received an MBA from the University of Michigan, and spent nine years in finance with Intel Corporation, working with everything from an internet start up to a $2.5 billion factory construction project.

In 2002, he made a career shift, moved back to the Twin Cities and spent 9 years as the President of Youth Frontiers, a non profit organization who partners with schools to improve school climate, reaching more than 100,000 students annually.  

Outside of work, Jack is active in his church and community and enjoys travel and time with his wife, Laura, and their three children, Elisabeth (age 21), Catherine (19) and Timothy (5).

a Master’s of Science in Experiential Education from the University of Minnesota in Mankato, and a Special Education Teaching License from Bethel University.

This is Poppy’s second employment with the Voyageur Outward Bound School. She was an Instructor and Course Director from 1993-1995. As an instructor, she instructed courses in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness in the summer, fall and, winter seasons. Now Poppy serves VOBS as the Director of Operations in our Twin Cities Center. She leads and manages all programs and operations to deliver these programs in the Twin Cities area. She works hard to find schools and organizations to establish program partnerships thereby creating a collective capacity to address real needs and strengthens this combined impact. The result? Real change. We are, changing lives through challenge and discovery!

Suellen served in the Peace Corps in Nepal, building a library and teaching kids in a remote village. Her Outward Bound Course was pivotal to her success in Peace Corps. When talking about the experience she says, “I would never have completed Peace Corps without my Outward Bound course.” She later returned to VOBS as a staff member. Before taking on the role of Program Director in 2007, Suellen worked as an Instructor, Course Director, and Instructor Trainer for many years. In 2004, Suellen and three other OB instructors took some time off to plan a three-month, 1000-mile women’s dog sledding expedition across the Canadian Arctic. They called their expedition Artic Quest. The expedition was successful in achieving their expedition goals as well as in raising awareness and scholarship money for future VOBS students.

We strive to help people of all ages and abilities to actualize their goals, build confidence, and grow through life-changing outdoor endeavors. 

Previously, Courtney worked for five years as the Development and Marketing Manager at Free Arts Minnesota, a Minneapolis nonprofit that provides arts-based mentorship to youth in crisis. Prior to Free Arts Minnesota, Courtney was the Creative Manager at BlueSpire Marketing in Minneapolis.

Since then, she has worked with multiple cultural, educational, and environmental nonprofits across the Southwest.

Looking to head back west, she took some time to work with governmental and corporate organizations on internal communication culture while completing her M.S. in Communication Management at the University of Southern California. 

Canoe country has completely enthralled Katherine and she has continued to return to VOBS for the past five years as a field instructor and now Development Officer. Katherine believes in the opportunities that VOBS provides for individuals to discover their voice, act with compassion and develop a tenacious spirit.   

When she left Sydney, Megan moved near the equator to the city of Kumasi, Ghana where she coordinated a girls leadership program.

She returned to the Midwest, and proper winters, in 2016, working as a Speaker and Facilitator for the youth-empowerment organization WE. While at WE, she gave speeches and facilitated leadership and social-justice themed programs for youth across Minnesota and around the country. She worked on the directing team for WE’s summer Take Action Camp and facilitated service-learning trips to southern Arizona, India and the Amazon. 

Megan knows that experiential education has the power to change lives. When she’s not working, you can find her looking for the best deal on plane-tickets, out on the ice curling, or practicing her new aerial silks skills. She likes winter again, and is now proud to call Minnesota home.

you’ll find Holly tearing up over all the moments of impact she sees on a daily basis here at VOBS.

In her role as the Marketing and Communications Manager, Holly brings her natural story telling ability as she shares student stories to anyone and everyone who will listen. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Public Relations from the University of St. Thomas, later returning for a Masters of Education in International Leadership. She spent over 10 years doing communication and recruiting for her alma mater (for both the undergraduate program and the law school) and another two years launching a new line of online certificates through Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

Outside of VOBS, you can find Holly back on the rink or links coaching high school hockey and golf, at her family lake cabin living it up, in her garden weeding and talking to her plants, or at home snuggling with her two adorable rescue pups.

since she was a teenager, and has been leading trips across the country and around the world for more than 15 years. Before coming to VOBS she also directed an outdoor program for teenagers with physical and developmental disabilities.

