ETC 2009

Executive Advisory Council

The Executive Advisory Council meets three times a year, including an extended mid-year planning meeting each spring.

Members and Biographies

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Karen Anthony is the Director of Alumni Travel at the University of Notre Dame Alumni Association. She has been with the Association for 23 years and took over the responsibility for the alumni travel program in 1985. Since that time, she has traveled extensively and been involved with ETC for many years spending the last four years as a member of the ETC Advisory Committee. Karen was presented the prestigious honorary alumna award by the Alumni Board of Directors in 1998 and received the Notre Dame President's Award for outstanding service in May 2000. Karen and her husband, Tony, have three children and eight grandchildren. (www.alumni.nd.edu/travel)

Bobbi Collins is the Director of Membership and Business Operations at the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association. She has been with the Association for almost ten years and is responsible for most revenue-generating programs for the Association; including the travel program, affinity programs, membership and events. She also works with the other four federal service academies to run a joint travel program called Joint Academy Travel, which allows all service academy alumni to travel together. Her love of travel began as a Navy wife, while living overseas with her husband and has led to a lifelong love of exploration. She and her husband, Mike, live in Annapolis, Maryland with their two children. (www.usna.com)

Roberta "Bert" DeVries has been the travel planner for the Philadelphia Zoo for the past 14 years and its program and trips manager for the past 6 years. She is credited with initiating the Zoo's travel partnership program with other institutions. She is responsible for offering 15 - 20 trips a year to Zoo members that she plans both "in house" as well as with the help of tour operators. Her annual attendance at the Educational Travel Conference (ETC) for the past eleven years has been critical to the Zoo's travel program success. Bert also began and continues to run a travel program for the international Association of Zoo and Aquarium Docents (AZAD). Bert is a graduate of Cornell University where she majored in Child Development and Family Relationships. She currently serves on the ETC Advisory Council representing the interests of the Nature/Aquariums/Conservation and Zoos (NACZ) group. (http://www.philadelphiazoo.org)

Rodrigo Esponda has been working as a tourism official for the Mexican government for the last seven years. First, at the National Trust Fund for Tourism Development (FONATUR) in Mexico City, and later at the Mexico Tourism Board in New York City. In 2002 he was promoted as Deputy Director for the US Northeast Region. Rodrigo graduated with a Degree in Architecture from the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and holds a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from Columbia University. (www.visitmexico.com)

Susan Goodale has worked for the UCSB Alumni Association for 19 years. For the past seven of these years, her diverse responsibilities as Programs Director have included management of the Association's alumni travel program. Under her term she has successfully implemented marketing, tour content, and passenger management and relations changes to UCSB's alumni travel program resulting in 150% more travelers and fiscal changes from red to black. In addition to the Gaucho Getaways Travel Program, Susan also provides oversight for the UCSB Alumni Association's regional alumni programs/constituent groups, advocacy efforts, alumni career services, student alumni association and student awards/scholarships. She received her BA in communication studies and in sociology from UCSB. (www.ucsbalum.com)

Janet Moore is President of Distant Horizons which, in an attempt to combine her love of travel with a real job, she began 19 years ago. With a graduate degree in business from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Janet has traveled extensively and is particularly interested in the challenge of opening up new destinations to travelers with sensitivity and respect to the host country. Over the years, Janet has been amongst the first to initiate cultural programs for Americans to Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Lebanon, Tuva, Iran, Ethiopia, Cuba, the Caucasus and Namibia. She is currently working on a program to Libya. For the last several years she has been voted as part of the "A-LIST Travel Operators" by Travel and Leisure Magazine. (www.distant-horizons.com)

Jessica O'Keefe is Sales Director for EgyptAir the national carrier of Egypt. Previously she worked with SwissAir and Royal Air Maroc and has spent 25 years is sales and marketing. She has traveled extensively and concentrates on educational and special interest travel planning. (www.egyptair_com.eg)

