuing her Masters in Social Work, and still plots adventures at every chance - last summer she walked the 2600-mile Pacific Crest Trail. She had led the Nepal program for GR and is thrilled to be returning to Tanzania!

NEPAL LEADER, BS Nutrition, MPH, RPCV, CYT, WFR, CPR & 2nd year GR leader (Nepal 2018). Avid adventurer and artist, Jaime has traveled and worked to empower diverse teens through dance/performance arts & cultural exchange for over a decade. As a teen, she danced in two cultural tours in Greece & China-which sparked her passion for cultural connectivity and global wellbeing. Since, she has led service projects in Haiti and served as a Food Security Volunteer in Peace Corps Nepal! Jaime can also be found teaching yoga, spinning vinyl, frolicking in nature, biking or birding.

NEPAL LEADER BA, Anthropology, University of Vermont. MA, Education, UC Santa Cruz. Most recently finishing three years as the Director of Operations for a bi-lingual elementary school in DC, David began his career as a middle school history and English teacher in Oakland, CA. Since then he has led experimental and outdoor education trips, served as a culturally responsive education coach and program director, helped manage part of the DCPS teacher evaluation program and coached principals on teacher evaluation. Originally from Massachusetts, David’s love of adventure amd exploration has led him around the county and the world. His passions include music, social justice, motorcycles, fly fishing, board sports, cooking, and anything outside. David is thrilled to return to Nepal, a place he once called home and forever a central part of his being.

ECUADOR LEADER Mike grew up in the foothills of Colorado. His curiosity and wanderlust has since carried him to all continents of the world. For the past couple of decades, he has been involved in the field of experiential education, both as a group leader and program director. To date Mike has led programs for Global Routes in Thailand and Ecuador. He enjoys reading, playing music, meditation and motorcycling. He continues to combine travel and education in his personal life as well, visiting old friends and making new ones, in all corners of the world.

ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES LIA LEADER Odessa is devoted to transformational learning and has worked in diverse classrooms throughout the US and across the globe for 12 years. Her educator journey has included living and teaching at a tribal run school in South Dakota serving students from over 15 different tribal nations, Chaiyaphum and Phuket, Thailand and her roots in Baltimore City. Adventures with Odessa often involve spontaneity, photography, laughter, beekeeping, live music, empowering others and meeting community members. Odessa is stoked to return to the Caribbean with Global Routes for her second year and continue to foster cross-cultural experiences in authentic and meaningful ways.

COSTA RICA LEADER & PROGRAM DEVELOPER: Liz is one of Global Route’s most seasoned and valued trip leaders and has supported Global Routes in program development from 2014-2018. She was Valedictorian at Sierra Nevada College and holds a holds a BA in Humanities. Her certifications include: Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certification, TEFL International, Wilderness First Responder w/ CPR, PADI Rescue Diver, and ACA Sea Kayak Instructor & Guide. She has left her wake in every ocean but the Arctic. Liz has studied, worked, volunteered, and traveled throughout Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. She is fluent in Spanish and spends her free time exploring and paddling in new places, visiting family/friends, singing monster rock ballads at open mics, and breaking taco-eating records in obscure port towns.

ECUADOR LEADER Though born and raised in Pennsylvania, Amanda’s sense of home has extended across the globe. With an academic background in Sociology, Spanish and Peace & Conflict Resolution, Amanda has found great meaning in a career of experiential education. Having served as a trip leader in Central & South America, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, India, Nepal, and in the US-Mexico borderlands, Amanda finds great hope in the dynamic conversations and commitments that flow out of the process of experience and reflection, particularly within a group of young seekers. In her first summer leading with Global Routes, Amanda is honored to be a part of a team dedicated to authentic and meaningful interactions.

CO-DIRECTOR, DOMESTIC WILDERNESS PROGRAMS David Ficke is a veteran leader with Global Routes who has led 6 programs including New Jersey, Ecuador, and Tanzania programs. He has also spent several seasons leading with Longacre Expeditions all over the US and Canada. His passion for travel and culture was piqued during a solo trip to Thailand, where he taught English. Since then, David has led many trips internationally and in the US. David has also studied abroad in the UK, volunteered with Americorps, spent three months traveling overland from South Africa to Uganda, and traveled all over Latin America on his own.

TANZANIA LEADER AND AFRICA PROGRAM DEVELOPER: A 5-time Global Routes Leader (Tanzania x 4 and Nepal) Mary is an explorer, a boundary pusher, a pump-up giver, a lover of humanity, and a hopeless believer in the good. She spent her youth moving around to five different states before finally settling into life in Colorado. Once settled in the land of mountains, sunshine, and smiles she stumbled into her passion of human equality and women’s empowerment. Beautifully powerful people surrounding her along with an open-mindedness created the perfect opportunity for further developing her passion of female empowerment and exploration. She immersed herself in these passions while serving in the Peace Corps. Nothing has ever been as wonderfully difficult or as magically soulful than her time in Tanzania. She has been privileged enough to see the profound impact that integrating with villagers has had on not only herself and the communities, but her students as well. After years of working with student travel programs like Global Routes and Carpe Diem Education, Mary bravely chose to create not one but two businesses, Mama Dunia and Live Dunia. The intention behind these businesses is to create positive impact through sustainable collaboration in Tanzania, specifically with marginalized women. In different ways, both organizations aim to connect mindful consumers and travelers to women's co-ops, and local villages, in effort to increase income, access to education, health care, and empowerment of the entire community. Live Dunia is, for her, the way to keep the stream of consciousness, joy, and peace flowing through humanity. Mary prides herself on her guac making abilities, can spit a mean Swahili rap, affirms others like there is no tomorrow, and loves cracking jokes. The way to her heart is through a good, strong cup of coffee, friends, laughter, nature, and a fan blowing in her face. What lights her fire is empowering those around her to explore the world, believe in themselves, and know that they can make a positive impact in this beautiful world.

ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES LIA LEADER B.S. Biomedical Engineering & Management Minor, University of California Irvine. A California native and current resident of Colorado, Jasmin grew up snowboarding, backpacking, kicking soccer balls and jamming on the piano. She loves spending time with her parents, sister and two pups. With a Belgian father and Korean mother, her house is always filled with a mix of cultures and foods. This has allowed her to travel the world, visiting her family that live across many continents. When she’s not leading with Global Routes she leads road trips across America as a certified tour guide, coaches soccer for the Special Olympics, and competitively snowboards in the winter. She most recently spent the last few seasons working as an ESL teacher in Thailand and guiding in the mountains of Big Sky, Montana. She is super excited to be a part of Global Routes for a second season and to share her love of giving back to the community while immersing herself in local culture!

COSTA RICA LEADER This will be Pablo’s third year leading the Global Routes Costa Rica program! Pablo is from the town of Piedras Blancas in Costa Rica. He grew up on a wonderful farm in Costa Rica with his Dad, Mom and 18 brothers and sisters (!!!) surrounded by mountains, rivers and beautiful caverns. He has 12 years of experience working as a guide in Costa Rica, and will be the first to tell you how much he loves his job. He is a rafting guide and an outdoor education instructor with experience leading many trips for Outward Bound, Pacific Journeys, Auténtico Adventures and Pure Life. There is nobody on earth more excited to share his love of Costa Rica with his Global Routes students!

CO-DIRECTOR, DOMESTIC WILDERNESS PROGRAMS Alex is back for her fifth year leading trips with Global Routes, and she is ready for this adventure! She received her B.A. in Global Studies from Hofstra University and has studied, worked, and volunteered throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. She is fluent in both Spanish and Italian. Outside of leading trips, Alex is a teacher, yoga and dance instructor, Thai massage practitioner, homesteader and permaculturalist. Currently residing in Detroit, Alex can't wait to come back to her favorite campsite with her favorite co-leader on her favorite part of the Appalachian Trail!

Andrew is a New Orleans' native with Central American and European roots. He's traveled, lived, and worked all across Central and South America, and has a deep passion for social justice. He’s a people-person with a strong knack for building strong relationships. Since graduating from Loyola University of New Orleans, he’s managed farmers markets and networks of growers from all across south Louisiana and Mississippi, taught ESL, worked with young people and their families as an educational advocate, and served as lead organizer for an Interfaith Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. He’s a folk musician and dancer with a zeal for exploring new cities and talking to strangers. This is his first year leading with Global Routes and he’s beyond excited!

NEPAL STAFF Shankar is the Managing Director of Exotic Mountain Treks in Nepal, where he has worked for 25 years, organizing treks and guiding hikers throughout the Himalayas. He has an MBA from Tribhuban University in Kathmandu and has worked with Global Routes groups since the mid 1990s. He elevates the Global Routes Nepal program by providing opportunities for students to immerse themselves in the culture while providing meaningful service work.

ECUADOR STAFF Raul connects us with host communities and service projects in the San Luis de Pambil area of Ecuador. He is very committed to the organization that he and his brother, Carlos, founded, that works towards “green progress” in over 200 communities. As an Ashoka social entrepreneur, he is excited about projects that improve quality of life without damaging the surrounding environment. Raul has been with Global Routes for more than 20 years.

NEPAL STAFF Ratna is an expert on everything Nepali. He has been leading Global Routes programs for ten years - guiding, entertaining and cooking for our travelers with great care and enthusiasm. He speaks Nepali, Hindi, English and his local language, Tamang. Ratna loves working with Global Routes and appreciates the students’ dedication to learning about Nepali culture and their commitment to the community service projects.

TANZANIA STAFF

ST. VINCENT & THE GRENADINES STAFF Martin and Veolant Cupid are the pillars of the community on the Windward side of St. Vincent Island. Since 2006 the Cupids have graciously hosted Global Routes students, equipping students with the tools to lead successful friendship camps and of course, sharing their favorite Caribbean recipes with our students. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried Martin’s open-fire breadfruit. The warmth of the Cupids hospitality has been the key ingredient to the success of Global Routes’ St Vincent programs.

COSTA RICA IN-COUNTRY COORDINATOR Orlando lives in the mountains of the Savegre Valley and has 5 children and 9 grandchildren. He knows the rainforest like the back of his hand and worked as an Instructor with Costa Rica Outward Bound School for over 20 years. He's excited to be a part of the Global Routes team, as he is passionate about teaching students about his Costa Rican culture and working with them on community service projects.

COSTA RICA STAFF Don Luis is a ranchero, or cattle rancher by trade, from the San Isidro region of Costa Rica. Now in his 70s, he has been helping coordinate Global Routes programs for over thirty years! Don Luis has a large family of children and grandchildren and loves welcoming young people from other countries to learn about his culture and country, and especially working with Global Routes groups on local community service projects.