Karen Killebrew has 30 years experience in the retail travel industry, most recently as Director of Marketing for Bridge Travel Alliance in Emeryville, CA. She is a specialist in active vacations, and tries to incorporate hiking into all her personal travels. She is the Outreach Coordinator for the California Watchable Wildlife Project, with responsibility for website design & maintenance, educational forums for California Wildlife Festival Coordinators, and publicizing Watchable Wildlife’s sites in California. Karen serves as Secretary of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), and is a former Director of Partners in Responsible Tourism (PIRT) in the San Francisco Bay Area.
 

Tom Bergh has spent much of his life connecting outdoor adventurers with their environment. Growing up in the woods of New England instilled the importance of leaving lands in better shape than when one’s stewardship began. JD, Univ. of Denver, 1978. Private law practice until 1990 when he founded Maine Island Kayak Co on Peaks Island, Maine. Tom’s been involved with the Maine Island Trail Assn, Peaks Island Land Preserve, Oceanside Conservation Trust, and Headwaters Institute’s Maine Coast Natural History Symposium. Currently overseeing Maine Island Kayak Co’s Ocean School programming aimed at developing system wide thinking of our rapidly changing world using small boats in the Gulf of Maine field classroom.
 

Kevin has been an avid whitewater kayaker for over half his life, and has dedicated his career to protecting wild rivers and the wildness inherent in all rivers. He is currently American Whitewater's National Stewardship Director, and is based out of Moscow, Idaho. In this role, he advocates for river restoration in the trenches of dam relicensing negotiations, and seeks to lead the paddling community to be active and effective river advocates. Kevin has a B.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of North Carolina at Asheville and an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. His personal paddling experiences and academic background in stream restoration and ecology inspire his work on behalf of whitewater rivers and the boaters that enjoy them.
 

Mike DeHoff is the Southwest Program Director for Outward Bound Wilderness. In this position Mike oversees one of the larger river based outdoor/ experiential education river programs in the United States. Outward Bound runs long river courses of up to 50 days in length that cover a large variety of river scapes. These serve as a great avenue for introducing people to the magic of rivers and building their awareness for how to appreciate and take care of them.

Mike lives in Moab, Utah. Mike is always hunting for excuses to follow water down some canyon and have an adventure.
 

John Gangemi works as an environmental consultant focusing on the study of river systems including human interactions on and in the water. John has a broad educational and professional background in river science. He received a BA from Prescott College and an MS in river ecology from the University of Montana. John has extensive experience in the licensing of FERC hydropower projects including the studying the effects of river regulation on the distribution and abundance of aquatic organisms, water quality , channel shape and structure and recreation. John served as national conservation director for American Whitewater for 9 years running their hydropower licensing program. John has also been a fisheries biologist for the U.S. Forest Service and Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. John enjoys exploring the outdoors looking for adventures as a climber, kayaker, and nordic skier. He lives in northwest Montana.
 

Emily has a history of working with rivers, teaching environmental education and creating fine art. As a full-time artist these days, she continues to teach river education and special workshops through the Roaring Fork Conservancy and the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies. She leads outdoor education programs for schools in the valley and was a river guide and kayak instructor for many years.

Formerly the National Seminar Coordinator for the Headwaters Institute, Emily can add insight on many levels of HWI seminars as an advisor. She lives in the Roaring Fork Valley of central Colorado.
 

Sera launched her river career in a kayak, working out of both a trailer and a teepee alongside the Colorado and Gunnison rivers respectively. While working towards a BS Environmental Studies from The George Washington University, Sera rowed commercial passengers through the Grand Canyon, guided youth groups on the San Juan, and taught kayaking on the side. After three seasons of raft guiding, Sera became a BLM Wilderness/River Ranger in Grand Junction, CO, her hometown. Drawn back to DC, she spent the last three years in the BLM's National rivers and trails programs. An avid whitewater kayaker who paddles all types of boats on all types of water, Sera is an active member of the River Management Society and is now in Oregon pursuing a graduate degree from Oregon State University.
 

Mark is South African-born, Australia-raised, and California-schooled where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Recreation and Leisure as well as a Certificate in Wilderness Studies from California State University Long Beach in 1992.

After graduating college, he embarked on an eight-year career (1990-1998) as a river guide in California, Australia, Zimbabwe, Ecuador, and Colorado. For 3 years, he was General Manager on the Zambezi River, Zimbabwe, for Shearwater. In 1998 Mark and his partners formed Rapidpulse, an international event management company that has been responsible for all the logistics, operations, marketing, and management of the Camel Whitewater Challenge since its inception in 1995. He is currently responsible for the Whitewater Cup (U.S. National Rafting Championship), which act as the selections for the U.S. men and women rafting teams. He also manages the Clear Creek Adventure Festival in Golden, CO. He has a firm beleif that by promoting the sport of whitewater through festivals and events to communities and people outside the whitewater industry we can make a difference about watershed education and the importance of the environemnt.

Mark currently lives in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado, with his lovely wife. In his spare time he enjoys all that the Rockies have to offer in both summer and winter.
 

