Amy Boxell

Course Director, Instructor, Trainer

Justin Brewster

Instructor, Course Director and Staff Trainer

Justin is from northern Wisconsin and jokes that he was born wearing a pair of skis. He grew up running sled dogs, skiing, mountain biking and credits the outdoors with keeping him from getting into “real” trouble.  He calls the Lake Superior region home, and can’t imagine living anywhere warmer. He has worked for Voyageur Outward Bound since 2007. 

Justin has a bachelor’s degree in Outdoor Education from Northland College and a broad background in teaching and experiential education. Besides working at multiple Outward Bound bases, he has taught in college outdoor programs, served as an AmeriCorps VISTA, and trained educators for several organizations. He is a Wilderness EMT and teaches Wilderness First Aid courses and CPR. 

When not working, Justin likes to travel in the wilderness, fly fish, photograph adventures, and take part in any form of skiing or paddling. He has mushed a dogsled on Hudson Bay in the sub-arctic and most recently completed a 1200-mile kayak circumnavigation of Lake Superior, the world’s largest lake. He is dreaming about his next expedition right now. 

Dan Drehmel

Course Director & Instructor

Born and raised in Woodbury, Minnesota, Dan’s early life was full of casseroles and organized sports. In high school, camping meant strapping gear to a golf bag roller, rigging it to a bike, and pedaling to a quiet corner of a nearby park. A restless youth with many interests and trouble choosing which to pursue, Dan headed west to Pomona College in Claremont, CA where he spent free time traveling abroad and earned a degree in Environmental Analysis with a focus in Biology.

Dan spent a year behind a desk before entering the California Conservation Corps’ Backcountry Trails program. His crew built trails and relationships for five months in the Trinity Alps Wilderness of northern California without seeing a phone or a road. Following a stint working in Queens after Hurricane Sandy, Dan spent four months hiking along the Rockies from Canada to Mexico on the Continental Divide Trail. More recently, he hiked the Arizona Trail from Mexico to Utah. During his long walks he learned a little about resilience, loneliness, compassion, gratitude, and the unforgiving wonder of the wilderness.

A random act of compassion by a stranger and former OB instructor led Dan to VOBS in 2014. Inspired by Kurt Hahn’s educational philosophy in action, Dan signed on year-round, spending summers in a canoe and winters on skis or a dogsled. He now believes that every student already holds the power to change their lives, and that the purpose of Outward Bound is simply to help them find it.

Elle Gasperini

Course Director, Instructor

Elle attributes her love for the outdoors to her parents and their encouragement of her running around outside building forts, stomping in mud puddles, and going on adventures as a kid.  She grew up outside of the twin cities and has been on a trip to the boundary waters almost every summer since she was 12. The lakes and white pines of northern Minnesota have a special place in her heart, but she has also enjoyed exploring the backcountry in other places.  She spent 6 years going back and forth between MN and WA where she attended the University of Puget Sound studying environmental policy while also exploring the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Bringing people into the wilderness is important to Elle because of the skills and self-reliance it builds, time allowed for self reflection, and reconnection with the natural world. In her 4th year at outward bound she now works year round, spending winters in Texas backpacking and whitewater canoeing and summer in MN. When not working, you can find her snowboarding, rock climbing, or spending time with her family. 

Adam Hagin

Course Director & Instructor

Adam grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. After graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in History and Education, he decided to teach and live overseas. Teaching and living in the Republic of Georgia and South Korea gave him the opportunity to travel and experience the beautiful diversity of our world. He spent two months traveling through Turkey, studied in Vietnam, hiked the West Highland Way in Scotland, spent six weeks in Spain, and led a gap-year semester in Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania. After a few years of travel, Adam decided to begin leading wilderness expeditions as an instructor for the Voyageur Outward Bound School in the Northwoods of Minnesota. It was there that he formed his educational philosophy based in the values of compassion, service, mindfulness, leadership, and diversity.

Having worked at the Voyageur Outward Bound School since 2014, Adam has led expeditions in many different course areas, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and the Big Bend Region of Southwest Texas. Building his technical skills in whitewater paddling, rock climbing, and working with the Intercept Program has led Adam to step into the role of a Course Director, trainer, and mentor within the VOBS community.

Rachel Hedlund

Course Director

Rachel has spent the better part of her life paddling on the lakes and rivers of Northern Minnesota and Canada. Hailing from Minnesota, she grew up going on paddling trips with YMCA Camp Menogyn, and spent many summers guiding 20 to 50-day whitewater-canoeing trips throughout the far north of Canada. Although the mountains drew her briefly to Colorado, where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology with Colorado College, Rachel has been unable to escape the draw of the Northern Minnesota waters and works year-round for VOBS in Ely. She’s just as in love with dog-sledding as she is with paddling, so she spends the spring and fall caring for and training the 65 sled dogs that call VOBS home. Rachel adores working with the variety of courses VOBS has to offer, and believes whole-heartedly in the power of outdoor education for all people.

Rachel is extremely excited to be back for a 4^th summer at VOBS, and can’t wait to help more students find out what the wilderness has to offer them. When Rachel isn’t working at VOBS, she’s plotting out the next big dumb adventure she can partake in. Last summer, she and 5 other women competed in the Yukon River Quest, a 455-mile canoe race along the Yukon River, which involved minimal sleep and the maximum amount of paddling in 53 hours. Rachel is constantly dreaming of the wilderness, and the sheer joy that nature can bring to so many. 

Brian Minor

Course Director & Instructor

Brian grew up in Evanston, Illinois as an urban explorer of sorts, spending long summer days riding his bike along the magnificent Lake Michigan shoreline and getting to know the nuances of Chicago's public transit system. His love of the outdoors was not sparked until his early twenties, a development that continues to baffle his city-dwelling family, most of whom have no desire to go camping. 

