Facilitators

Meet the people who facilitate our programs around the world.

Kirsten Joe

Kirsten is a recent university graduate who spent the past four years of her student life in beautiful Montreal, Canada. Her spirit of adventure and her drive for professional and personal development has led her to become a Contract Facilitator with the JUMP! Foundation. The next chapter of her life will take her on many new new and exciting travels in the Far East, where she will pursue her studies of the Mandarin language, meet many new people, and hopefully achieve a Zen-like state of mind in an Indian ashram before returning back to Canada.

Titus Kuria

Titus is one of the founding leaders of CMETrust, an organization working to advance education by providing secondary school scholarships to students in Nairobi. He grew up in the Mathare Valley and has a good understanding of what life is like in the slum. Titus, popularly known as Tito, believes that to say life in Mathare is challenging is an understatement. It’s these barriers that he endeavors to alleviate through his contribution and participation in CMETrust and other initiatives so that the upcoming generations could have an easier access to a better future.

Liz Heller

Originally from North Carolina, Liz received her BA in Chinese Language and Literature with a minor in Sociology from George Washington University in Washington, DC. She spent her semesters interning at several child-advocacy non-profit organizations and her summers outdoors in the north Georgia mountains as a camp counselor and supervisor. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in International Development and International Economics at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Katie Proudman

When Katie isn’t JUMPing all over Southeast Asia, she is the Program Director for Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures (CMRCA) in Northern Thailand. Originally from West Virginia, Katie is an outdoor enthusiast with a strong background in community outreach and program development. At CMRCA, she overseas marketing, sales of all CMRCA outdoor adventure, experiential education, and corporate team building programs. Prior to CMRCA, Katie was the Coordinator of Community Relations at Major League Soccer in New York City.

Alyson Chun

Born and raised in Michigan, Alyson has a strong background in Middle Eastern Studies, and is proficient in Modern Standard Arabic. Alyson completed her B.A. in International and Area Studies at Kalamazoo College and received her M.A. in International Development at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. For many years, Alyson co-coordinated an after-school program focused on creative expression at Kalamazoo Central High School. Alyson continues to focus on the role of youth in the development process.

Christian Ruiz

Christian is Puerto Rican from the Bronx, NY. He worked alongside Global Potential’s Director of Operations to help launch the organization’s media program in the past to help youth create documentary films. Christian now is a full time JUMP! program facilitator and social media guru. Kris is also a percussionist, and on any given Sunday (around 2-6), you can catch him playing with a djembe drum circle in Houhai Lake in Beijing. He enjoys laughing, dancing, socializing, singing, cycling, and exploring.

Skott Taylor

Skott was born in Canada. He studied and worked as a professional actor before moving overseas in 2003. Upon arriving in Beijing, Skott founded NewSeed Theatre which, at the time, was the city’s only English-speaking contemporary theatre company. It was here that Skott moved behind the scenes and into the producer and director chairs. Between 2006 to 2010, Skott left China to pursue a music career in London, UK before heading back to Canada to continue his studies at Concordia University in Montreal.

James Fleming

James grew up in Minnesota, USA. With a love for the outdoors, he has spent years working with youth and leading backpacking trips through the Minnesota Boundary Waters in the Mesabi Range, Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range in Colorado, as well as in the staggering Tian Shan Mountains in China. A recent graduate of American University in Washington D.C., James earned a degree in International Relations, International Communication, and Chinese language, while also competing as a D1 athlete in the Patriot League.

Wiebke Nedel

Originally from Germany, Wiebke lives in South Africa. She works as a freelance facilitator worldwide devoting her work and life to personal development and leadership in a global context. As International Programme Manager of Educo Africa she runs wilderness and community based Social Justice and conscious global citizenship courses for groups of academics, professionals and young people from all over the world. Experiential methodology and the use of wilderness as a tool for growth and self-recognition are central in her work.