Katherine Luscher is the Director of River Network's Partnership Program, where she annually provides hundreds of locally-led watershed conservation groups with organizational development and conservation-specific consultation. Additionally, Katherine edits "River Voices", the national journal for river conservationists, coordinates the River Heroes Awards' Banquet and administers small grants to local watershed organizations.

She earned her Masters' degree from Western Washington University, where she focused on environmental policy; she received her Bachelors' degree in Political Science from the University of Oregon and holds an honorary Masters of the Obvious. She enjoys spending as much of her free time on rivers as possible: rafting, flyfishing and hiking. As a beginner kayaker, she also spends time swimming rapids, counting fish, and exploring river bottoms.
 

Olaf Malver is first and foremost an explorer. He has led numerous sea kayaking expeditions around the world as a guide, as an independent adventurer, and most recently with Explorer's Corner. Expeditions throughout Greenland, Southeast Asia, Antarctica, the Americas, Europe, and Africa make his travel resume both impressive and entertaining. Danish-born and fluent in multiple languages, he brings a worldly perspective and well-grounded pragmatism to all his endeavors. He has a PhD. from Tufts University in International Law and Diplomacy and is a fellow of the Explorer's Club.

Olaf brings a rich breadth and depth of work experience to Headwaters Institute. He has worked for the United Nations as an ecotourism development specialist and as the Executive Director of Business Development for Mountain Travel Sobek. He has specific experience with sales, marketing, budgeting, management, and product quality control and is a highly sought speaker within the adventure travel industry. He is brings important focus to quantifying the beneficial economic effect of seminars for tourism operators.

He lives in Berkeley, California where he is married and the father of a young Viking explorer - Erick.
 

Tim is the author of twelve books about rivers and the environment. He has been at the center of river conservation efforts for the past thirty years as an activist, planner, consultant, writer, and photographer. His slide shows have motivated conservationists and college students all over the country. Tim was granted the Lifetime Achievement Award by American Rivers in 1988 and the River Conservationist of the Year award by Perception in 1998. His books have won the Director's Award from the National Park Service in 1995, the National Outdoor Book Award in 1998, and the Independent Publishers Book of the Year Award in 1999.

An avid canoeist and rafter, Tim has traveled on more than 300 different rivers in North America, many of them with his wife, Ann.
 

Jeff was guiding on rivers before he could drive.

He continued to follow his passion for facilitating outdoor adventures and teaching about the natural world with organizations such as Outward Bound for nearly two decades, knowing that people come back from even the smallest adventures in the wilds transformed.

Jeff currently works as a Berkeley, CA based photographer - still striving to get people out adventuring. His work appears in National Geographic Adventure, the New York Times, Men's Journal, Outside, Sunset and many other publications. As a technologist, he focuses his work on where photography meets the Internet. One of his Internet based journalism projects had him recently photographing in Syria and Lebanon.
 

Frederick was raised at Keewaydin, a canoe-tripping camp established in 1893 and located on a island in Lake Temagami, smack dab in the middle of some of the world's finest canoe country. By the time he was 22 he'd been a member of five canoeing expeditions longer than 40 days.

He has paddled and guided all over North America, including stints in a raft in Wyoming, West Virginia, Utah, Colorado, Alaska and a few winters spent guiding sea kayak expeditions in Baja. Frederick has also instructed for the Colorado Outward Bound School and was involved in many of the first Headwaters Institute seminars.

He acquired a laptop computer in 1997, and stayed out of the water long enough for his articles to appear in The Jackson Hole News, Sports Illustrated, Outside, Skiing, Men's Journal and Paddler, where he eventually became the managing editor for three years and conned them into sending him to India, Peru and Tahiti on assignment. Today he is the Editor of Canoe & Kayak Magazine. Rico feels a deep connection to Yoda and The Force of moving water.
 

Steve Harris found his river roots on the Stanislaus River in the Sierra Nevada. He pioneered many southwestern desert and Mexican rivers with his river rafting company Far-Flung Adventures, operating on the Rio Grande, Chama, and Salt Rivers. He is a senior instructor for Swiftwater-Three, a water-based rescue training seminar for professional rescuers. Steve became a river activist with the campaign to save the Stanislaus and later inspired the creation of Rio Grande Restoration, an outfitter-led organization dedicated to the return of healthy water flows in the Rio Grande. He currently serves as their Executive Secretary. He is a proud father of two and lives in the village of Pilar, New Mexico alongside the Rio Grande.
 

Chip has guided on the Kern, Rogue, Middle Fork and Main Salmon rivers and taught river and land based courses for the National Outdoor Leadership School. He coordinated the Kern Watershed Forum, helped launch the first Annual White Salmon Symposium and is a long time friend of Headwaters Institute.

Chip loves moving water and enjoys simply messing around in all manner of boats including canoes, rafts, kayaks, drift boats, outrigger canoes, sweep boats and inner tubes. When he's not on the water, he can be found helping people connect their finances with their values at his financial planning firm New Outlook Financial.

Chip holds a Green MBA from New College of California and a BA in Sustainable Community Development from Prescott College.