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Home > About
Us > USA Staff
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| Kurt Kutay |
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Kurt Kutay is the founding
President and CEO of Wildland Adventures and the director
of the non-profit Travelers Conservation Trust.
He has traveled and guided throughout the world
since 1975. Kurt completed an M.S. degree in Natural
Resources from the University of Michigan after
conducting research in the National Parks of Costa
Rica. He has also worked on international programs
for the U.S. National Park Service. Kurt has authored
a chapter on adventure travel for Fodor's guide
books and published numerous articles on ecotourism.
As a recognized industry pioneer in adventure travel
and ecotourism, he has served on numerous professional
boards and conservation organizations including
The International Ecotourism Society, the International Galapagos
Tour Operators Association, the Maasai Environmental
Resource Coalition of East Africa, and the Adventure
Travel Trade Association.
Email to:
Read the Seattle Times profile on Kurt Kutay
and Wildland Adventures Word | PDF
Read the Seattle Metropolitan Magazine profile on Kurt and Anne Kutay
and Wildland Adventures PDF |
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Anne Kutay |
Anne Kutay is Vice-President of Wildland Adventures. Over decades of professional adventure travel experience she has designed and led dozens of family adventures and women's rejuvenation retreats. She also works in the office to assure consistency and quality control across all Wildland destinations. Prior to her Wildland Adventures in Costa Rica, Turkey, Panama, Belize, East Africa, Peru, and Brazil, Anne worked summers in Yellowstone National Park and spent winters exploring and guiding groups throughout Mexico for 8 years. Anne is also a jewelry designer. She loves to prepare international cuisine for friends and family, and is always ready to hike, kayak, and go extreme dog-walking with her Tibetan Mastiff rescue dog, Romeo. Anne and Kurt have a daughter, Kelly Ohman, who works in the office (you can't miss the resemblance), a grandchild, and a young son, Tarek, who travels around the world and currently attends Franklin College in Switzerland. |
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| Rachael Garrett |
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Rachael Garrett is a member of
our Executive Management Team as Director of Operations.
She developed an excitement for travel to exotic
places as a child on family vacations to Costa
Rica and the ancient ruins in the jungles of Mexico.
Fascinated by the interactions between plants and
animals in tropical ecosystems, she studied biology
and French at university, spending a semester abroad
in France. Rachael served for three years in the
Peace Corps as an agro forestry volunteer in the
Gambia, West Africa where she gained a love and
understanding of African cultures and learned two
local languages. Rachael led her own family on
safari in Tanzania and has explored many countries
in West Africa, Europe, Central America, as well
as Mexico, Alaska, and Morocco. After joining Wildland
Adventures she directed our Costa Rica program
and then expanded to Panama, Guatemala, and Belize.
Rachael frequently travels to Africa as our East
Africa Program Director to Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda
and Uganda, while continuing to manage our Wildland
Adventures to Panama and Guatemala.
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Grettel Calderon |
Grettel Calderon is a native “Tica” from Costa Rica who began her career as an executive secretary then translated her penchant for details and organization to become one of Costa Rica’s most knowledgeable and proficient nature travel tour planners. She now has over 12 years experience organizing itineraries in Costa Rica including 5 years as Wildland Adventures’ in-country expert. She has traveled to many cities in the United States, gaining valuable insight into American culture and travel preferences. From the Wildland Adventures’ field office in Costa Rica, she assists our guests by direct line email and telephone communication. Grettel is introspective and a conscientious listener of each traveler’s personal interests and style. She enjoys cooking with fresh herbs from her garden and loves yoga, cycling, and volunteers for a local dog rescue organization.
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| Tad Bradley |
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Tad Bradley, Wildland’s Marketing Director, is a worldwide wanderer, always seeking opportunities to share the deeper experiences that define the 'Wild Style' of travel. He spent 10 years working for a boutique advertising agency in Boston specializing in Broadway theatre and entertainment. After returning to his native Seattle, he spent time at Microsoft where he worked on an international advertising sales team before taking the leap from the virtual adventures of Xbox into an adventure travel career. A lifelong traveler, Tad climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise funds for cancer research, dove the Great Barrier Reef and rode the rails of the trans-Siberian railroad. He traveled for seven months throughout Central America, where he worked as a guide leading adventurous hikes throughout the highlands of Guatemala. Tad has found a home at Wildland that combines his passion for exploration with his professional interest in cutting edge and personally meaningful marketing that helps Wildland continue to grow its community of enlightened and compassionate travelers. In addition to his passion for travel, Tad is an avid runner, hiker and unabashed fan of Ken Griffey Jr. and all things related to the game of baseball.
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Adrian Chalker |
Adrian Chalker applies decades of worldwide travel, guiding, and specialty travel planning to his position as Director of Group Sales and Wildland Family Travel. An Englishman, Adrian has an eight year old daughter and takes her overseas as often as he can. Brought up in the UK and Zimbabwe, Adrian has hitch-hiked from the UK to Morocco, across North Africa, and to India via Tehran, where he witnessed the Ayatollah Khomeini's arrival; an experience which awakened a life-long passion to better understand how the world works. He worked for ten years as an adventure guide in the Middle East, Far East, Africa and Europe, during which he spent eight summers in India leading treks through the high Himalayas, guided in Egypt for two years, and has led many groups in Jordan, Syria, Israel, Morocco, Iran, Thailand, Malaysia and much of Europe. Adrian holds a double degree in journalism and political science from the University of Washington where he also developed his interest in cinematography. Adrian has written travel related articles for magazines in Europe and the US, and made several documentary films, including a short critical piece on the U.S. Patriot Act, a historical documentary following the route of the Magi through Iran, Syria, Syria and Israel, and his most recent endeavor entitled, 'Hope', a 40 minute piece on the construction of an orphanage in Kashmir, India. "Travel is an educational experience," he believes. Adrian brings to Wildlands a deep love for sharing the world based on more than two decades of professional field and travel management experience.
