Staff
Headquarters Staff
Interim Executive Director – Michelle Barnes
Michelle is no stranger to BCM having volunteered on multiple BCM youth trips and serving as a board member in the past. Over the last 10 years, she has held executive postions with a variety of national nonprofits. Embarking on a career in nonprofits came after earning and MBA and spending a decade in high tech marketing. Michelle couldn’t be happier than to spend her days helping youth experience the wilderness and her weekends in the mountains where cell phones coverage is sparse.
Director of Operations & Safety – Mitsu Iwasaki
Mitsu joined BCM with 15 years of experience in the Outdoor Programming industry in multiple capacities as an instructor and program manger. Having earned degrees in Environmental Engineering and in Non-Profit Management, he feels he has been exceptionally fortunate to have had opportunities to combine his studies, passions, and values and beliefs into roles that he sees as doing “good” and affecting real and useful change. His last 4 years have been spent dedicated to urban youth working in both public and private schools in Boston, Massachusetts. Outside of his career, he has traveled around the globe, coupling his curiosity of the world and its cultures and climbing big mountains. Some of his greatest adventures to date include eating monkeys with an indigenous group deep in the Amazon jungle, passing out in an alley in Chamonix after an excruciatingly long climb in the French Alps, and feeling sorry for himself at the moment he realized getting on a grade V 5.11 A2+ after three years away from climbing was a really bad idea.
Staffing and Volunteer Manager – Brie Brower
Brie came on board with BCM in July of 2007 as a Cause Marketing Coordinator and has since switched her focus to managing the adult volunteers and Team Leaders on the Program side. When she moved out to Colorado after two glorious years in public accounting in the SF Bay Area, she found that there was actually more to life than sitting in traffic and crunching numbers for 80 hours a week! Who knew? In her free time, Brie likes to play hopscotch and hula hoop. She also loves to eat cheese.
Marketing Manager – Hillary Harding
Hillary began working in the outdoor industry in 2000. She got involved with BCM in 2005 as a trip leader and was hired on as a full time staff person in 2006. Her current role at BCM includes working with BCM’s fantastic outdoor industry partners, overseeing the website, marketing campaigns and BCM communications. When not looking at Excel sheets or marketing campaigns, she can be found chasing her kiddos around and dreaming of returning to the sharp end of the rope.
Summit for Someone Manager – Brendan Leonard
Brendan joined BCM in May 2008 after four years of working in the newspaper and Internet industries and finding himself increasingly gravitating toward the nonprofit sector. If he’s not in the mountains climbing, hiking, backpacking or backcountry skiing, he’s probably thinking about the mountains in some capacity, or writing about them. He enjoys talking about mountains every day with Summit For Someone climbers, and he enjoys doing work that makes a difference.
Americorps VISTA – Program Coordinator – Elizabeth Bohuski
Elizabeth is volunteering with the Youth Development Outdoor Collaborative (YDOC ) through AmeriCorps VISTA. She is designing a year-long outdoor adventure program for under-resourced youth, by coordinating activities and curriculum from several agencies: Big City Mountaineers, SOS Outreach, and cityWILD. Previously, Elizabeth worked as a secondary science teacher in Indiana, until the draw of the mountains was too strong to ignore. Working in adventure education inspired Elizabeth to teach science, and she is enjoying being back in the world of outdoor classrooms.
Americorps VISTA – Program Coordinator – Rasheeda Grant
Rasheeda is a native New Yorker. She graduated from Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. Back home, she volunteered with New York Cares, Avon Walk for Breast Cancer and the American Diabetes Association. Whether reading with children before school or singing with seniors, Rasheeda has shown many people that someone cares. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg invited Rasheeda and other NYC volunteers to Gracie Mansion to pay tribute to volunteerism in NYC. NYCares chose Rasheeda to serve on their council to improve their projects. For two consecutive years, Rasheeda has received the Presidential Service Award, having volunteered more than 200 hours of service. Rasheeda was very actively involved as a Group Leader in the Community Groups Ministry of World Changers Church New York. Currently, she happily serves as a Teacher with the Children’s Ministry at The Potter’s House of Denver.
