AEE Leadership: Our Staff & Board of Directors

AEE Staff

Sherry Bagley
Executive Director

Pronouns: she/her/hers
Contact: Sherry@aee.org

303-440-8844 x100

Sherry Bagley is the Executive Director of the Association for Experiential Education. In this role, she gets to assist in the elevation and expansion of experiential education by building an inclusive and accessible community; supporting research and programs; and presenting resources to public audiences. Her career path has taken some hard turns from driving tug boats in the Marshall Islands to catering weddings on the beach. She found her true calling when she began working in the experiential education field over 13 years ago. She can often be found out on or in the water swimming, fishing, boating, kayaking, snorkeling, and scalloping. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida in a 100-year-old house with her amazing husband, 2 great kids, 2 polite dogs, and 2 ridiculous cats. 

Steve Pace, M.S.W.
Director of Accreditations and Certifications 

Pronouns: he/him/his
Contact: steve@aee.org

303-440-8844 x102

Steve was introduced to the power of experiential education when he was an undergraduate at Antioch College. He was transformed after participating in a 3-month field semester course and had the opportunity to lead a similar course before he graduated. Since that time Steve worked for eleven years at the Voyageur Outward Bound School as an instructor, course director, program director, staffing director, and risk manager. He then spent 25 years at Prescott College teaching in the Psychology and Human Development and Adventure Education Programs and later as the Dean of Resident Degrees.  His areas of expertise include adventure education and college program administration, risk management of field activities, interpersonal and group communication, mediation and conflict resolution, and therapeutic use of adventure education.

In 1979 Steve went to his first AEE Conference and was introduced to this remarkable community of educators. Later Steve became an active member of AEE and served both as the President of the Board of Directors and as the Chair of the Accreditation Council. For over twenty-five years, Steve has witnessed the effectiveness of the AEE accreditation process and how it gives organizations a comprehensive method to evaluate and evolve. He is humbled to work with the many talented and dedicated volunteers who make this grassroots program so strong.

In addition to his work at AEE, Steve serves as a member of the Safety Committee of the Board of Outward Bound USA and is an Emeritus Professor at Prescott College.

Anna Miano
Membership & Marketing Manager

Pronouns: she/her/hers
Contact: anna@aee.org

303-440-8844 x 101

As the Membership & Marketing Manager at the Association for Experiential Education (AEE), Anna is dedicated to fostering a vibrant and engaged community. With over six years of experience in non-profit marketing, she brings a dynamic blend of strategic thinking and creativity to her work. Her expertise spans event planning and management, social media, email marketing, digital advertising, and partnerships. Prior to AEE, Anna honed her skills as an Event Manager at a full-service production agency and as an Admissions Coordinator for a private elementary school. Outside of her professional life, Anna enjoys hiking, kayaking, running, baking, and spending time with her husband and dog in her home city of Philadelphia.

Callie Auman
Volunteer Coordinator 

Pronouns: she/her/hers
Contact: callie@aee.org 

Board of Directors

Join the Board of Directors!

Phil Brown

---

Bernie Rupe

Treasurer

Founder and Executive Director of Chicago Voyagers

Bernie Rupe has 30 years of experience in the adventure therapy field and has 15 years’ experience working and managing Adventure Therapy programs. He is the founder and Executive Director of Chicago Voyagers, a non-profit charity providing free adventure therapy services to low-income youth of color. He is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Nationally Board-Certified Counselor, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional and Certified Clinical Adventure Therapist. He has developed a community-based model for providing services to those in need and presented workshops seven times at national and international conferences and published research in the field. He is also on the Outdoor Behavioral Health Council’s Proposal Selection Committee for the Wilderness Therapy Symposium.  Bernie feels at home in the outdoors and enjoys international adventure vacations and riding his bicycle almost every day.

---

KC Ray

Secretary 

Co-Owner Experiential Development Resources (EDR) KC started her adventures in experiential education as an eight-year-old at Camp Wohelo, where she spent 10 summers swimming & canoeing deep in the woods of Maine. These early experiences combined with her father thru-hiking the AT while she was in high school, an intro level challenge course class at Texas A&M University and a fall out with a professor while pursuing a degree in Elementary Education, led to her changing majors to pursue Outdoor Education. After graduation, KC became the Adventure Camp Director at the YO Ranch & began volunteering with the Texas Experiential Ropes Association (TERA) before returning to Texas A&M to pursue a master’s degree in human resource development. Since earning her degree, KC has enjoyed a variety of roles including challenge course facilitator, road race event director, stay-at-home mom, and homeschool/ unschool/ roadschool parent. In 2022, she, her husband, Tony, & their good friend, Leigh Carruth founded EDR, a mobile facilitation company that brings group development programs & training to teams, organizations & businesses. KC currently resides in College Station, TX with her husband & four kiddos. They enjoy road tripping, exploring new places and all things outdoor related (to varying degrees).

