My position with Grand Canyon Whitewater stemmed from my first trip down the canyon in June 2012. My sister had just started working for GCW and, with her recommendation, I was invited to join her on a trip and film a promotional video for the GCW website. A few weeks later I hopped on a plane for Phoenix with a bag full of borrowed camera equipment and an appetite for adventure. Having grown up on the plains of the midwest, the largest canyon I had seen was the ditch between the roads on the interstate. So when I walked across Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon the night before my first river trip, my jaw was resting comfortably at the bottom of the canyon. Early the next day I found myself floating below the same bridge on one of GCW’s unsinkable rafts, astonished to hear my guide announce that this is the smallest section of the canyon that we would see during our trip. Needless to say, I was hooked.

Six months later, as if by design, my sister was accepted into grad school and had to vacate her position at GCW. Right around the same time, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse with a degree in marketing and recreation management — a perfect fit for GCW — and started my career in January!

As a self-described “Master of None,” my time out of the office is spent attempting, and often struggling with, every accessible recreational outlet — from sea to summit.