Claire Bennet

Claire graduated from Cambridge with a first-class degree MA degree, and since then has devoted her life to international development and global issues. She was a founder member and the country director of a non-profit working in remote regions of Nepal (PHASE Nepal ) the country she now calls home. She also worked for several years as an adviser to an organization in rural Cambodia. In her native UK She was the UK coordinator of youth organization Development in Action, worked with Think Global supporting disadvantaged youth to take action on global issues.

Rebekka Flam

Born in Finland and raised in sunny Florida, Rebekka developed a love for travel at a young age. In high school, she embarked on her first solo journey in Taiwan. Since then, she spent a semester in Italy, worked summers in Finland, and volunteered as an environmental educator in Nepal. In 2015, Rebekka graduated from Florida State University with a B.S. in International Affairs and Environmental Studies. Her international experiences and her job at the FSU Center for Global Engagement sparked her interest in experiential education.

Simon Sandoval

Simon grew up in the Philippines to a German mother and Filipino father. Early on he took to running and hiking. After he got his degree in London, he moved back to the Philippines to work in the software industry. Since 2010, he has moved on to be an independent financial adviser which allows him to work from any place with a decent internet connection. While at university, he fell in love with rock climbing and has been an active climber and climbing instructor. In the last five years, Simon has also gotten into running ultra marathons in the mountains and paragliding.

Pallavi Pinakin

Nick Gredin

Nick was raised in rural Maine, where he gained a deep love for nature and local communities. During college he spent a semester in Nepal, and his heart has remained there ever since. After receiving his master’s degree in Religious Studies at Naropa University and working with the Nepali community in Colorado, Nick returned to Nepal and as a teacher and medical relief worker for Helping Hands Health Education. He aspires to continue his work there and make integrative, sustainable contributions to Nepal’s development.

Serafina Tane

Serafina was born and raised in a religious cult in Aotearoa, New Zealand until the age of 17. When the cult fell apart she set off on a journey across continents to discover life in the real world. Her daily life is dedicated to helping create a world where every person is empowered to own their freedom and to be who they choose to be. A world that embraces all of humanity as one community, with the same access and opportunity for everyone, everywhere. She loves to connect, listen, learn, share and co-inspire with people from all cultures, backgrounds and ages.

Tanya Dodgen

Originally from the USA, Tanya has spent the past several years living in Australia and working at the University of Queensland Global Change Institute where she coordinates online courses. Her role often branches out to allow her to explore the many ways to communicate science: from creating videos and facilitating workshops with school groups, to doing background research for policy documents. In her spare time, she likes to play frisbee, read, hike and volunteer for science projects, like the Flinder’s Reef Ecological Assessment.

Kim Casipe

Kim grew up as an advocate and a lover of life. She recently graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology in the Philippines. As a biologist, she has always seen the gap between scientists and people from local communities when it comes to scientific information being translated to address environmental and socio-economic dilemmas leading to her passion for environmental education with emphasis on interconnectivity and ecological understanding. She is an alumni of Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) academic fellowship.

Sulistyo Winarno

Sulistyo grew up in Yogyakarta. He earned his degree in English from a Catholic university in his hometown. Sulistyo’s love in character building, combined with passion in adventures, led him to outdoor activities. He came to JUMP! in September 2016, with years of experience in a variety of facilitation programs, from educational urban tours to wilderness expedition trips in Indonesia, Malaysia and USA. Sulistyo now works for JUMP! running programs on character development and environmental awareness.

Zaki Satya Rosadi

Zaki is an experiential learning facilitator who specializes in cross-cultural understanding, service learning, and outdoor expedition. He guides students to experience and learn positive values from cultures other than their own, and in doing so helps students realize how they can bring about positive change in their community. Prior to working in experiential learning, Zaki taught cross-cultural understanding. In this capacity, he also served as treasurer for five years and organized community service programs in four villages around Yogyakarta for two years.

Katharina Kirk

Katharina was born in Moldova, grew up in Germany, lived in the USA for 6 years and has spent the last 7 years around Thailand and Malaysia. She loves to discover new places, learn about the culture there, and try new delicious foods. After Kat graduated from Utah Valley University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science, she returned to Thailand and started implementing movement and experiential learning in her English Teaching Classes. Kat has worked as a corporate employee trainer, a Fitness Boot Camp and Zumba Instructor.

