Dwayne H. Adams Sr., Community Outreach Advisor, is a licensed personal trainer, rowing coach, and motivational public speaker.

In 2005, Dwayne founded Breaking Barriers, a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia that introduces inner-city youth to rowing.  Breaking Barriers’ mission is to help youth improve their academic work habits; gain respect for themselves and others; develop discipline, teamwork, and self-motivation; and know that there are alternatives to street life available to them.  Dwayne was honored in 2008 with the NAACP’s Outstanding Citizen Award.

Dwayne was hit by a stray bullet during a gang shootout in 1998.  He lost an eye, and was left with only partial sight in the other and no sense of smell.  While in rehabilitation, he was introduced to rowing.  He has competed in more than forty races, was a three-time member of the US National Adaptive Rowing Team, and won a bronze medal in the 2002 World Rowing Championship in Seville, Spain.

 
Montana Butsch is Executive Director and Coach of the Chicago Training Center (CTC), which he founded in 2006.   Dedicated to enriching the lives of Chicago's inner-city youth through the sport of rowing, Montana is an accomplished rower in his own right.  His success in introducing rowing to youth with no prior experience with the sport comes from his deep understanding of how to implement systematic but individualized training programs.

From 1994-97, Montana was a member of Loyola Academy's (Wilmette, IL) crew team, which won the Midwest Championship in 1997 and placed 9th nationally the same year. While pursuing graduate studies at Oxford University, Montana competed in the prestigious Oxford vs. Cambridge boat race where he won in the pair in 2003 and in the eight (ISIS) in 2004. Montana also participated in selection trials for both the junior and senior U.S. national teams, and placed at both the American and British National Championships in the single.

Montana holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.Sc in Education from Oxford University. He is a Level 3 certified rowing instructor and ACSM Certified Health and Fitness Instructor.

Kevin Harris is in his sixth season as Head Coach of the University of Tulsa women’s rowing program. Last year, Kevin coached the Golden Hurricanes to 26 first-place finishes. Off the water, he had his athletes excelling in the classroom. Kevin’s many years of college coaching experience have given him deep insight into the issues of athlete recruitment, particularly around recruiting athletes of minority backgrounds.

Kevin has had a powerful impact on every program where he has coached. At Kansas State, he recruited more than 20 student athletes. As head coach at Mills College in Oakland, CA, he guided the Cyclones to their first-ever NCAA Championship (Division III) appearance, becoming the first African American coach to take a crew to the NCAAs.

Kevin has also coached at Mount Holyoke College and top high school crews in the Washington, DC, area. A member of the College Rowing Coaches Association Board of Directors, Kevin has served as a member of the US Rowing Association Junior Women's Committee, and in 1999-2000 coached the Junior National Team Development Camps for the West Region.

Kevin holds a USRA Level III Coaching Certification, a bachelor’s degree in history from George Washington University, and a master's of education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

John Hogan, President of Mariner Insurance Group, is Secretary of Philadelphia's Schuylkill Navy, a member of the Undine Barge Club, and a USRowing referree.

 

 

Julie McCleery, a two-time US Rowing Team member, has been a rowing coach for 18 years, at all levels from juniors to elite.  She was head coach of the Pocock Rowing Center's High Performance Program, preparing elite athletes for high-level competition. She coached the lightweight single at the 2004 World Championships and a variety of 2006 national champions. She also won numerous medals at the national and international level as an athlete.

Julie is the founder and principal of McCleery Coaching and Consulting, which provides strategic support and project management for non-profits and educational organizations. She was a high school teacher for five years and has worked in a variety of reform-oriented educational non-profits. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Washington. She serves on the board of the George Pocock Rowing Foundation in Seattle, where she lives with her husband and three sons (who don't row YET).

Ellen Minzner is the Executive Director of Greater Lawrence Community Boating. She is a five-time US National Team Member and a two-time World Champion in the LW2. Her coaching resume includes The Winsor School, where she earned Women's Sports Foundation Coach of the Year honors, Wellesley College, Kansas State University, University of California Berkeley, and Community Rowing in Boston, MA. She was the program director of G-ROW Boston, a nationally recognized rowing and youth development program.

Faith Pizor is the Executive Director of the Wilmington Youth Rowing Association and the founder of Row For It!, a summer rowing camp open to all youngsters 10-16, targeted at inner city youth deemed "at-risk." Row For It! is now in its 16th season, and has developed strong partnerships with local schools and YMCAs. WYRA uses crew as a vehicle to raise self-esteem and teach responsibility, self-discipline, sportsmanship, pursuit of excellence, and teamwork.