During her year with Big City Mountaineers, Rasheeda will strive to improve the resources for volunteers (i.e. course area guides and online training) to help sustain the integrity of the prevailing top-notch programming BCM offers to under-resourced youth.
Bookkeeper – Joy Walsh
Originally from New Hampshire (Go Red Sox!), Joy joined BCM in February 2010 with over 10 years experience working with Denver area non-profit organizations. During her first 10 years “in the business” she successfully ran the fundraising operations for Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, Up with People and Leaders Challenge, but eventually realized that she is a numbers geek at heart! Gleefully throwing herself into spreadsheets, Joy now does the books for several local organizations – BCM being her favorite, of course! Joy holds a Master’s in Non-Profit Management and is currently working on an Accounting/Finance degree. Joy is thrilled to be a part of the BCM team.
CPA – Dana Miller
Dana Miller, CPA, is our newest addition as our outsourced CFO. She has 10 years experience in non-profit financial management as both interim CFO and as treasurer for several state and local organizations. She works at both the board and staff level focusing on incorporating best business practices to help organizations improve their margins to successfully meet their missions. When not whipping finances into shape Dana can be found playing drums, listening to heavy metal music, running, biking, hiking and ice climbing.
Regional Staff
Chicago Regional Program Manager – Bernie Rupe
Bernie started with BCM as a volunteer in 2002. Having more than 10 years experience taking at-risk youth on outdoor adventures and professional work with a whitewater river outfitter, BCM was a natural fit for him — combining his love of the outdoors with his commitment to building youth. Bernie recently left the corporate world and got his Master’s in Community Counseling to focus on youth work. He joined BCM part time as the Chicago Regional Program Manager in 2007 and holds down the Midwest fort and BCM’s paddling program. When not working for BCM, Bernie runs an experiential education program for a local youth agency and counsels kids. In his free time, he and his 15-year-old son explore the great outdoors by boat and foot.
Colorado Regional Program Manager – Elizabeth Williams
Elizabeth joined the BCM team in October of 2008 as the resident Marketing and Development Intern. In June of 2009, after receiving the “Intern of the Month” award for six months straight, she took over the Regional Program Manager position. Prior to BCM, Elizabeth spent 10 weeks exploring India and Nepal before teaching English in the Himalayas for 5 months. However, Colorado called her home and she now spends as much time as possible bouldering. Elizabeth loves working at BCM, especially when they eat ice cream for lunch, and she can’t wait to see kids’ faces as they head off for their first week in the wilderness.
Pacific Northwest Regional Program Manager – Rachel Greenwald
Rachel Greenwald came on board with BCM in the spring of 2009. She had been trying to get hired by BCM for 2 years. She worked with at-risk youth in L.A. for 10 years at a gang prevention intervention center and in a dropout recovery school. For the last 4 years she has worked for various outdoor organizations as an instructor. While working in L.A., her only reprieve from the madness of the city, were the local mountains and Joshua Tree. She took up climbing and backpacking. Many of her students wanted to go climbing or camping with her, so she used her outdoor skills to bribe them to come to class/school on a regular basis. In exchange, students could go on a camping/climbing trip. She watched hardened gang members soften while quiet, timid students came to life in the wilderness and on a climbing rope. She is excited to be on board at BCM and is eager to see all the positive change and growth yet to come.
California Regional Program Manager- Amy Blum
Amy hopped on the BCM train in February 2009 after two years volunteering as a youth agency leader on BCM Relate summer trips. Since her Kerouac-style, life-changing move from Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2006, Amy has worked tirelessly developing programs for under-resourced youth across the Bay Area. She feels incredibly privileged to combine her love for the outdoors with her skills and studies in youth development. When she’s not allowed to work, she enjoys writing and people watching in San Francisco, eating popcorn, and dreaming of becoming a huge rock star/model/actress (because dreaming about it doesn’t hurt anyone)!
