Through Red Feather, Faye worked on service projects on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana and Hopi Reservation in Arizona. Faye has traveled internationally as well, including a year in Italy as a toddler, months in France as a teenager, Japan as a Rotary International Group Study Exchange Fellow, and Brazil as a Rotary International Group Study Exchange Leader.

Faye joined the VISIONS team in 2012 as Outreach and Communications Coordinator, working directly with VISIONS families in the lead-up to summer programs.

A fourth generation Montanan, Faye lives in Bozeman with her husband and three kids. Time to hike, camp, ski, and play tennis always are welcome respites for her.

Jim Earl, Technology Director

Jim Earl grew up in South Carolina and left soon after graduating high school to travel the western U.S. He cut his teeth on white water rafting, ice and rock climbing and mountaineering in the U.S., Canada, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina. He has professionally guided clients to the summits of many mountains throughout North and South America. While continuing to pursue his “virtual outdoor degree” