Our Officers


PARKER SIMS

President | she/her

Parker is a lover of rivers, ferns, and moss who has not yet mastered the art of carrying two crash pads on a bike. Some of her top priorities are eating spinach and tomatoes and looking at mountains. She is a Professional Camp Counselor and was supposed to sleep under a bat net all summer, but she didn’t get rabies so it’s fine. Parker has a complicated relationship with worms and wants you to go climbing with her.

afton hessian

Vice President & co-climbing advisor | she/her

Afton is an enjoyer of cloudgazing, looking at her plants, taking midday naps, staring at salamanders, camping under the stars, and making flower collages. If she’s not on a rock, she wishes she was, and her dreams are filled with little climbs at the New. When the lights go out, a freshwater nature documentary plays, the voice of David Attenborough fills the air, and another day wondering about salmon goes to rest.




Allie Shellhammer

treasurer & Caving advisor | she/her

Allie is a nature loving adventure seeking gremlin who loves all things outdoors! This makes sense since she hails from the outdoorsy state of Colorado! Although she loves hiking, backpacking, climbing, stargazing, birding, rafting and all above ground adventures, she spends most of her time underground crawling through tight squeezes, fangirling over bats and climbing vertical mud slides definitely not made for a 5' short queen. She hopes to see you all on a rad ODC adventure soon or on a spontaneous trip out West!

Christie Blonkvist

Co-gear master & Co-Hiking advisor |

Christie loves running really far on trails, skiing on sheer ice (ski the east!), and backpacking just to get ridiculously dirty. She’s all about hiking way too fast, diving into swimming holes, and, most importantly, meeting every dog on the trail. Stuck in PB&J prison, Christie is begging for camping meal ideas (seriously, please help). If you see her out there, she’s probably subliminally asking for some of your beef jerky or fixated on the laminar flow of a stream.




MAx Ellis

co-gearmaster| he/him

Find him in constant agonizing indecision, deciding whether to sign up for every trip he can, or actually do his school work. After finding him, ask if you should come to the kayak roll sessions (spoilers you should) or anything your heart may desire, he’s more than happy to help. He also has an obsession with GamePigeon’s Word Hunt, and WILL try to get you to play him. Max loves trees, anything in or around water, and everything else outdoors! Except for skydiving you crazy people

Charlotte Maxwell

pbr chair | she/her

Skills: getting lost in nature, finding 4-leaf clovers, making pbj masterpieces, serving steez
Struggles: pulling all-dayers, lactose intolerance, using pocket lighters

Charlotte is often found lying in a delicious patch of grass living carelessly outside instead of doing the readings for her classes. She loves her daily vitamin D intake, walking around grounds barefoot, and singing her heart out around a campfire (no matter how out of tune she might be). As a camp counselor guru, she never fails to ask you what your “rose, thorn, and bud” are at the end of a long day. She is also a 5th grader stuck in a 19 y/o’s body: rolling cartwheels, headstands, eating dino nugs, climbing up trees, and dabbing on the haters.‍



Lizzie Frysinger

webmaster | she/her

Lizzie is a big fan of aimless wandering, ferns, and competitive duck herding. When she’s not amidst a cloud of bees or navigating a watercraft, you will probably find Lizzie searching for birds or maybe looking at a really cool tree. During the rare occasion when she’s trapped indoors, Lizzie likes most to gaze out windows and think about cows.

Pietro Ciliberto

secretary | he/him

Pietro enjoys the feeling of fresh air in his lungs when he wakes up after sleeping outside and the cold tingle in his nose when he peeks his face out of the sleeping bag. When not stringing up his hammock or puzzling over a tent, he likes to find a quiet little log with an uninterrupted view where he can ramble or write like the mad little amateur chemist that he is. Books, sticks, and molecules call to him, while cockroaches send him running. He does like spiders though. He’s getting into climbing, but really, all he wants to do is sit outside, talk, eat, take his shoes off, and make weird noises.




Susannah Allen

DEI chair & biking advisor | she/her

Susannah has the ultimate superpower of never, ever getting bitten by bugs, but a weakness of lighting matches. So, no fire is needed to keep the bugs away from her on a summer night. Outside of struggling to make fires, Susannah can be found on her mountain bike doing laps at Ohill, paddle boarding at Ragged, or straight lining down the mountain at Snowshoe. She believes that school is an odd social construct and that you can learn math from the trees just as easily as you can from professors. Crashing bikes, falling in the water, and tripping over her own skis are all the learning that she claims she needs.

