Adaptive Sports Foundation

Our staff

The Adaptive Sports Foundation is proud to have such a diverse and experienced staff. The full time staff is dedicated to the ASF’s mission and to providing first class service to our students, families and volunteers.

ASF staff and volunteers celebrate our STRENGTH!

Safety and service
Teamwork
Respect
Empowerment
Nurturing
Growth
Trust
Health and happiness

 

ASF Full Time Staff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cherisse Young
Executive Director
cyoung@mhcable.com

Cherisse Young is in her 15th year with the Adaptive Sports Foundation andWindham Mountain.  She began as the Marketing / Fundraising Coodinator under ASF founder, Gwen Allard.  She was promoted to Development Director in 2000 and to Executive Director in 2004.  Cherisse has been skiing since she was six years old and it was her passion for the sport that initially motivated her to become a ski instructor in high school. Her experiences teaching eventually lead her to her career with the Adaptive Sports Foundation.  Skiing and ski instruction is a family tradition as her husband, Augie is a PSIA-E Adaptive Examiner, her father is a PSIA Alpine Level I Certified ski instructor and her daughter began skiing at the ripe old age of 20 months.  In the off season, Cherisse enjoys spending time on Burden Lake with her husband, daughter, chocolate Labrador Retriever, and her many neighbors and friends.

 

Kim Seevers
Operations Director
kseevers@mhcable.com

Kim has spent a good bit of her life working through the ranks of the Professional Ski Instructors of America and has served that organization in a number of roles. Kim is an alpine examiner with the Eastern Division of the PSIA and has served as the Education Director for both the PSIA-Eastern Division and at the national level in Lakewood, CO. Kim was recently named the coach of the PSIA-AASI Adaptive National Team.

As an offshoot of her work with the Adaptive Sports Foundation, Kim was lucky to be paired as a guide with ASF Race Team member and visually impaired athlete Staci Mannella. Kim and Staci have been training and racing together for three years and in 2011 were named to the US Paralympics Alpine Skiing National Team. The pair is competing with the goal of representing the United States at the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

In her spare time, Kim is a prolific reader and quilts as a means of relaxation. She reluctantly admits to two addictions, reality TV and her new iPad.

 

Pam Greene
Program Director
pgreene@mhcable.com

Pam is in her sixth year at ASF and 26th year of her professional ski teaching career. She is a life-long learner who finds every day at ASF is a new learning experience. As Program Director, Pam uses many different skills that she has developed over the years, including teaching, organizing and sometimes even cooking. Pam loves to do anything outside. Skiing is her passion in the winter, and in the summer, her favorite things to do are paddle her kayak or ride her bike. When she’s not outside, Pam likes to spend time at home with her husband, Rob, and dogs, Ripley and Hanalei.

 

Bob Speck
Managing Director – Programs and Staff Development
bspeck@mhcable.com

Bob enjoys living an adventurous life that is filled with learning and new experiences, connecting with others in nature, and exploring more sustainable ways to live better and healthier. He has explored many professions and career opportunities, but has always found himself back at home in the mountains skiing, snowboarding, hiking and biking… and sharing the experiences with others. Young at heart and playful by nature, Bob seeks ways to one day find his wise mind… and loves it when Kim calls him Yoda.  Bob lives with his wife, Jo Kirsch, in Manchester, Vermont, but you might also find them at Snowbird or in the Grand Tetons with their kids, Alex and Natalie.

 

Ginny Scahill
Administrative Director
asfwindham@mhcable.com

Ginny started with the ASF a few years after it’s inception. She remembers working with founder Gwen Allard sometimes out of a borrowed room in Town Hall. This was quite a change for her after 15 years at CBS headquarters in New York City. In 1991, she left to raise her family and returned ten years later with new eyes-the eyes of a parent-realizing that all parents are the same in wanting every opportunity for their children. She has always thought of her job as a gift, counting herself blessed to be able to work in an environment surrounded by goodness. She is a long time student in the school of life, currently gaining knowledge and inspiration from all who walk through the ASF doors, most especially from those dearest to her heart, the ASF participants. Once an avid skier, she now gets great satisfaction watching their every day successes on the slopes. While she enjoys spending her work week with the ASF family, nothing gives her greater joy than time spent with her own family.