Iggy Perillo

Course Director

Iggy Perillo is a product of the Midwest who gets nostalgic about cornfields. Starting as an Intern with the Voyageur Outward Bound School at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Iggy progressed to instructing and course directing both summer canoe/backpacking expeditions and winter dogsled/ski expeditions in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Along the way she earned a Master’s Degree in Experiential Education and a grade 5-12 teaching license as well as a host of other safety and technical certifications. At the moment she is a seasonal Outward Bound nomad ranging between managing Interns, training, and logistics on the lakes of northern Minnesota during the summer and instructing and directing in-school programs during ‘fake winter’ in Portland, Oregon. Iggy works for Outward Bound in order to change the world.

Liz Pileckas

Course Director

Liz Pileckas grew up on the east coast, riding bikes, swimming in lakes and boogie boarding at the Jersey shore. She graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Science in English Education and taught at high schools in New York City for 3+ years. Her love for the outdoors brought her to the Voyageur Outward Bound School where she has been leading paddling and dogsledding expeditions since 2010. When she is not leading others on wilderness adventures, she nurses her love for paddling whitewater and dogsledding. In the last few years, she paddled 1,000 miles across the Arctic tundra on the Coppermine River and led dog sled tours at an Iditarod champion’s kennel, just south of Denali National Park. She is returning to VOBS after a year of adventuring and living in Montana and Alaska and is delighted to work with some of the most passionate and dedicated folks on the planet.

Lisa Pugh

Course Director

A Minnesota native and graduate of the University of MN, Lisa has made life on water – frozen or not - her passion, playground, and office. Since her start as in intern with VOBS in 2011, Lisa has played many roles including instructor, course director, and sled dog trainer. After working every season in the Boundary Waters including bouts of ice canoeing and ski-packing (backpacking with skis), it seemed time to undertake a large personal expedition. In 2016, Lisa and a friend became the first women to canoe America’s longest river system – the Missouri/Mississippi. This 4,000-mile source-to-sea expedition became a 200-day test of endurance, passion, and confidence. Lisa is glad to be home in MN, doing the work she loves and sharing in even more adventures with incredible people.

Annie Socci

Course Director & Instructor

Annie Socci has had many roles at the Ely Basecamp since 2002- Instructor, Course Director and Sled Dog Trainer to name a few. She has a Ph.D. in Forest Ecology and is the Conservation & Outreach Manager for the Foundation for Sustainable Forests. She is also a professional facilitator at Cornell University’s Team & Leadership Center.

Adamant that instructors need to continue to challenge themselves in order to better serve their Outward Bound students, Annie has completed two Hudson Bay dogsledding expeditions, a 1,000 mile paddle that ended at the Arctic Ocean, and many other expeditions that continue to remind her of how rewarding the Outward Bound experience can be.

While life has taken her in many directions through the years, she always returns to VOBS to continue adventuring, challenging, mentoring and learning alongside fellow staff and students alike.

Ryan Stewart

Course Director & Instructor

For the past 6 years, Ryan has been living a migratory existence traveling between West Virginia and Minnesota every season. In West Virginia he works at The Mountain Institute (now known as Experience Learning) where he works as an instructor in environmental science and adventure education programming throughout the Monongahela National Forest. More recently, Ryan has enrolled at The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) as a Graduate Student in The Environmental Education Department. After many years of working in the field, Ryan is focusing his studies on how to quantify and capture the power of outdoor experiences.

His academic and personal interests both stem from the same thing: the sense of belonging and genuine connection that comes from doing hard things in the company of good people and the wilderness. He brings creativity and humor to his courses. Ryan’s personal hobbies include: flat-water and whitewater canoeing, dog-sledding, cross-country skiing, hiking, playing nerdy board games, wood carving, and creative writing. His studies at UMD will likely focus on how expeditionary programming can serve the emerging young adult population in their development of interpersonal skills, resilience, and self-awareness.

Elliott Sweeney

Course Director & Instructor

Elliott grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is not exactly the outdoor adventure capital of the world. In fact, he spent little time camping or otherwise playing outdoors, instead staying busy indoors with school, sports, and music. It was not until showing up for his freshmen year at Northwestern University that he experienced the true joy of wilderness during an 8-day backpacking trip for incoming students.

The beauty, adventure, and stillness of the woods amazed Elliott, and he was struck by the deep presence the wilderness nurtured. He knew he wanted more of the meaningful connections and overall joy fostered through the wilderness experience, and became a trip leader for the program. Though he studied Psychology and Creative Writing, his experiences leading outdoors trips fostered some of his most important learnings, memories, and friendships.  

Emily Ten Eyck

Course Director, Trainer & Instructor

Theo Theobald

Course Director, Hiring Manager & Instructor

Theo is a long time outdoor educator who has been involved with Outward Bound for over fifteen years. She serves as a course director and senior instructor, leading sea kayak and canoe expeditions. In addition, she hires new field staff and supports various marketing efforts. She has led outdoor trips throughout the US and Canada for the past 25 years. Prior to moving to Minnesota, she spent 16 years directing programs for Cornell University’s Outdoor Education program – one of the largest collegiate outdoor programs in the country, with a focus on developing undergraduate outdoor skills and leadership experience.

A passionate educator known for her adventurous spirit and quest for the trail less taken, Theo is equally at home in the backcountry kitchen as on the dogsled runners. A long time musher, Theo spends winters guiding dog sledding trips for White Wilderness, one of the largest dog sled touring companies in the lower 48. She is an aspiring garlic farmer with a penchant for planting ambitious gardens and growing local food. She holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University. She can often be found biking, skiing or exploring the next trail that beckons with her exuberant black lab, Lily.

Ollie Williams

Course Director, Trainer