Skylar Foley

Sustainability and Service Chair | She/her

Skylar boasts not only a rock collection but a stick collection and a feather collection. She is cultivating a not-so-small army of indoor plants and hates wearing shoes, but will settle for clogs. She enjoys making people try her kombucha and hiking alone for obscene lengths of time. Her three favorite foods are beans, oatmeal, and peanut butter (honorable mention to graham crackers!). You’ll usually find Skylar…well, you probably won’t find her— she likes to run away. But maybe she’s forcing a first-year to swipe her into O hill.



Evelyn Lepsch

New Member Chair & Co-hiking advisor| She\her

Evelyn is most likely to be found sitting under a tree, doing dances for the snow gods, or eating mysterious leaves. She is addicted to Pad Thai but tragically has the spice tolerance of a newborn baby. Evelyn will happily drop everything to explain the whole plot of the Princess Bride, cowboy camp on clifftops, do cartwheels in unorthodox locations, or go on a spontaneous woods wander!

John Woodward

Whitewater Advisor| he/him

John is a fan of outdoor exploration, bonus points for places that are dangerous, difficult, or downright unpleasant to access. He documents these journeys in the rivers, caves, sewers or deep in the wilderness with a camera that he values more than his own safety. John specializes in any whitewater-based activity but enjoys all kinds of other outdoor sports and will gladly try anything new.



Sarah Dowling

General Officer | She/They

Women want her and rocks fear her. Sarah was voted “most granola” by her high school graduating class and still believes it to be her greatest accomplishment. She enjoys touching slugs and hurling insults at mosquitoes, and she will happily explain the plot of the entire Twilight saga to anyone who finds themself on the trail with her. When in the outdoors, Sarah can almost always be found with a handy bag of craisins and her favorite pair of Spiderman sunglasses as she tackles whatever her sport of the day may be. She loves wool socks but hates toenails, and she believes that the best adventures are the ones that don’t go perfectly to plan. In her free time, Sarah enjoys being steezy as hell.

Haley Bortner

General officer | She/her

Haley grew up loving mountain biking, skiing, hiking, kayaking, and basically anything outdoors. You can find her planning summer road trips to national parks or just relaxing outside soaking up the sun (with dubious amounts of sunscreen). Due to rules about closed-toe shoes in chemistry labs, she has been slacking recently but normally wears Chacos (the best shoes EVER, in her opinion) approximately 340/365 days out of the year. Whether it’s snowing or sunny and 70, Haley believes that the answer to most problems in life can be found by going outside.



Katie Ullman

GENERAL OFFICER | She/her

As a proud YOLO advocate (#bringitback), Katie believes that everything is either a good choice or a good story. She finds joy in falling off of rocks and slacklines around Charlottesville, and is overly confident that her homemade tiramisu could win awards. She also happens to be skilled in the fine arts of axe throwing and juggling—because why settle for just one cool party trick?

Former Presidents


CHRIS BACKMANN 2001 - 2003
THIAGO IZE 2001 - 2004
MATT ROSEFSKY 2001 - 2004
AARASH SOFLA 2001 - 2008
SOPHIE JOHNSON 2002 - 2006
CASE TAINTOR 2002 - 2006
KATRINA SALMONS 2005 - 2011
ERIC STAUFFER 2006 - 2008
LILA WARREN 2006 - 2009
MEGHAN MAGENNIS 2007 - 2008
BOB WEAVER 2007 - 2009
EMILY POWELL 2008 - 2010
LINDSAY JAMERSON 2008 - 2011
LYNN NICHOLS 2010 - 2011
REBECCA GREEN 2011 - 2012
EMILY WETZEL 2011 - 2012
MICHAEL CROCKET 2012 - 2013
HELENA GROVES 2013 - 2015
JOSEPH GIBSON 2013 - 2015
HANNAH KESSENICH 2015 - 2016
JEREMY KEMP 2016 - 2017
STEPHANIE ROATIS FALL 2017
ZAKEY FAIEQ SPRING 2018
JIM OLD 2018 - 2019
BILL TALLEY 2019 - 2020
AJ CUDDEBACK 2020 - 2021
ELIZA STOWE 2021 - 2022
SOPHIA BENMHEND 2022 - 2023
ED ATEN 2023 - 2024
ANUSHA JAIN 2024 - 2025