 

Jo Kirsch
Marketing and Development Director
jkirsch@mhcable.com

Jo loves to be in the mountains, skiing and hiking, winter and summer. Publishing journals and newsletters since high school, Jo enjoys that aspect of her ASF work, as well as teaching skiing and yoga, and guiding hiking and kayaking adventures with ASF participants and volunteers.

Jo is enormously grateful to work with an amazing and caring staff, group of volunteers, participants and their caregivers. Their joie de vivre continuously expands her heart and teaches her humility and perseverance.

Jo is married to Bob Speck and blessed with two grown children, Alex and Natalie. She spends way too much time at her desk, sometimes running three computers simultaneously, and wonders when she turned into such a geek. In her spare time, Jo can be found in her garden at her home in Vermont, skyping with her kids, or bugging Bob to get a dog. Hopefully, Bob and Jo will get a service dog soon, who will become another ASF staff member.

 

Greg Richards
Equipment and Building Maintenance Manager

Greg likes to describe himself as independent, strong, fearless, adventurous, and giving. He’s only been with ASF for two years, but he has quickly become a vital part of our family… and he can build and fix anything! Greg has been coming to Windham most of his life. He says, “Luck brought me here, but it is the people that keep me from wanting to leave!” Greg enjoys all things outdoors, especially sharing with others his passions for snowboarding, skiing, hiking, biking, kayaking and canoeing. “ASF has given me a direction in life that I had never considered.” Good for us!

 

Joanne Grunenthal
Accounting Director
joanneg@mhcable.com

Joanne is a native Long Islander who gave up the ocean for the mountains almost 20 years ago.  She loves crunching numbers and her long time experience keeping books in the financial business brought her to ASF in 2002 where she now heads the Accounting Department. Summer weekends, you will find her running her family owned concession business. While she is proud to successfully manage these two areas, she says her most rewarding job has always been as a mom to her two great kids. While she enjoys time on the slopes, she is particularly fond of warm weather and loves to head south to the beach with her husband and children any chance she gets.

 

Steve Luppino
Program Supervisor
sluppino@mhcable.com

Steve is in his third season at ASF, his first as a staff member.  He has been skiing for 19 of his 22 years, and has spent the last two seasons as a volunteer instructor.  Steve is currently finishing his B.A. in Music Industry with a minor in Audio Production/Engineering, and while music, skiing, and the outdoors are some of his passions, he also embraces the fact that he is a computer geek (he even has a Geek Squad t-shirt to prove it).  Steve was “hooked the first day” he came to ASF, and is “excited to be joining such a great team and organization.”  He brings his lifelong passion for volunteering…from being volunteered as a local baby-model for OshKosh B’Gosh in his hometown of Mohawk, NY, to serving as the volunteer coordinator for SUNY Oneonta’s Habitat for Humanity chapter.  Steve lives with his girlfriend, and fellow ASF volunteer Sarah DeLuca in Oneonta, NY, where they spent the last year raising Cosmo, a guide dog for Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

 

Pat Garrison
Head Race Coach
pgarrison@mhcable.com

Skiing since the age of four, Pat loves anything that has to do with the outdoors. He is an avid mountain biker, paddler, fisherman, golfer, builder and carpenter. Pat became involved with ski racing at 14 when he joined his high school ski team and then raced on his college ski team. After college, Pat joined the coaching staff at the Hunter Mountain Race Foundation, where he was on staff for 4 years. He’s worked in numerous ski shops throughout the years, in various roles, including ski shop management, technician, sales and ski rental service.

Pat supervised Windham Mountain’s Nastar Program for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. He became friendly with coaches and athletes from the Adaptive Sports Foundation and realized that it was time for him to coach again. Pat is married, has two young children and enjoys spending as much time as possible with his family. He says that being a Dad is the best thing in the world.