Donald Siegel, Ph.D, is in his 34^th year as a professor of Exercise and Sport Studies at Smith College, where he helped to develop its graduate program that specializes in training college coaches. He has also been an urban youth sports program consultant for the Barr Foundation and was instrumental in developing several youth sports initiatives in Boston that helped to network non-profits into a cohesive aggregate, and to support programs that focused on the unique recruitment and retention issues associated with girls’ participation in sports. As well, Don has been involved with the development and running of two youth sport organizations in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Presently, he is the Co-Director of Project Coach, a program that uses sport as a medium to promote youth development by training adolescents to coach elementary aged children living in the North End of Springfield, MA, one of the most under-resourced communities in the Commonwealth. Within the program, coaching classes focus on attention control, self-regulation, conflict avoidance/resolution, communication, administering and receiving feedback, race and gender, drug avoidance and the pedagogy of running practices and games.

 

Siegel, has an Ed.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He teaches courses in youth development, sports and education, motor learning, sport psychology, and sport sociology. He has published widely in the areas of sport psychology, motor learning, exercise physiology, sport sociology, computing, and professional aspects of sport, and has served on a number of editorial boards. At Smith, he has also coached intercollegiate basketball and squash.

Anne Teschner has served as Executive Director of The Care Center in Holyoke, MA, an alternative education and support program for teen mothers and their families, since 1998. An avid rower, she developed Rowing Strong /Rowing Together, which introduces teen mothers across New England to the sport of rowing.  

Anne has held leadership positions in social services, education and public administration for the past 30 years. She was the founding director of the Holyoke Youth Alliance, and spearheaded El Arco Iris, a teen art center, and the Amherst Cinema Center, a community arts and business center. She was associate director of the University of Massachusetts Internship Program and a program officer for the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, where she helped organizations around the state develop community-based humanities programs. She is currently a member of the Hampden County Regional Employment Board.

Anne earned a bachelor's degree in public administration from the University of Massachusetts and a master's degree in American studies from Trinity College. She has completed two New York City Marathons, and has often competed at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston with the Mount Holyoke Community Rowing club and the Northampton Youth and Community Rowing team. 

Ben Thompson, a clinical social worker, is the Director of Psychological Counseling Services at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, MA.  He also maintains a private psychotherapy and consultation practice in Northampton, MA, specializing in working with families and other “systems.”  A former environmental education teacher at the Echo Hill Outdoor School on the Chesapeake Bay, Ben founded and directed The Family Challenge, an adventure-based program designed to strengthen families in the process of adopting older children.  He has coached youth soccer and baseball for many years at the local level.

He is a graduate of Trinity College (BA), the Smith College School for Social Work (MSW), and the Boston Family Institute.

Julio Viyella is the Founder and Executive Director of TeamRow Miami. He has been a successful rower and coach for the last 20 years. He began his rowing career at the Miami Rowing Club and continued as a varsity athlete at the University of Miami.

As an NCAA rowing coach, Julio made an impact on programs such as The University of Tennessee and the University of Louisville, where he established the college’s first-ever varsity rowing program. As head coach, he was honored with the 1999-2000 USRowing National Program of the Year Award.

His professional career, both in the private business and educational sectors, has served as the platform for his current projects. He holds an MBA from the University of Georgia.  His travels throughout the US and Latin America have further offered him perspectives on various types of organizations, how they work, and what makes them successful.

Kenneth Wong is President of the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association, which holds the longest winning record in this international sport. Most recently, the team won the world championship in the 2007 International Dragon Boat Federation World Championships held in Sydney, Australia.

An internationally respected expert in international business and trade, Ken is also President of CIG Asia, Ltd., a national property and casualty insurance brokerage firm; and Managing Partner of SmithWong Associates, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in the development of new market opportunities for both U.S. and China-based companies.

Ken’s commitment to full inclusion of Asian Americans and new Americans living, working and doing business in the United States resulted in his appointment by President George W. Bush to the President’s Advisory Commission for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, where he focused on economic issues and community development. In 2008, Ken was appointed to the Traveler’s Insurance Company’s national diversity advisory council, assisting this insurance giant in developing diverse emerging markets in the United States.

Ken serves his community with great energy, as a board member of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce; the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition (GPUAC); The Philadelphia Sports Congress; the Philadelphia International Sports Development Committee; the Multicultural Affairs Congress, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Center of Performing Arts.