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| Jeff Stivers |
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Jeff Stivers shares his passion for venturing out to explore new places and distant cultures both past and present. He holds a BA in Anthropology from Colorado College and has participated in archaeological field work on Easter Island, and in Tanzania, Niger, Sudan, and southwest Colorado. Along his journeys Jeff has developed language skills in French, Spanish, and Swahili. He believes that the past can light the way for a better future. As Program Director for Belize, Guatemala, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, Jeff is intrigued by how both indigenous peoples and modern cultures cope with the new stresses and opportunities of globalization. Aside from travel, Jeff enjoys mountain biking, hiking, fishing, soccer, photography and cooking. Based on his extensive travel to remote regions of the world, he understands that the secret to having a rich and meaningful life-changing trip is to make honest, personal connections with local people. "Fundamentally we are all the same; only in this realization can barriers and stereotypes be broken."
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Julia Nesbitt |
Julia Nesbitt spent every summer of her childhood exploring her grandparent's farm in Zimbabwe. Crossing continents all her life, she was born and raised in the U.S. by expat third generation residents of South Africa and Zimbabwe, and she has been traveling to Africa ever since. Julia has driven from one end of South Africa to another visiting family and on safari in the premier parks and private concessions throughout South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania inspecting lodges and designing itineraries for a family safari business. She also worked briefly as the manager at a small camp in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. Julia has a degree from the Evergreen State College and lived in Paris while studying abroad. She has also visited Peru, the Bahamas, Mexico and Jamaica and is always looking for the next opportunity to explore exotic locales and meet new and strange creatures.
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| Gregg Burke |
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Gregg Burke is an all around Renaissance man. Since his education at the University of Washington in Ecology, Conservation Biology, and Evolution Gregg has worked as a shark researcher, animal keeper, volunteer coordinator, program creator and manger, habitat restoration specialist, naturalist, community organizer, electrician, deckhand, and bartender. A father who remains young at heart himself, Gregg has dedicated much of his life as an environmental educator helping create the "Zoomazium" exhibit in Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo; and when he operated classes using mythic journey and magical realism he concluded some sessions by emerging out of Puget Sound in full scuba gear dressed as a mythical King of Atlantis with trident in hand soliciting promises from young participants to save our oceans.
Gregg knows that travel can be a key to conservation. "By creating unforgettable travel experiences in wild places and among wildlife we greatly influence how travelers can make a difference." He has spent years traveling and designing adventure travel throughout Central and South America. He also founded a non profit that did habitat restoration and social assistance campaigns in Ethiopia and Kenya. Gregg has a passion for climbing, mountaineering and boating in the Pacific Northwest.
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Kelly Ohman |
Kelly Ohman, or "Happy Kelly" as she is known by staff around the office, it is usually Kelly's voice you first hear when you call the Wildland office. She is first and foremost a mother, but an equally dedicated member of the Wildland team. She brings extensive office management and organizational abilities to her position, running the day to day operation of the Wildland office, making the complex multi-tasking demands seem easy. She is passionate for her son to grow up in a world that is healthy, safe and prosperous for all. Kelly enjoys camping, volleyball, reading, and tasting quality wines from around the world.
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| Katharine Gallagher |
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Katharine Gallagher brings extensive qualifications and travel experience to Wildland's operations department, including six years hands-on event planning for groups of all sizes. She holds a Business Administration degree with a concentration in information systems from the University of Washington. It was at university that her love of travel blossomed into a fully grown obsession, inspired by the insights gained through exposure to art history. She has traveled extensively in the Philippines to visit family, and has explored Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, Greece and most of Western Europe. After her most recent adventure - a Wildland trip to Egypt - Katharine was so taken with her experiences that she was inspired to join the Wildland team. She brings with her a valuable perspective, providing pre-departure trip services understanding exactly what you need as a Wildland traveler. She is also tasked to partner with our destination program directors to ensure the right information gets to our travelers at the right time and is up to date. Katharine enjoys yoga and reading, and travel of course!
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Tim Hocking |
Tim Hocking As Director of Communications, he specializes in information systems, graphic design and brand management. He is the quintessential adventure-travel IT and web manager; with a little creativity and lots of ingenuity Tim always manages to come up with a solution to any IT or graphic design challenge. He works all hours developing Wildland's website and keeping our systems in working order so that he can maximize his time on the slopes of the Cascades during ski season; he even has a ski helmet with cell phone mic and ear piece in case anyone needs tech support when he's skiing--now that's dedication! Tim enjoys motorcycle road trips, camping, hiking, and everything about the gear associated with the outdoors as he was previously a manager in North Face stores in Chicago and Seattle. Tim lives with his wife and baby girl in a log cabin in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
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| Elizabeth Pelham |
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Elizabeth Pelham. Her whole life
wrapped up in theatre, Elizabeth has been a producer,
director and an actress under the direction of
Alfred Hitchcock and the Barrymores. She is currently
the editor of the Seattle Repertory
Organization "Backstage News." Bookkeeping is her
day job, acting by night. Although
she couldn't tote her 5 children around the world,
she brought a diversity of cultures into her home
by hosting over 200 students from Japan, Russia,
China, Poland, France and England-who now know
her as their "American mom." Now handling
the books at Wildland she has managed to bring
the world back into her career.
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