Former Officers

EMILY ANDERSON 2001 - 2002
DERYN GOODWIN 2001 - 2002
JEFF SCHERR 2001 - 2003
DAVE CLARK 2001 - 2004
BARON SCHWARTZ 2001 - 2006
KAHLIL DETRICH 2003 - 2004
JIM SUMNER 2003 - 2004
DAVID WADE 2003 - 2004
RICK EVANS 2004 - 2006
MARC SCHWARTZ 2004 - 2006
LINDSEY BROWN 2005 - 2006
RYAN HAUER 2005 - 2006
QUINTIN BRUBAKER 2005 - 2007
ANDREW OLESEN 2005 - 2007
BRIAN TAI 2007 - 2008
CAMPBELL GRANT 2007 - 2009
CHRIS CHIN 2008 - 2009
RYAN GILCHRIST 2008 - 2010
CRISTINA LIEBOLT 2008 - 2010
JOE THOMSPON 2009 - 2011
RYAN ELLIOTT 2010 - 2011
AMELIA RODE 2010 - 2011
ANDREW RICHERS 2011 - 2012
ANDREW CASSIDY 2011 
DAVID ABBOTT 2012
JACKSON BEWLEY 2012 - 2014
MAX MCHALE 2012 - 2013
LINDSEY SHALL 2012 - 2013
MITCHELL OLIVER 2013 - 2014
OLIVIA RAPPE 2013 - 2014
CHARLES ROMERO 2011 - 2015
JULIET HAMMER 2014 - 2015
LUCIE HANES 2014 - 2015
ISAAC KING 2012 - 2016
ANDREW INGLIS 2012 - 2016
MATT HARRINGTON 2013 - 2016
JESSIE VILLAREAL 2013 - 2016
KIT GUNCHEON 2013 - 2016
ADRIAN BLUST 2013 - 2016
JACK ARMSTRONG 2014 - 2016
JEREMIAH REILLY 2014 - 2016
GARRETT TANNER 2015 - 2017
COLIN MEALEY 2016 - 2017
NEDWARD ENDE 2014 - 2018
SCOTT GILB 2016 - 2018
RHAUDE DAHLINGHAUS 2016 - 2018
AUDREY STEPHENSON 2017 - 2018
SYDNEY HALLEMAN 2017 - 2018
TRISTAN HAMRICK 2017 - 2018
JEREMY KEMP 2014 - 2019
SAM CLINARD 2016 - 2019
IZZY FRANKLIN 2016 - 2019
VICTOR LU 2016 - 2019
STEPHANIE ROATIS 2016 - 2019
LILY WINCELE 2016 - 2019
CHAD BAILY 2017 - 2019
EMILY DESCHAMBAULT 2017 - 2019
CLAIRE "CURB" BURKE 2018 - 2019
VICTORIA ALVAREZ 2017 - 2020
ANDREW DUDZIK 2019 - 2020
MASON GOODMAN 2018 - 2020
NICK GOMER 2018 - 2020
MASON RIFFEE 2018 - 2021
MATTHEW HOUFF 2019 - 2021
CONNOR SIGGINS 2020 - 2021
BURKE HAYWOOD 2019 - 2022
AJ CUDDEBACK 2019 - 2022
KIERAN HUMPHREYS 2021 - 2022
DANNY DEVLIN 2021 - 2022
JOHN COONEY 2021 - 2022
ELIZA STOWE 2020 - 2022
SOPHIA BENMHEND 2020 - 2023
PHILLIP REEVES 2020 - 2023
JOSEPH ABBE 2020 - 2023
MITCH LANG 2022 - 2024
RENEE ERICKSON 2022 - 2024
GRACE GRAY 2021 - 2024
JADE ALVAREZ 2021 - 2024
MELU TERSHARK 2022 - 2024
SUJITH PANCHUMARTHY 2023 - 2024
SHAY UTZINGER 2021 - 2024
MARION DONALD 2022 - 2024
CAMERON BURKE 2022 - 2025
ANUSHA JAIN 2022 - 2025
ED ATEN 2022 - 2025
WILL LANKFORD 2022 - 2025
EMILU ENGLANDER FUENTES 2023 - 2025
MAX ST. CLAIR 2022 - 2025
OWEN HIMMEL 2024-2025
CARSON HOPWOOD 2023-2025
MAX TITOV 2023-2025