Base Camp: New York
Board Member since 2020

Chris grew up in Western New York and spent summers on a lake in Muskoka, Canada where she first discovered her lifelong love of travel. As the mother of three daughters (one a TTS alumna), she is deeply committed to empowering women and is a firm believer that travel fosters wisdom and compassion. Chris works as a small business attorney and a non-profit consultant with a focus on helping mission-driven organizations thrive.

Base Camp: Maryland
Board Member since 2021

Kim works for MITRE, a non-profit science and engineering company. Growing up in a Southern Californian beach town, she encountered beachgoers speaking many different languages. This piqued her curiosity, eventually resulting in her earning a Ph.D. in Linguistics from UCSD. In 1975, her family hosted a Vietnamese refugee family, while her best friend’s family were recent immigrants from Iran. Bouncing between the three households, she developed a deep appreciation for the complexity of identity and culture. These twin concepts, intertwined with language, continue to fascinate her. In 2014, Kim’s daughter Lena joined a TTS semester in South America which reignited her passion for science and gave her the self-confidence to earn degrees in Physics, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Science. Seeing the powerful impact of TTS, Kim is committed to enabling more young women to have this opportunity.

Base Camp: Colorado
Board Member since 2023
Alumna, Spring Semester, South America 2012 (TTS19)
Alumnae Council Member, 2018-2022

Helen is an environmental social scientist pursuing a PhD at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she earned her MS in Environmental Studies. Her research focuses on the intersections between human migration and environmental change, and her primary project is based in Bangladesh, where she is studying the relationships between mobility, gender, development, and climate change adaptation. Helen has worked in nonprofit and international development in Myanmar, Puerto Rico, and Washington, DC. She is an avid cyclist and races with a WTFNB (women/trans/femme/nonbinary) gravel cycling team. Originally from the rural mountains of Tennessee, Helen can trace her windy and wonderful path to her transformative TTS semester in South America.

Base Camp: Montana
Board Member since 2021

Meredith has been traveling internationally since high school and has ended up in a career that puts living and working overseas front and center, currently serving as the Project Director for a malaria prevention project based in West Africa. Outside of the US, Meredith has lived in France, Italy, Zambia, and Cambodia, and is relocating to Cote d’Ivoire for her next job with Population Services International, a health NGO. Through her travels to 45 different countries (and counting!), Meredith has developed a deep appreciation for what traveling and experiencing different cultures can bring to someone’s life and she brings this excitement for travel and cross-cultural engagement and learning to her role on the Board.  Meredith has a BA in Sociology from Emory University and a MA in International Economics and Development from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.  Besides traveling, Meredith loves to spend time with her husband and three kids hiking, biking, camping, swimming, or just generally enjoying nature.

Base Camp: Cape Town, South Africa
Board Member since 2024 

Base Camp: Seattle, Washington
Board Member since 2024

Ben Gardner is a Professor at the University of Washington, specializing in African Studies, environmental politics, and cultural studies. With over two decades of experience in academia, Ben brings a wealth of knowledge on the intersection of social justice, environmental sustainability, and global development. His research and teaching focus on how communities around the world are affected by and respond to global environmental and economic changes. He loves introducing students to new ways of looking at the world and has been recognized with the UW distinguished teaching and outstanding undergraduate mentor awards. 

Ben has been actively involved in several initiatives aimed at promoting more equitable forms of development and policy-making both in the United States and internationally. His leadership in these areas is underpinned by a deep commitment to reciprocity and transnational collaboration. Ben has developed and led community-service and study abroad programs for high school and college students for many years. He believes in the transformative power of place-based education and hands-on learning.

As a member of the TTS board of directors, Ben offers a strategic perspective grounded in an understanding of global systems, combined with a passion for creating impactful, community-driven solutions. His work aligns closely with the mission of TTS, ensuring that our efforts are both globally informed and locally relevant.

Base Camp: Kansas City
Board Member since 2022

Karen loves and has always been fascinated by the unique characteristics found in every culture and she loves to explore them via every person she meets.  She has been involved in philanthropy for over 25 years, and currently works at the Health Forward Foundation in Kansas City, whose mission is to “achieve health equity and secure a fair and just region through leadership, advocacy, and resources.”   Karen was a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal, West Africa in the early 2000s and that experience helped her recognize the power of submersing oneself in another culture and the personal growth one can achieve through the experience.  She believes her participation on the TTS Board is a perfect blending of her personal and professional experiences and she’s excited to serve the school in any way she can.  Karen has a bachelors in finance and economics with a minor in French.  She spends her free time with family and friends, coaching grade school basketball and enjoying exercise and the outdoors.

Base Camp: Oregon
Board Member since 2023
Alumna, Spring Semester, South America 2010 (TTS15)
Alumna, Fall Semester, Southern Africa 2011 (TTS18)

Cassy’s sense of adventure, love of traveling, and appreciation for experiential education came from her time with The Traveling School both as a student and a gap year intern. She studied Elementary Education and Psychology at Corban University and has held camp management, programming, and hospitality positions. She now works in career and technical education, focusing on strengthening and sustaining k-12 industry relationships in the Willamette Valley. She acts as a liaison between school districts, businesses, and workforce partners to create work-based learning opportunities that provide real-life on-the-job experiences for students. She’s committed to helping young people discover the opportunities available to them, while equipping them with the skills and confidence to succeed in those. She has a heart for non traditional approaches to education and is eager to serve The Traveling School in this capacity. In her free time, Cassy enjoys doing outdoor activities, eating food with people, doing anything creative, learning about home improvement and gardening, or planning her next adventure.

