Executive Advisory Council Members

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

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, M.D., with their two children. www.usna.com

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 B.A. in Marketing and Journalism from Lehigh University, and a MBA from Harvard University. She lives in Chevy Chase, M.D., with her husband, Dave Compton, and their two sons, Matthew and Zack. www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com

Roberta “Bert” DeVries has been the travel planner for the Philadelphia Zoo for the past 17 years and its program and trips manager for the past 9 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 11 years has been critical to the success of the Zoo’s travel program. 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. Bert currently serves on the ETC Executive Advisory Council representing the interests of the ETC Nature/Aquariums/Conservation and Zoos (NACZ) constituents. www.philadelphiazoo.org

Rodrigo Esponda is the Director of the Mexico Tourism Board (MTB) office in Chicago. He has been working as a tourism official for the Mexican government for the last 11 years: first, at the National Trust Fund for Tourism Development (FONATUR) in Mexico City; and, since the year 2000, at the Mexico Tourism Board, where he served as Deputy Director in New York City until February 2008. Rodrigo has been an adjunct faculty member of the Tisch Center for Hospitality at New York University (NYU), where he taught tourism planning and product development. He graduated with a degree in Architecture from the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and earned a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Columbia University. Rodrigo currently serves on the ETC Executive Advisory Council representing the interests of the ETC Destination constituents. www.visitmexico.com

James Friedlander is the President & CEO of Academic Arrangements Abroad, which he joined 11 years ago to direct and manage all facets of the company. Jim discovered his love of travel at a young age and upon graduating from Wesleyan University began his career as the French Country Officer in the International Banking Group of the Irving Trust Company. After receiving his MBA from Columbia University, he spent more than 10 years assisting companies that were experiencing significant financial or operational problems. This past year, Jim has traveled to Barbados, Belize, Denmark, Estonia, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Grenada, Greece, Hungry, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Sweden, and Russia either accompanying groups and/or researching new programs. Friedlander has served as one of the trainers in the annual ETC Jumpstart Seminar for many years. www.arrangementsabroad.com

Susan Goodale began her career in higher education at Wesmont College in Santa Barbara as Special Events Coordinator. For the past 20 years she has worked for the UC Santa Barbara Alumni Association in various capacities with increased responsibilites. In her current role as Programs Director, her diverse oversight includes management of the Association's regional alumni programs/constituent groups, advocacy efforts, alumni career services, student engagement programs and student awards. She added management of the alumni travel program to this list in 2001 and since that time has successfully implemented marketing, tour content, and passenger management changes which rapidly increased interest and
participation in the program. Susan received her B.A. in Communication Studies and in Sociology from UCSB. www.ucsbalum.com

Linda Ho is the Assistant Marketing Manager for the Hong Kong Tourism Board in New York, overseeing the Eastern United States. She has been with the organization for 10 years and is responsible for planning and executing innovative and highly successful integrated marketing campaigns. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Linda’s career has allowed her to build extensive experience in a variety of tourism sectors including airline, corporate travel, retail agency, and tour operation before joining the tourism board. She is a founding member of Asia Now, a marketing platform established by nine Asian tourism boards to promote travel to the region and sponsored by a number of tourism suppliers. While serving on the ETC Executive Advisory Council, Linda will represent the interests of Asian destinations. Fluent in Chinese, Linda is passionate about travel, meeting new people, reading and photography. www.discoverhongkong.com/usa

Abby Jansen, Associate Director of the Northwestern Alumni Association (NAA) Travel Program, has worked for the NAA Travel Program for more than five years. Before joining the NAA, Jansen worked at CDWG Incorporated as a sales account manager. She received an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Northwestern and received a B.A. in History from Miami University.
www.alumni.northwestern.edu

Aleksandra Matic is the Associate Director of Member Travel at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has been on staff for the past eight years. She received her B.A. in Art History from Lake Forest College. http://www.artic.edu/travel

Janet Moore is President of Distant Horizons which, in an attempt to combine her love of travel with a real job, she began more than 20 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

Roberta Moore has been working in higher education for nearly 18 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. Roberta serves on the ETC Executive Advisory Council representing the interests of the ETC Alumni Travel constituents.
www.alumni.dartmouth.edu/conted

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 in sales and marketing. She has traveled extensively and concentrates on educational and special interest travel planning. Jessica currently serves on the ETC Executive Advisory Council representing the interests of the ETC Supplier constituents. www.egyptair.com

Kevin O’Neal is the Executive Vice President and COO of Travel Insurance Services. He has 30 years of experience in insurance, business management, and risk management. His insurance expertise includes all types of traditional insurance, from property and liability, life and health, to specialty insurance plans and business continuation protection. Outside the insurance industry, Kevin acts as an adjunct professor for the Edward S. Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California. He teaches management courses that include: Fundamental Management, Organizational Behavior, and Strategic Planning. Kevin is a trainer for the ETC Jumpstart program. www.travelinsure.com

Clark Oldroyd, Vice President for the University of Colorado at Boulder Alumni Association, 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. www.colorado.edu

Pauline Ranieri, Director of UW Alumni Tours for the University of Washington Alumni Association, has been in the travel industry for over 20 years. She began her career as a travel director with Contiki Holidays—a leader in the 18- 35 year old travel market—leading tours around the U.S. and Europe, and then moved into the position of operations manager for the U.S. market. Pauline has been with UW Alumni Tours since 1991, and currently manages a program that offers a variety of affinity tours supported by more than 800 travelers. She holds a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Montana. www.UWalum.com/tours

Judith Wineland, owner of Thomson Safaris, 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. Judi currently serves on the ETC Executive Advisory Council representing the interests of the ETC Adventure and Family Travel U.S. Tour Operator constituents. www.thomsonsafaris.com

If your destination is interested in hosting the 2011 Executive Advisory Council meeting, please contact us as early as possible at partner@travelearning.com.