---

Brad Daniel

Member-At-Large

Co-founder and Executive Director of 2nd Nature TREC

Brad Daniel has been a college professor, wilderness trip leader, outdoor educator, and field science instructor for over 35 years. He is co-founder and Executive Director of 2^nd Nature TREC (Training, Research, Education, Consulting), a consulting agency that partners with existing programs to help them become more effective. He also teaches courses in the Masters in Experiential and Outdoor Education program at Western Carolina University. Brad has served in various roles in AEE including Southeast State Ambassador Coordinator, Southeast Regional Council member, and co-chair of the Symposium for Experiential Education Research (SEER). One of his professional passions is bringing groups together to create a greater impact and he is a member of many outdoor-oriented organizations including the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), the Wilderness Education Association (WEA), the Association for Outdoor Recreation and Education (AORE) and the Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance (SEEA). He serves on the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors (CEO) Research Committee. Brad’s passion is using outdoor experiential learning to engage the heart, challenge the mind, and nurture the spirit. He enjoys hiking, canoeing, photography, rescuing dogs, drinking coffee, exploring natural landscapes via any mode of travel, and reflecting on this thing called life.

---

Brian Strozewski

Member-At-Large

Therapist and Supervisor at Everchanging Counseling and Consulting, LLC Brian is a Counselor and Certified Clinical Adventure Therapist (CCAT) serving Greater Cleveland, Ohio. Brian was first introduced to Adventure Therapy (AT) in 2009 assisting with AT groups and camps at Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health in Canton, Ohio. Right away Brian knew experiential therapy was his passion. Brian earned his bachelor’s and master’s at Walsh University and returned to C&A to learn to lead AT in groups and family work, and later served as counselor and supervisor at Crossroads Health in Lake County, Ohio. In all, Brian served youth and families with complex trauma in Community Mental Health for a decade using Adventure Therapy in community, school, Day Treatment, outdoor, and office settings. In 2023 Brian started Everchanging near his home in Northeast Ohio where he provides attachment-focused Adventure Therapy and Nature Based Therapy focusing on parent-work and intergenerational families. Brian also provides trauma-informed training, supervision, and consultation services through Everchanging and Life Adventures for All, with a focus on integration of Adventure and Nature into therapeutic practice. Brian is passionate about creating spaces of inclusion and belonging and is most connected with his authentic self when he's in Nature, especially by water, and in community with others.

---

Chuck Nathan Charleston

Member-At-Large 

Chuck Nathan Charleston (Diné) is the Director of the NACA Foundation, and co-founder of the Native American Community Academy (NACA). Charleston is a dedicated leader in education development, economic development, and global engagement. He has nearly two decades of experience in the areas of strategic planning in the development and expansion of international Indigenous language and education models, including resource acquisition, co-creating sustainable systems for organizational development and land-based education pedagogy. He has a TRIUM Global Executive MBA, jointly awarded by the London School of Economics and Political Science, New York University Stern School of Business, and HEC School of Management Paris. He uses these economic strategies based on Indigenous values to support the development of the NACA Foundation and its activities to support other Indigenous-led schools in the NACA-Inspired School Network. As a recent U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) appointee to the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Arrangement (IPETCA), he shares his expertise in advancing economic empowerment, policy advocacy, and sustainability.

Chuck has led numerous international cultural exchanges with youth and adult community leaders, facilitating immersive land-based and arts-based learning experiences in Peru, New Zealand, Australia, Western Europe and across Latin America. These programs foster cross-cultural connection, Indigenous solidarity, and community resilience—linking language, land, and leadership through experiential practice. His commitment to nature-based education and outdoor therapy is reflected in immersive initiatives rooted in language revitalization, environmental stewardship, and healing. Cherished highlights include serving as a cultural delegate with the Turkish Cultural Foundation, and developing a curriculum on Indigenous Code Talkers of WWI and WWII and leading educational tours across Western Europe. Most recently, he trekked with a cohort of Indigenous youth on an expedition to summit Citlaltépetl, Mexico’s highest peak—blending land connection, intergenerational healing, and leadership development. He also collaborates with networks of cultural educators, mental health professionals, and land-based practitioners to foster resilience, identity, and belonging across diverse communities. Chuck calls Arizona home, and is based in Albuquerque, NM.