Greta came to VOBS as an instructor in 2010 and has since led everything from winter dogsledding and cross-country skiing expeditions to summer Intercept courses. Over time, however, Greta transitioned out of the field and into the Admissions office. She now serves as the Director of Student Services. Her diverse life experience and sincere desire to make personal growth opportunities available to everyone make her an incredible asset to families as they learn about Outward Bound, get enrolled and prepare for their expeditions. If you want to learn more about the Voyageur Outward Bound school and the courses we offer, or if you’ve got questions about how to pack for your upcoming course, give Greta a call; She’ll be happy to help!

After taking a turn at what felt like hundreds of different jobs and roles, it became clear that Samantha’s real passion was people—listening to them, helping them experience the world, sharing experiences with them, and seeing their minds open to new perspectives.

The stars quickly aligned and after the right conversation while working at a gap year fair, Samantha found the opportunity she needed to dive into her passion of people, Outward Bound.

Since joining the Outward Bound family in the Northwoods of Minnesota, Samantha has fallen in love with the challenge of the outdoors, working with students of all ages and backgrounds, learning about herself through others and the outdoors, and just enjoying her backyard—the Boundary Waters.  At Voyageur Outward Bound School (VOBS), Samantha splits her year between course advising in the spring and summer, instructing in the summer and winter, and training sled dogs in the fall. If you ask her, the best place at VOBS is the dog yard, the best season to visit is winter, and the best thing she gets to say at work is "Ready dogs... Let's go!"

After living in Kentucky for 18 years, Ed wanted to see new places, so he enrolled in a small Quaker school called Earlham College in Indiana. He chose the school largely because of their renowned Wilderness Program. As a freshman he participated in an optional 22 day pre-orientation wilderness canoeing trip in Canada and got involved with the Wilderness Program immediately afterwards. At Earlham he taught rock climbing, backpacking, canoeing, and took course work in environmental studies and environmental history. After graduating in 2009 with a Bachelor’s of History, Ed came straight to Outward Bound to not only pursue his passion in the art of outdoor living, but also to help others discover the awe for challenge, growth, and fun gleaned from human involvement in the natural world.

Tessa also spent some time as a senior naturalist in Homer, Alaska. 

Tessa came to Outward Bound in 2015 as an instructor and now works on our Student Services team year-round as a course advisor.  When Tessa isn’t busy helping prepare students and families for their expedition, she gets out alongside our students as a field instructor in the winter and summer seasons!

It is evident that Tessa has sought out a life filled with adventure in her professional and personal life. In 2014, Tessa was a part of the 8 Rivers North Expedition, where she and her crew paddle over 900 miles in 60 days, connecting 9 different rivers in the Canadian Arctic ending on the Arctic Ocean.  When she is not working Tessa spends her time thinking of the next adventure. She also enjoys exploring the local flora and fauna, canoeing, baking bread, and spending time with her community here at her home in Ely, Minnesota!

Since earning her degree in Education and Social Policy, Emily has worked in a variety of schools and nonprofits, with a dedication to working with underserved youth and communities. After 5 years working in the urban environment with a college preparatory focus in mind, she was hungry to go deeper to support youth in their development of social-emotional and life skills. With the blink of an eye, the wilderness became her classroom and she joined Outward Bound as a Field Instructor, working for two years between Ely and the Twin Cities base camps. Having been personally impacted by the power of this work and the beauty of Minnesota's wilderness, Emily now works as a Course Advisor with the hope of preparing students for their own transformational experience at Outward Bound.

After spending a few years working in a laboratory studying water quality, Megan was eager to get back into working with kids in outdoor education. This brought her back to Ely where she worked at the Camp Widjiwagan Outdoor Learning Program before coming to work for the Voyageur Outward Bound School. Here at Outward Bound Megan loves getting to talk to families about all the opportunities they can have in the wilderness, and seeing how much students grow and change through experiential education. When she is not working you can find Megan out paddling in the summer, cross country skiing in the winter, and making lots of homemade pasta with friends and family. 

Bud came to VOBS, first as a student on an 8-day dogsled course. From that expedition, Bud recalls, “as we rounded the first corner on the frozen river a bald eagle flew overhead, our dog team trudged through the snow, and I instantly fell in love with the beauty of the Boundary Waters.” That was 2010 and Bud has been here ever since doing everything from instructing to training the dogs. Bud claims his colleagues as the most positive community of people to work with and his backyard/office as the most beautiful in the world. He has only taken a few hiatuses since he settled down in Minnesota. One was a four-month assignment working for Outward Bound in Hong Kong. The others have been to undertake expeditions on Manitoba’s Bloodvein River, Wabakimi Provincial Park in Ontario, and two dogsledding expeditions in Hudson Bay. In his little downtime Bud enjoys spending time with his daughter, disc golf, photography, mountain biking, ski-jouring, kite boarding, snowmobiling, canoeing, and anything else that keeps him outside and moving.

