Joshua Lanam, Executive Director

Image of Joshua Lanam standing in front of a treeJosh has over twenty years of combined experience in the nonprofit, education, and private sectors. Most recently, he served seven years as the executive director at Vivace, a youth music education organization in Silicon Valley. Prior to joining Vivace, he led a supply chain management group and was responsible for $20-million annual revenue and expenses for a branch of a multinational corporation. In the education sector, Josh taught in urban and rural public schools in Ohio. Josh started his career in outdoor education—first as a summer camp counselor (camp name “Tenor”), then as a naturalist, supervisor, and board member. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and lives in Santa Cruz with his wife and dog. Josh is an avid gardener and birder, enjoys hiking and kayaking, and can often be found around a campfire. [email]


Daniel Beutler – Operations Director

Danny began his educator career in 2012 with Audubon Greenwich in Connecticut. This sparked not just an interest in birding, but also the pursuit of a career in Outdoor Education. Since moving to California in 2016, he has led field study groups through the redwoods, out to the tidepools, and under the giant granite cliffs of Yosemite. Danny joined ENH in 2020 and helped lead the opening of it’s current Sempervirens site in Scotts Valley. In his free time, he can be found with a guitar, out surfing, or planning which volcano to climb next.

You can email him at: daniel@exploringnewhorizons.org

 

 

 


Board of Directors

Stanley Berrin, President

Stanley Berrin is a passionate advocate for and curator of meaningful experiential education for all ages. He has spent years honing his skills as a facilitator and educator, helping youth and young professionals turn experiences into concrete, life-long learning opportunities. His experience includes directing after school programs and summer camps in the SF Bay Area, travel education programs in Costa Rica, and sales throughout Northern California. He is currently earning his Master’s of Science in Organizational Learning and Change through Northwestern University, and is completing a certificate program in Design Thinking for Organizational Effectiveness. He loves the outdoors, cooking, traveling internationally, and spending time with his partner Rebecca.


Emily Pelissier, Treasurer

Emily works at the Berkeley Haas Center for Responsible Business, connecting students, businesses, and faculty to mobilize the positive potential of business to create a more responsible, resilient, and sustainable society. Previously, she served on the corporate partnerships and development team at Net Impact, a non-profit dedicated to mobilizing the next generation of sustainable business leaders. Emily is completing her MBA in Sustainable Solutions at Presidio Graduate School and has a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Business Administration from the University of Oregon. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Emily grew up in the outdoors and has dedicated her life to conservation and environmental preservation. She believes strongly in the power of environmental education and draws inspiration from Jacques Cousteau’s quote, “people protect what they love, they love what they understand, and they understand what they are taught”.


Christina Scott, Secretary

Christina works for Dignity Health’s Talent Acquisition team coordinating for two of its hospitals, Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City and Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco. She has a background in customer service, recruitment, and social media marketing. She is currently attending Sonoma State University completing her Bachelor of Arts in both Philosophy Pre-Law and Psychology while studying to take the LSAT with plans to apply to law school. She has always wanted to work with a nonprofit and Exploring New Horizons was the perfect fit as she is passionate about education. Having attended private and public schools she is fully aware of the differences and that there aren’t enough resources available for the students who need them most to share in the same opportunities as their peers. Christina is a Bay Area native that enjoys being in nature, music, reading, and working on a blog she hopes to launch soon.

 

 

 

 

 


Lynn Lafayette

Lynn is a retired science teacher who spent 27 years in Milpitas Unified School District. Every year, Lynn worked hard to take multiple classes to ENH, including immense fundraising efforts to ensure every student was able to attend. The social and emotional impact ENH had on her students, in addition to the friendships they created with students from across the district, inspired her to join the board. Lynn has always instilled a sense of stewardship of the earth to her classes. Currently, Lynn supervises student teachers at Santa Clara University. In her free time, you will find her walking, quilting, or spending time with her family.


 

 

Allison Lercher

Alison brings with her a range of expertise – from program management to marketing to consulting and operations for Fortune 500 companies. Her enthusiasm for nature brought her from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest and now to sunny California. Her passion for adventure has not steered her wrong yet, taking her all over the globe. She enjoys hikes with her rescue pup, scuba diving the world with her husband, and exploring new horizons whenever she gets the chance.


Marty Chao

Marty is a legal professional with a passion for mentorship and coaching. In addition to ENH, Marty volunteers on other organizations that focus on lifting up the next generations. Although it has been many years since, Marty often reminisce about the science camp trip during 6th grade and hope to introduce the unplugged, experiential learning model to every student. In his spare time, Marty enjoys traveling with his family and chatting about Pokémon with his son.

 

 


Brooke Gutierrez

Brooke is an experienced Parks & Recreation Executive with a demonstrated talent for leveraging strengths in recreation, natural resource and environmental policy development, budget management, and personnel leadership to effectively administer high impact program development. When she isn’t busy with her 3 kids, you’ll find her hiking in Yosemite.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Matthew Polk

Matt has enjoyed a career growing brands, businesses and organization capabilities across a range of environments, from large consumer products corporations to scrappy start-ups and cause related non-profits. With a love for the outdoors, Matt enjoys the ease of access to so many great local hikes in the SF Bay Area. He has two school age boys with one who already made memories attending a 4-night ENH program with his school and the other who is excited to do so near the end of this school year.