---

Justin Hougham

Dr. Justin Hougham is faculty at the University of Wisconsin- Madison where he supports the delivery of a wide range of science education topics to K-12 students, graduate students, and in-service teachers. Justin’s scholarship is in the areas of place-based pedagogies, STEM education, and education for sustainability. Justin has taught 17 different undergraduate and graduate courses as well as instructed over 1000 days in the field. He continues to teach courses, clinics, and trainings that develop pedagogies in experiential education. Justin’s projects and research in the use of technology in place-based environmental education can be found in journals and in conference presentations throughout the US.

Justin currently is on the leadership teams for several federally funded projects that serve needs in community engaged research focused on culturally responsive environmental science education and leadership. Further, he successfully conducts research into and documentation of educational strategies advancing environmental education and organizational change leadership that supports environmental education innovations. He is actively evolving programming innovation to support development of scholarship and research in education in the urban context and expanding access for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Environmental Science Education.

Prior to his faculty role in Wisconsin, Justin served in leadership roles in environmental education programs in New Mexico, Idaho and Washington. This included a Post doctoral fellowship through a NASA funded climate literacy project as well as research projects on-site in the south pacific and in Greenland. Other projects include field work in Alaska, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, and Costa Rica.

Margaret Kelso

Member-At-Large

Margaret is based in Asheville, North Carolina, the ancestral land of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. She serves as a Risk Management Advisor with Cornerstone Safety Group, a membership based organization supporting risk management, medical, and mental health services for travel and adventure programs. She began her outdoor education path at the School of Environmental Studies, a high school on the Minnesota Zoo property and began her career at Alaska Crossings. Her first AEE conference was in 2010 in Las Vegas and it changed her trajectory entirely. She went on to work with multiple wilderness therapy organizations, most notably with Open Sky for seven seasons as their Health Director.

Margaret is the mother of two beautiful children and her furry critters, her better half is a therapist who she met at Alaska Crossings, and the guardian to her adult brother with severe developmental disabilities. Margaret brings a unique view on team and relationship building having been guided through life by her younger brother who showed her the value of authenticity, creative problem solving, and laughter as the cure for almost everything. She deeply values play and movement and believes adults would likely get a lot more done if they spent even just a few more minutes outside a day.

---

Marisol Velachiu

Member-At-Large

Marisol is a Mexican-born, San Francisco Bay Area local. She’s the Managing Director for BioLink Depot, an Oakland-based non-profit organization that brings educators access to free science materials to promote hands-on education. She began in this role as a volunteer before transitioning into a Director capacity. She brings over 10 years of experience in experiential education in a variety of roles, ranging from outdoor school facilitation, classroom teaching, and curriculum design to case management and administration & operations. Marisol has also served on the board of directors of several nonprofits, including the Temescal Business Improvement District and The Mosaic Project, both based in Oakland, CA.

Marisol received her BA from San Francisco State University in Sociology and, after 10 years of work experience, an MA in Business Management at Mills College. In her formative years, she participated in two pivotal character-developing experiential education programs: “Project Courage,” a two-week backpacking expedition at age 12, and a 22-day Mountaineering Outward Bound course at age 17. These two experiences, along with other teacher-led outdoor experiences, imparted a lifelong love for nature, community, and environmentalism. These days, she enjoys gardening, cooking, racquet sports, occasionally spinning a staff or poi, and is in nature wherever possible. Marisol’s career trajectory has been rooted in connecting resources to underserved communities in the pursuit of a more equitable and just future.

---

Melanie Wills

Jay Zarr

Advisor

He/him

Pueblo West Colorado

Jay is a master of using natural settings and adventure-based experiences to teach leadership, teamwork, and self-esteem. He works quickly to establish trust among all group members and has them involved, interested and motivated. Jay offers a unique perspective from his 40+ years in the field about the value of self-knowledge, the collaborative nature of leadership, and a leader's role as a servant. His experiences range from working in Higher Education, a Senior Instructor for the Wilderness Education Association, United States Forest Service, At-risk (At Promise) youth, Aging to Saging Certify Instructor to serving as the Board President of the Nature and Raptor Center of Pueblo. In addition, his involvement has been creating programs at 3 Higher Education institutions and two At Risk ( I prefer the term "At Promise")  High schools and helping design the 10th Mountain Hut System in Colorado.  Along with his wife, Cleo is the CO-Owner of Story Tellers Travels and Imagine If a Mind, Body and Spirit Connections Company. Turning the Ordinary into Extraordinary. 

Join the Board of Directors!

Interested in serving on the AEE Board of Directors? Have Questions or a Grievance?

Email the Board at board@aee.org