Charles “Chuck” Luckmann, a native of Illinois, has lived in Washington State since 1983. During a forty-five-year career in education, he taught at nine schools in four countries, promoting experiential learning inside and outside the classroom. He served as executive editor for The Journal of Experiential Education for five years (1992-97) and taught in the English, History, and Ethnic Studies departments at Skagit Valley College for twenty-four years, retiring in 2021. In 2004, he cofounded Flying Trout Press. He lives in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and son.

Alistair McArthur, an Australian, came to COBWS in January 1978 as executive director at age thirty-seven. He started his outdoor education career in 1964 as an instructor at the Ullswater Outward Bound Mountain School in the UK. He worked as an instructor, senior instructor, chief instructor, and program director at various Outward- Bound schools. Alistair also did community development work for two and a half years with the Department of Native Affairs in Papua New Guinea. As base commander of a British Antarctic Survey Expedition for two years, he traveled over fifteen hundred miles by dogsled. Since the early 1990s, he has acted as an adviser and consultant to outdoor education programs based in Australia. Throughout his career he has worked and/or consulted with over fifty outdoor programs in the UK, USA, Canada, Asia, and Australia.

Wendy Pieh was born in Yellow Springs, Ohio. While teaching at the Minnesota Outward Bound School, she learned that compassion and consensus decision-making could lead to positive social and personal change. In 1976, Wendy joined her father, Bob Pieh, in cofounding the Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School. In 1988 she became the executive director of an Outward Bound School located in the High Kingdom of Lesotho, a country located within the Republic of South Africa. In 1990 Wendy joined her husband, Peter Goth, founder of Wilderness Medical Associates, in the small fishing village of Bremen, Maine. She served as a Representative in the Maine State Legislature for eight years and has been the Chair of the Board of Selectmen in Bremen for the last nineteen years.

Ian Yolles grew up in Toronto. In 1978 he started as an intern at COBWS. After overcoming his skepticism, he hung around until 1990, working as an assistant instructor, instructor, course director, and program director, serving the last five years as the school’s executive director. Along the way, he received a postgraduate research fellowship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, enabling him to work at most of the Outward-Bound schools around the world. After Outward Bound, he became interested in progressive businesses, leading him to work at the Body Shop, Patagonia, and Nike. He then co-founded Nau an innovative outdoor apparel company and served as the board chair at Nature Bridge. Today he lives with his wife, Irene, in Portland, Oregon, and still seeks inspiration in nature.