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Our Team

Guest Lecturers

Bradshaw Mountains
Brandon Wong
Brandon Wong
Brandon lives for community and creating the opposite of loneliness. For the past two years, he’s traveled around the country and worked at different summer camps like Calleva, Gakko Project and Seeds of Peace—including a pilot of his own camp program for recent high school graduates. He previously worked at Pana, a travel technology startup in Denver, CO, as employee #6 and head of customer success as they grew to their first million in revenue.
Pooja Singhi
Pooja Singhi
Pooja is a strategy consultant with Dalberg Advisors supporting organizations to advance racial and social justice, equity, and economic mobility. Previously, while studying at Dartmouth College, she helped elementary school students learn about food systems and nutrition with the farm-to-school program Growing Change. Pooja is excited to bring her passion for building community, designing learning experiences, and making and sharing food to A Place Beyond.
Bryanah Wilkins
Bryanah Wilkins
Bryanah finds passion in mentorship, advising, and facilitating. Bryanah has had the opportunity to work as a sexuality educator, academic advisor and youth group worker which helped build her character and left her wanting her to build a career in higher education. At A Place Beyond, she's excited for the opportunity to become a part of an organization that is transforming higher education. With a little bit of curiosity, she believes that one’s ability to learn new things are endless.
Alec DeYoe
Alec DeYoe
Alec is an experienced educator in the outdoor classroom. Following his graduation of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Alec has spent the past 6 years instructing for NYC Outward Bound, the Wilderness School of Connecticut, and Project U.S.E. of New Jersey. He has a passion for meeting new people, experiencing and learning about different cultures, and sharing the natural world with others.
Carmen Acuna
Carmen Acuna
Carmen grew up in Costa Rica, and moved to the US in 2007, completing a BFA in Sculpture and Graphic Design at Purchase College. While in college, she began coaching climbing which became her bridge to the outdoors. She led outdoor expeditions for 5 years at NYC Outward Bound Schools, North Carolina Outward Bound and the Wilderness School, CT. Carmen loves engaging students in high impact activities, empowering growth for their character and communities.
Julia Pinney
Julia Pinney
Julia Pinney is a recent graduate of Georgetown University. Julia finished writing her 80-page senior thesis on masculinity while distance learning from home. She has been spending the spring and summer designing curriculum and serving as a teaching assistant for a course about Title IX and campus culture surrounding sexual respect. She spent a summer as a counselor at Four Winds Westward Ho in Orcas Island, WA teaching cooking and gardening classes, and ensuring the campers in her care were happy and safe.
Hanna Bourne
Hanna Bourne
While Hanna grew up swimming along the San Diego coastlines, it wasn’t until her college years that she found a calling for the outdoors. With a one-way ticket to Santiago, Chile, Hanna began a 6 month long solo adventure in South America. After spending the maximum amount of time her visa permitted in Bolivia, Hanna was compelled to continue her academics at UC Berkeley. After graduation, Hanna went on to work as a backpacking guide in the High Sierras, a lead instructor for Outward Bound California. In her off time, Hanna can be found climbing, knitting, and looking at pictures of adoptable dogs on the internet.
Front Range
Micah Leslie
Micah Leslie
Micah has spent the last several years exploring his creative passions in New York and Los Angeles through stand up comedy and television writing. Prior to that, he was fortunate to lead outdoor trips in some of the most beautiful areas the country has to offer, from the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire, to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, to the Alaskan wilderness. Micah comes to A Place Beyond excited to share his passions of the outdoors, creativity and community with our students.
Tara Chapmon
Tara Chapmon
Tara is a military veteran and US Naval Academy graduate who left the service to pursue a career sharing the transformative and healing power of the outdoors with others. Most recently she has been facilitating wilderness and rock climbing trips in the Sierra Nevada and Joshua Tree with Outward Bound. Tara is excited to live in community at A Place Beyond and share her love of the outdoors. You will always find her willing to chat over a cup of tea or head into the mountains for an adventure.
Gianina Yumul
Gianina Yumul
Gianina is interested in building intentional, productive, and beautiful communities and increasing equity within higher education. She holds a master's degree in education and previously taught high school Algebra and Statistics to students in Oakland, California. Gianina is currently on leave of absence from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she is a Presidential Scholar studying urban planning with a focus on affordable housing.
Rachel Liu
Rachel Liu
Rachel has worked as a science educator in Thailand and Wyoming. Having studied biology at UC Santa Barbara, she finds delight and wonder in the natural world and is frequently found birding or botanizing. You may also spot Rachel dancing or hanging out on an aerial silk.