Vanessa Nsouli

Growing up in South America, Vanessa dreamed of traveling the world to explore new cultures. Her first big move was to Canada. Vanessa is now pursuing an MBA at IE-Madrid with a focus on social impact. During this time of self-reflection, she also understood firsthand the value of learning by experience. She hopes that youth across the globe can have access to similar developmental opportunities/experiences. This is why she finds JUMP!’s work so inspiring and sees how impactful JUMP! can be in developing the region.

Rick Dobbie

Rick is an ex-Australian Army Officer with extensive leadership training and facilitation experience. Military appointments included command of a Leopard Tank Squadron and he was the inaugural Director of the Australian Defence Force Peacekeeping Centre. Rick has held a variety of specific training appointments that included responsibility for the personal development and leadership training of naval and military officers within the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and for regional defence forces as instructor and guidance officer.

Wessel van Lith

Wessel grew up in a small village in the south of the Netherlands. Never really satisfied with the area he was living in, he used to take trips to bigger cities in Europe as a teen and as soon as he graduated high school flew to Italy. Almost inevitably, the next step was flying to Bangkok in 2014 to start training Thai boxing. After training he traveled around Asia, experiencing different cultures. One of his highlights with the JUMP! Foundation was visiting an organic farm and witnessing students getting excited about food and its origins.

Lu Yi

Lu Yi was born and raised in Hunan, a province in Southern China. He participated in some charity associations in college and did an internship at a Cooperate Social Responsibility (CSR) enterprise. His passion in public welfare had led him to join Teach for China as a voluntary teacher once he had graduated from Sun Yat-sen University with a Bachelor’s Degree in 2011. After two years in an mountainous elementary school as “Mr. Lu”, he stayed for another year in Teach for China as a program manager, whose priority is to train and support teaching fellows.

Emily He

Unwilling to settle anywhere since leaving her hometown of Brookline, Massachusetts, Emily can be found in a rural village in Beijing, on the mountains of Turkey, in a desert of Morocco and on the beaches of Malaysia. When she is not eating and fleeting her way through the world, Emily is co-running JUMP’s development project and educational NGO called Project Gegejiejie, a volunteer mentorship program for children of migrant workers. In 2011, she graduated from NYU with a degree in Community Education and Empowerment.

Holly Geddert

Holly grew up in a rural community in British Columbia, Canada where her love of the outdoors grew into a lifestyle. She started working in experiential education programs at Educo Canada, as a Senior Staff and eventually as a board member. Witnessing transformational moments with youth inspired her to receive a degree in Child and Youth Care Counselling. More recently, Holly has worked in the Vancouver school boards community schools team, focusing on providing vulnerable populations opportunities to connect with their community.

Anna Li

Growing up in China, Anna Li spent most of her time pursuing academic excellence and exploring her interests. Her favorite part of Chinese culture is calligraphy, for it requires great persistence and patience to master. Anna studies chemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. She is also interested in other subjects, such as computer science and drawing. For Anna, drawing provides a powerful way to express her feelings. After successfully completing her first year of college, Anna returned to Beijing and officially became a JUMP! facilitator.

Brian Houle

Originally from North Dakota, Brian received his B.S. degree in Anthropology and Geoscience from Minnesota State University Moorhead. Brian worked as an archaeologist throughout the Western United States. Following a stint abroad in New Zealand, he fell in love with climbing and decided to follow his passion, leave archaeology, and join the Mountain Training School in southern Chile. At MTS, Brian studied wilderness navigation, glacier mountaineering, alpine skiing, and rock climbing throughout Patagonia, Alaska and Spain.

d’Arcy Lunn

d’Arcy Lunn is from Australia. He is a global citizen educator, communications expert and keynote presenter who is passionate about teaching, sharing, volunteering, travel and learning. For the past 16 years his passions have taken him to more than 85 countries around the world – including Kyrgyzstan, Arctic Canada and throughout Africa working with UNICEF and others. Since 2009, d’Arcy has delivered a mix of information and inspiration in over 700 presentations and workshops to a blend of audiences from schools, universities and hospitals.