Joe Small is the President of AHI International Corporation, which operates three well-known brands: Alumni Holidays, Alumni Campus Abroad and AHI Discovery Abroad. He has worked for AHI for more than 25 years and served in a variety of capacities, including Travel Director, Operations, Promotion, Marketing and Sales. Joseph served as founding President of the popular Alumni Campus Abroad division. He is a graduate of Columbia College and has received a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois. (www.ahitravel.com)

New Members Joining the ETC Executive Advisory Council at ETC 2008:

Lynn Cutter is the Senior Vice President, Travel, for National Geographic Society, with overall responsibility for the society's travel businesses. Lynn has twenty five years of general management experience, with a focus on strategic marketing, business development and direct marketing in travel and media companies. Lynn joined National Geographic in 1998 after operating her own consulting practice specializing in new business launches in travel and on the internet to clients. Prior to establishing her consulting practice, Lynn held senior positions in marketing and strategic planning at Bell Atlantic Video Services/Tele-TV, The Disney Channel and Citicorp, and also served as Vice President of Marketing for Special Expeditions (now Lindblad Expeditions). Lynn received her bachelors degrees in Marketing and Journalism from Lehigh University, and a MBA from Harvard University. She lives in Chevy Chase, MD with her husband, Dave Compton, and their two sons, Matthew and Zack. (www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com)

Roberta Moore has been working in higher education for nearly eighteen years. Her career began at Penn State University in college student personnel followed by continuing education then she directed alumni education programming for the largest alumni association in the country. Her experiences include youth leadership, academic and sport camps, Elderhostel, summer study abroad, campus events, certification courses, and conferences. In September 2001 she joined Alumni Relations at Dartmouth as Director of Alumni Continuing Education & Travel where she is responsible for a wide range of educational outreach events ranging from regional and international travel experiences to regional club affiliate seminars to a week-long Alumni College. She holds a B.A. from Millersville University and an M.F.A in Photography from Penn State. (www.alumni.dartmouth.edu/conted)

Clark Oldroyd has been involved with alumni travel since 1988 when he was the Travel Director for the University of Colorado Alumni Association. At the time, travel was one of several alumni programs he managed as well as maintaining some supervisory responsibilities. Beginning in 1997 he oversaw the expansion of the travel program with the hiring of an additional staff person to assume chief responsibilities for the daily operation of the program and efforts to increase traveler participation. The program has increased from 15 to 40 trips per year. Clark has attended Educational Travel Conferences for many of the last 15 years. He began attending as the person with direct responsibility for alumni travel and has stayed involved as a way to stay informed of travel trends and to support the Association's travel program. (http://www.colorado.edu)

Michael Sanders is the President and Founder of Environmental Adventure Company. He has worked as a wildlife biologist for Yellowstone, Great Smoky Mountains, Everglades, and Grand Canyon National Parks, and has become a foremost authority on human/mountain lion interactions. His work has brought him local, national, and international recognition. He has led trips throughout the Northern Hemisphere including whales in Baja, polar bears in Manitoba, and the aurora borealis at the Arctic Circle. In addition, Michael has achieved an expertise in photography, being published in numerous magazines and newspapers nationwide. His special interest in photography and group dynamics, coupled with his Masters degree in natural resource management provides an outstanding foundation for his guide experience and adventure travel. Michael and his wife live in the mountains outside Livingston, Montana. (http://www.eactours.com)

Judith Wineland graduated from Colorado State University in 1972 after spending her college summers playing guitar and singing in Vietnam, Korea, Guam, the Philippines and Japan. This window into traveling to exotic destinations whetted her appetite to explore new destinations. In 1978, at the age of 28 she invested $300, rented a converted bathroom in Harvard Square and incorporated Overseas Adventure Travel. Although she offered treks to Nepal and rafting in Peru, her passion was Tanzania. She and Rick Thomson incorporated: Thomson Safaris in Tanzania. Today, Judi continues to be very connected and committed to this East African country and developing family travel to adventurous destinations. (http://www.thomsonsafaris.com)

If your destination is interested in hosting the mid-year spring 2009 Executive Advisory Council meeting, please contact us as early as possible at mail to: partner@travelearning.com.