Jules Becerra
Jules Becerra
Jules spent her last four years as an Outward Bound Instructor, leading 3 to 20-day trips in places ranging from the Everglades to upstate New York, and is very happy to be back in the wilderness setting. With a degree in English from Harvard University, Jules has a continued interest in writing fiction, poetry, and comedy, as well as trying really hard to play the mandolin. Most recently she has served as a Strategy Consultant for Crimson Education, mentoring students on their path to college.
Mark Arenas
Mark Arenas
Mark is a recent college graduate from UC Santa Cruz where he facilitated workshops for students focused on social justice, environmental education, and leadership. He is passionate about equitable and inquiry-based learning, empowering others, and building inclusive spaces. Mark is excited to encourage a sense of place, reflection, and to grow with students and teammates at APB.
Admin
Ciarán Willis
Ciarán Willis
Ciarán is the founder and lead instructor of A Place Beyond. Over the years, Ciarán has learned a lot from his students and colleagues: he was the Head of Boys Camp at Four Winds Westward Ho camp; he lectured English at the University of Finance and Economics in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and he instructed and developed curriculum for NOLS.
Grace Gorant
Grace Gorant
Grace is on a leave of absence at Barnard College in New York City, where she studies environmental anthropology. She has worked for four years as an overnight staff member and assistant village leader at YMCA Camp Mason in New Jersey and most recently served Teton Science Schools through their Americorps Field Education program.
Noah Elbot
Noah Elbot
Before APB, Noah worked as a senior strategy consultant with Dalberg Global Advisors focusing on social impact projects. He previously worked at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, Bain & Co. in Beijing, and green energy finance programs in Mongolia and Myanmar. He was Director of Whitewater Sports at the BSA's Wyoming High Adventure Outpost and is an alumni of Outward Bound and NOLS. Noah did his graduate studies with the inaugural class of Schwarzman Scholars in Beijing.
Laura Nelson
Laura Nelson
Laura Nelson seeks to celebrate and create sites of gathering and study. Over the last ten years, she has worked with activists, artists, and community members to organize multiple experiments in learning, including the Oakland Summer School, Night Poems, and the Library of Study. She is currently researching histories of learning and social movements as part of a Ph.D. in American Studies at Harvard University, where she has taught in the History & Literature program. Last year, she was a visiting faculty member at Deep Springs College. Laura was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and a Jefferson Scholar at the University of Virginia.
Mickiyah Pope
Mickiyah Pope
Mickiyah is from Newark, New Jersey, and is a current student at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusettes. With a double major in English and Politics, and has a minor in Education Policy, she wants to dedicate her life towards community and activism work to improve the lives of people around her. She is a city girl at heart, but took a chance on nature when she arrived at A Place Beyond. She hopes to bring forth more diversity and inclusion at a Place Beyond by providing anti-racist material and making outdoor spaces more accessible for low-income students.
Gaia Tabron
Gaia Tabron
Gaia is a Biology major on the pre-veterinary track at Boston University with a focus on veterinary Zoology. Although she's new to the outdoors, she loves trying new things and finding ways to understand and appreciate the world around me. She's excited to help make A Place Beyond a more inclusive, diverse, and accessible space through programming and meaningful conversation. You'll most likely find her playing Just Dance or talking about jellyfish.
Eric Lee
Eric Lee
Eric is passionate about intentional community, liminal spaces, the future of education, and the anatomy of friendship. After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain scholar, he worked in higher education and built a co-living community in San Francisco. At APB he is excited to merge his interests in education, technology, organizational programming, and having a really good time.
Andy Paul
Andy is an outdoor educator based in California. Since 2013, he has worked as field faculty for NOLS where he currently works as a program supervisor at the NOLS Alaska and Teton Valley campus locations. Experienced in the field of outdoor accessibility, he worked on the Parks Bond measure in California, specifically on the issue of equitable coastal access for inner city youth. In 2018, he finalized the process to help make San Diego based nonprofit Outdoor Outreach the first program to be accredited via the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics Youth Accreditation program. He holds an MA in peace and justice studies with a focus in environmental justice from the University of San Diego as well as a certificate from the Trans-Border Institute. He is currently completing a post-graduate certificate program in environmental public policy through the University of Denver.