Base Camp: Seattle, Washington
Board Member since 2024
Alumna, Spring Semester, South America 2010 (TTS15)

Sydney is passionate about bringing world positive ideas to life – which she attributes to her semester at the Traveling School. Currently, she drives strategic partnerships for the Exemplars in Global Health program at Gates Ventures. Previously, she worked in management consulting at Bain & Company in New York City and Dubai where she supported clients across a variety of sectors including healthcare, tech, and private equity. Sydney is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.S. in Economics with concentrations in management and operations. Sydney has also earned a certificate in global health delivery from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Sydney is a citizen of the world, having lived in the USA, Germany, and China while growing up and has worked in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. She and her husband currently live in Seattle, Washington. Outside of work, Sydney enjoys spending time outdoors, exploring new places, hosting gatherings, and various culinary pursuits.

Base Camp: Durham, North Carolina
Board Member since 2024

Dan Hoffman is an experienced educator and adventurer with over seventeen years in traditional and experiential education. He has served as a humanities teacher, high school principal, and education nonprofit leader. He also has several years of experience leading wilderness and international adventure trips for teens, designing outdoor education curricula, and managing immersive travel programs both domestically and internationally. Dan’s passion for experiential learning stems from his early adventures, such as completing the final leg of the Appalachian Trail at age seven, the Sierra High Route, the Camino de Santiago, and biking tours across the Southwestern United States and Southeast Asia. As an educator and leader, he has always focused on building inclusive learning environments and implementing programs that supported social-emotional learning, service learning, and academic growth.

In his spare time, Dan loves sharing his passion for the outdoors with his two young children, teaching them to enjoy travel and wilderness adventures of their own. He is hopeful that someday his daughter Sienna, will benefit from a semester with The Traveling School.

Base Camp: New York
Board Member since 2022

Kyle’s sense of adventure was born in the backwoods of New England, where she roamed free with her brother and friends, imaginations running wild. Even while pursuing her first career as an actor and singer in Manhattan, she nourished her spirit with frequent trips into nature. In 2003, Kyle, her husband, Doug, and their two young daughters embarked on a seven-year circumnavigation on their small sailboat, Estrela. For over 30,000 nautical miles and in over 30 countries, the world was their homeschooling classroom. Top memories include backpacking in the Nam Ha forest in Laos, snorkeling in the uninhabited Chagos archipelago, and car camping for three months in Southern Africa. Their voyaging website is www.sailingestrela.com. The Hopkins dropped anchor in Buffalo in 2010 to join the faculty of Buffalo Seminary (SEM), an all-girls’ independent high school, where Kyle designed and taught a Health/Leadership program for freshmen through seniors. In 2021, Kyle retired from full-time teaching to launch Grow Gutsy Girls™, a workshop series based on her signature girl-empowerment curriculum.

Base Camp: Bozeman, Montana
Board Member since 2024

Susannah’s curiosity about people and relationships piqued early and she embarked on a career as a Clinical Counselor working with children and families in crisis. As Susannah engaged clients in discussions about their personal finances, empowerment blossomed. As a Financial Therapist today, she helps people understand the messages that they internalized about money as a child and how those messages impact their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors pertaining to money. Susannah has a BA in Economics from Smith College, an MBA from Pennsylvania State University, and an MA in Clinical Counseling from Immaculata University. Susannah was fortunate to experience a post graduate year following high school in England where she was amazed at how she learned about her home country through the curiosity and questions of her fellow British students. She is honored to support a program offering students the opportunity to explore their personal boundaries and selves within foreign countries.

Base Camp: North Carolina
Board Member since 2023

John discovered TTS while volunteering at a local high school, and couldn’t wait to tell the family at dinner that night. Next thing you know his daughter Anne is in TTS22 and John became a passionate supporter of TTS and everything it stands for. He is a recently retired IT professional and travels widely, having visited all continents except Antarctica. He’s also worked as a radio disc jockey, a newspaper editor and a piano technician — career movements that offer a different form of travel, if you will, and a commitment to lifelong learning. John grew up in the Hudson Valley area of New York and enjoys yoga, hiking and skiing.

Base Camp: New York City
Board Member since 2023
Alumna, Spring Semester, South America 2011 (TTS17)

Zoe was a Traveling School student in Central America. Her time with the TTS stoked an already-strong desire to travel and gave Zoe the confidence to do it alone. Throughout college and law school, Zoe took trips across the world at every break and enjoyed creating memories—from working on an oyster farm in Australia to becoming a scuba instructor in Honduras. Zoe has a B.A. from Rice University and J.D. from the University of Texas. She likes to spend her free time sailing, scuba diving, and exploring new places.