Jillian Hamby

Jillian grew up in Maryland, USA, and spent her childhood traveling to soccer tournaments and playing outdoors with her 3 siblings. During college, she spent a semester in Florence. Her experience sparked a fascination with living abroad. Upon graduation, relentless to settle for a 9-5, she decided to move to Prague where she earned a TEFL degree. After more traveling and networking, she was led to a teaching job in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Chiang Mai has been her home now for over 4 years. Hiking, camping and eating are some of her favorite things to do in SE Asia.

Frank Cohn

Originally from Canada, Frank has worked with youth and community groups in over 100 rural villages and urban neighborhoods in almost 20 countries in Latin America and Asia. He is the founder of Global Potential, a youth leadership organization with 120 volunteers operating out of offices in 3 cities. Since 2007, Global Potential has provided over 2500 youth in New York, Boston, Paris, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua, with transformative life experiences through travel, cultural exchange, service learning, and experiential education.

Steffen Lohrmann

Steffen Lohrmann is the Manager of Partnership Development for South East Asia. He is responsible for developing new partnerships with international schools, universities, and corporate organizations interested in experiential education. Steffen has been with JUMP! since March 2013, and is involved in many facets of the organization including program development, facilitation, strategy, and hiring. Steffen grew up all over the world and became interested in youth development after realizing the business and hospitality world were not for him.

Lena Papadopoulos

Lena is a first generation Greek-American, born and raised in South Carolina. Her heart, however, belongs to her true home in the small seaside village of Perni, Greece, where she has spent most of her summers with her immediate and extended family. Lena received her B.A. in Sociology and Psychology from Clemson University, before completing a M.A. from the University of Colorado in Cultural Anthropology and International Development, with a focus on religious nationalism, invented historical narratives, and conflict in Greece and Turkey.

Dan Kinzer

Dan came to JUMP! after several years of working as an international school educator in the Caribbean and East Asia, where he taught Theory of Knowledge, IB Psychology, Humanities and History; was the faculty advisor for the Global Issues Network student groups; and coached several varsity basketball and volleyball teams. Dan has also spent time in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Suriname, Peru, and the Philippines, working to empower youth. Before joining the international school scene, Dan taught in a large public high school in northwest Florida.

Aveleigh Gateman

Aveleigh was braised in the quaint rural setting of southwestern Ontario, Canada. In a high school surrounded by cornfields, she devoured all of the global issues and art classes she could and her passions for positive social change was ignited. She’s been traveling her own unpredictable path ever since. Aveleigh has a degree in International Development and Globalization from the University of Ottawa, as well as an MSc. in Arts & NGO management in France. She has spent the last 7 years turning into an expat – traveling throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.

Mei Lum

Raised in New York, Mei Lum spent most of her childhood in the back kitchen of her grandparents’ Chinatown antique shop. Through her grandfather’s teachings of Chinese poetry, Mei became inspired to pursue her studies in Chinese language and culture as well as her passion for education and community development. After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 2012 with a B.A. in East Asian Studies, Mei flew to the small quaint town of Phang-nga in southern Thailand and started her first year as a Princeton in Asia (PiA) Fellow.

Tim Foley

Tim Foley graduated from American University in 2012 with a B.A. in International Relations and a minor in Chinese. He’s been trying to make his way back to China since he spent a semester in Beijing in 2010. Tim could not be happier to have found a job that involves hiking, working with youth, and traveling throughout China and the world! Tim has been known to drop everything and go camping, setting out on his bike with his hammock when the weather is nice. His ultimate goal for living in China is to fully develop his Beijing taxi-driver accent and his favorite Chinese word is “WA zi” (socks!).