Laura Nelson
Laura Nelson seeks to celebrate and create sites of gathering and study. Over the last ten years, she has worked with activists, artists, and community members to organize multiple experiments in learning, including the Oakland Summer School, Night Poems, and the Library of Study. She is currently researching histories of learning and social movements as part of a Ph.D. in American Studies at Harvard University, where she has taught in the History & Literature program. Last year, she was a visiting faculty member at Deep Springs College. Laura was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and a Jefferson Scholar at the University of Virginia.
Alex Bailey
As a child, Alex remembers the fresh smell of mint leaves in his grandfather’s garden. His grandfather's intimate love of the natural world always inspired him to connect deeply with nature, particularly in life’s hardest moments. This foundational love and connection to nature led him to envision a program which seeks to radically transform the outdoor space and programming to be a beacon of joy and liberation for Black youth--- later to be known as Black Outside, Inc. Black Outside, Inc. can best be described as a labor of love. Between 2018 and 2019, founder Alex Bailey embarked on a journey to observe and shadow summer camps and outdoor programs across the country to better understand the impact outdoor programming has on youth. He took those learnings and began building a culturally relevant program in the city of San Antonio which today collectively serves 150+ youth across San Antonio.
Mary Yao
Mary is currently completing her MBA at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. She has focused her studies on design-led courses ranging from innovation consulting to product design. Her past careers include being a technology consultant at IBM, a management consultant at Oliver Wyman, a Chief of Staff of a design thinking business unit within Oliver Wyman and product management intern (this summer) with Adobe. Her top 3 activities outside of work include travelling the world, meeting new people and hosting dinner parties.
Adam Joseph
Adam Joseph is an MBA candidate at UC Berkeley Haas, where he focuses on the intersection of human-centered design, sustainable innovation, and brand strategy. Prior to Haas, Adam spent two years on IDEO's organizational design team and previously worked in international development finance in Mongolia. Over the summer, he also interned on LinkedIn's global brand strategy team. Adam is a California native and an avid outdoorsman with a soft spot for wild animals.
Jimmy Cao
Jimmy is a 2nd year MBA student at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. At Haas, Jimmy is interested in pursuing product management and entrepreneurship. Over the summer, Jimmy interned at ZX Ventures, Anheuser-Busch's innovation and VC arm, and prior to Haas worked as a product manager in Visa's Innovation Center. Outside of Haas, Jimmy is a fitness enthusiast and loves traveling.
Alexandra Weiner
Al is an Experience Designer both professionally and personally. By day she focuses on behavior change products at McKinsey and by night she enjoys designing immersive experiences for her friends, family and community. Previously, she start a circular economy ecommerce company that she took through Techstars and a non-profit focused on creating products and community for neurodiverse people. You’ll also find her skiing, hiking, biking and watching short film.
Sam Teng
Sam is currently pursuing her MBA/MS dual degree at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and School for Environment and Sustainability. In her studies, she focuses on the global food system and how it intersects with health, environment, and business. Prior to graduate school, her experiences include working in data analytics and product management at a healthcare technology company and conducting HIV research in New York City. In her free time, Sam enjoys rock climbing around the world and baking buttery treats.
Marcus Edmonds
Marcus currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at UCLA with a focus on artificial intelligence and robotics. He studies artificial intelligence and robotics from a perspective inspired by human cognition. His life goal lies at the intersection of intelligence and system design; he wants to create machine intelligence that will increase access to education and further general technological progress. Marcus’ side passion is music; he has an electronic music podcast, Deep End Theory, and DJ for fun and friends.
Eli Martin
Eli works for the Biden campaign, where he has been since Dec-2019. Currently focusing on voter protection, he has also worked on delegates and ballot access during the primary. Prior to this, he spent five years in finance, most recently at an investment bank in London -- focused on healthcare and pharmaceuticals M&A. After graduating from college, Eli spent over a year in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where he worked for an international development bank. He has also worked as a journalist -- both as an undergraduate and professionally, and is passionate about the outdoors and exploring new parts of the world.
Patrick Mauro
Patrick is juggling two disparate careers: In the city Patrick works as an independent data science consultant, and in the mountains he is a guide for International Mountain Guides. Patrick learned the craft of data science while working as a quant at a high-frequency trading (HFT) firm in Manhattan but was lured outdoors by the intrigue of New England rock and ice. His outdoor pursuits led him to climb throughout the world – including Aconcagua, Cho Oyu, and Chomolungma (Mt Everest). Patrick holds an AB in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an SM in Electrical Engineering from Harvard University. Patrick’s other interests include fine art photography, aviation, endurance sports (particularly triathlons), and sailing.