SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

Speakers

Heather Vilhauer is a practitioner and educator in the field of recreation management. Her areas of focus include recreation programming (youth development and camp administration); leadership and organizational behavior; disaster preparedness; and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. After spending 20+ years in the field of recreation, she made the move to education and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hospitality, Recreation and Tourism at Cal State East Bay in the Department of Hospitality, Recreation and Tourism.

Brandon T. Taylor, D.M.tg., Assistant Professor, Fresno State Department of Recreation Administration Dr. Taylor completed his doctoral degree in organizational management and leadership after spending more than 14 years working in the community recreation setting within the Central Valley of California. His professional experience includes municipal recreation programming and planning for youth and adults, community special-events, and outcome-driven out-of-school-time programming.  Dr. Taylor currently serves as the Coordinator of Community Recreation and Youth Services emphasis.

Michelle Cummings M.S. is the Big Wheel and founder of Training Wheels, a known leader in the Team Development industry.  She is an accomplished author and is a sought-after speaker and consultant on leadership, teambuilding, and experiential learning. Michelle has created a wide variety of facilitation, debriefing and teambuilding activities that have collectively changed the way trainers and educators work.

Michelle has delivered innovative staff training and team building programs for hundreds of camps and non-profit organizations. Michelle has a plethora of experience with camps:  she went to 15 different camps as a child, has worked full-time for several camps, is now a service provider to the camping industry, and is a parent of two campers who attend multiple camps.

Peter Ross has defined the vision, strategy, and culture of 829 Studios since its founding in 2007. It is his mission to help clients transform their data into strategy and provide an integrated approach that blends creativity with technological sophistication. He is constantly searching for new opportunities clients can leverage to achieve differentiation, develop competitive advantages, and better communicate their brand story. Peter received his Executive MBA from Imperial College London and primarily focuses his time on business consulting, marketing strategy, site architecture, frontend/backend development, SEO/SEM, and interactive media.

Simone Gamble is a community organizer who resides with roots in the South Bronx. She earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Hunter College at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College with a focus on Secondary Education and History and later Social Work and Community Organizing. She has worked at various youth organizations throughout NYC focusing on various social justice issues including immigration justice, police accountability, and education justice.  

Simone is also an independent consultant who has led workshops with a myriad of nonprofits, schools, camps, and after school programs centered in youth work around the issue of safer spaces for people of color with an intersectional, anti-oppressive lens. She has spoken at conferences and privately consulted with organizations around radical curriculum and workshop facilitation.

Simone is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. Since 2017, Simone has stepped into the role as the Founder of OAAARS (Organizer. Activist.Artist.Advocate.Referral.System). She looks to help businesses, institutions, and nonprofits find talented consultants of color to provide radical professional development training in the fields of social justice, equity, arts, wellness, and education. She dreams of a world where folks dedicated to social good can live sustainably while transforming workspaces and ultimately their communities and the world at large.

Lauren Black’s introduction to the camp world came from working at Tumbleweed Day Camp in Los Angeles, CA where she worked in a variety of capacities from counselor to enrollment manager. Lauren currently works as a School Psychologist in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She recently completed her Masters Degree in Educational Psychology and is working towards her Education Specialist Degree in School Psychology at Loyola Marymount University. Lauren is also the Director of Operations for the Social Justice Sewing Academy a non-profit organization based in Northern California. In this position she has contacted families that have lost loved ones to officer-involved shootings and race-based violence to receive free, custom-made quilts; directed the creation of an anti-racist guidebook written by volunteers of the organization; and co-created the Business Incubator program which will educate emerging entrepreneurs between the ages of 15-25 on the skills necessary to launch a successful business. Finally, Lauren is the co-creator of an Instagram page (@psychactivists) aimed at providing resources and information to educators and parents particularly when supporting youth of color, LGBTQ+ youth, and those with multiply marginalized identities.