Jacqueline Aldrovandi

Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Jacqueline is living the dream trying to find a balance between her love for working with youth and her passion for international development. Jacqueline was a full-time member of the JUMP! team in Beijing from 2011-2014, acting as a Partnership Manager, China Program Director, and most recently as the Global Program Director. Before moving to China, she spent eight years working at a summer camp for girls and volunteering in Thailand at a children’s home. Jacqueline has also worked as an intern at Free The Children in Toronto.

Megan Preston

Megan is from London, UK. She has facilitated 7 previous YPO Board of Directors Meetings and is looking forward to joining the JUMP! Team again for another adventure. Megan is the Founder of Move The World, a charity focused on supporting personal and community development in the UK and Ghana and works for her father’s consulting business RISE Beyond.

Wang Chen

Chen hold a master’s degree in social work. She is registered with social worker associations in Hong Kong and Singapore. She loves working with youth.

Bozy Lu

Bozy hails from Singapore. She is currently a 3rd year law student at Yale-NUS College. A novice at improvisational theatre, Bozy finds pleasure in listening to stories and using humour to connect with people around her. She is extremely passionate about experiential education and have engaged in community work with youth for many years. During her free time, she roams around on her bike and with her camera. She enjoys capturing moments and snapshots of life.

Anna Roesler

Anna comes from Australia. She studied nutrition dietetics and exercise science at the University of Wollongong. Anna went to Nepal as an Australian Youth Ambassador for a year and enjoyed trekking and biking. She worked in health education throughout Southeast Asia. Anna is in Thailand now completing a PhD in health behavior change. In her free time, she likes doing laughter yoga, ultimate frisbee and hula hooping dance. She also started facilitating TeamUp mindfulness groups.

Prashant Sharma

Prashant is an outdoor educator from Darjeeling, a mountainous region in India. He started rock climbing when he was14. Prashant had climbed several mountains in the Himalayas. He loves to travel, beach, coffee and motorbikes. He has a degree in humanities.

Lawrence Smaller

Lawrence was raised in England. He loves sailing, kitesurfing and surfing. Lawrence worked as a harbour patrol officer rescuing water users, as well as wildlife. He has a business degree, and has a passion for meeting new people and sharing adventures.

Elise Tong

Elise is from Kuala Lumpur. She enjoys catching up on the newest films and television series, reading, travelling around the world, and meeting new people. Elise has spent a gap year visiting Cambodia, New Zealand and France. She also has gone from working at an NGO, obtaining her ski instructorship certification, and getting a diploma for Basic Cuisine and Patisserie in Le Cordon Bleu.

Andreas Patria Krisna

Andreas is inspired with the work and the impact of JUMP! to youth, and joined in Jogjakarta in 2016 and Bintan in 2017. In the past, he volunteered teaching English for garment workers. Andreas handled corporate and outdoor training programs in Indonesia. He led expedition teams to the peak of Mt Carstensz in West Papua. Andreas is a certified Wilderness First Responder. He has a degree in theology and philosophy. Andreas loves yoga, digital art, photography, writing and watching movie.

Felipe Izquierdo

Pheerawitch Munsawang

Pheerawitch is from Chiang Mai, Thailand. He works as manager and facilitator at Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures.

Tina Zhao

Tina has worked in outdoor education industry for 5years,she is very passionated in working on experiential education trips with kids.She has worked in many different programs with different company .She is climbing instructor and certificated PSIA ski instructor , Wilderness First Responder and PADI diving rescuer.

Jackie Dodd

Jackie is an experiential educator and nature lover who has worked to foster communication and conservation in countries including the Philippines, Cambodia, and Indonesia, mostly with coastal communities, and often underwater. She also loves using the arts, especially singing and dancing, to open people up and bring them together. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA double major in anthropology and dance and is a scuba instructor.

Ge Qin

Ge Qin is from Yinchuan, Ningxia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Management. She previously worked as a director with Hunan TV and CCTV. Ge Qin loves to travel. She went in Prague for an exchange program, and travelled across Europe.