In addition to his service at VOBS, Dan has also worked for a variety of other organizations including a stint with the MN Fish and Wildlife; two years as a naturalist and teacher at the country’s first accredited Environmental Learning Center; director and co-founder of an expedition-based drug and alcohol prevention program for Native American teenagers in the inner-city; manager of an education program in rural Nepal for youth at-risk for human trafficking; and program leader for study abroad programs in India, the South Pacific, and East Africa. Whether it’s in the wilderness or overseas, when Dan is not at home in northern Minnesota with his wife and yellow lab, he still loves to travel and explore the world in whatever way he can.

His passion for outdoor adventure and the strong experiential education focus in his graduate career drew him to Voyageur Outward Bound School.

Jesse loves rock climbing, mountaineering and long, tough days on the water. He has been on a handful of high-altitude mountaineering expeditions and also spends some of his time teaching in the Leadership Minor at the U of M. The transformative powers of time spent outdoors, working within a team is what excites him most about Outward Bound!

For the past five years, Abby has been working with students at the Voyageur Outward Bound School paddling in the summers and mushing dogs in the winters. Working as an Outward Bound instructor and course director has been a wonderful outlet for Abby’s passions and values – living in the woods, getting others to laugh and smile, and leading through compassion and service to others.

Working as crew leader doing trail work at Minnesota Conservation Corps led to teaching environmental education at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, which introduced her to Voyageur Outward Bound School.

As much as Andrea is content to get to work in the wilderness, it has always been more about the people she gets to work with than solely about the outdoors alone. During the past seven years, Andrea has been enthusiastically working with students at the Voyageur Outward Bound School, striving to provide meaningful learning experiences that lead to personal growth and a huge sense of accomplishment.

You name a job at the school and Ledoux has done it. Currently, she is the Logistics Manager at our Ely basecamp.

Of her current post, Ledoux says, “It’s a perfect job for me; I get to create systems that make gear and food an easy part of packing for a course. I truly enjoy working with all of the instructors – they are loud, entertaining, and inspire me every day with their love for their students.” When she’s not fixing something, cleaning something, or organizing something in the Trips building, you can find Ledoux running a small carpentry business, learning to skate ski in the winter and spending her springs coaching The Bears, a local Little League baseball team. Go Bears!

In addition to his service at VOBS, Brian has also worked for a variety of other organizations including a wilderness therapy program, the Burgess and Hayward Outdoor Education in Cape Cod, Outward Bound Australia, and an emergency relief group in Haiti where he served as the Logistics Coordinator following the 2010 earthquake. When not at work Brian will most likely be found traveling the world, climbing mountains, exploring wild places and pushing himself to find adventure wherever he goes.

Rekindling his love for the fresh waters of Minnesota, Brad enjoys spending as much time as possible soaking in the scenery of the largest freshwater lake in the world (by surface area), Lake Superior. Brad recently completed his Masters of Environmental Education at the University of Minnesota Duluth and is excited to bring his passion for Minnesota's wild places back to the metro region as Staffing & Training Director for the Twin Cities Center. When not assisting staff in delivering world-class outdoor education programs, Brad can be found bike commuting, enjoying local foods, or floating local rivers on his stand-up paddle board. If the lakes are frozen, look out for him skiing local trails, winter camping, or seeking out adventures in the higher elevations of the Rockies.

He has three decades of experience in team building, especially outdoor leadership programs designed for at-risk youth, and over 15 of those years working with gang members on building character based on the principle of culture, leadership, experiential, authenticity, truth, and forgiveness. In addition, Sovatha created and founded the Killing Fields curriculum and simulation, a cultural simulation that teaches about the Cambodian-American refugee experience.  To date, over 2500 people have experienced this simulation. He loves to combine leadership initiative and diversity training into one package.  

He aspires to start a Character Leadership Academy boarding school for under-served and underachieved inner-city boys to provide them with the tools they need to succeed academically and prepare them to be responsible citizens.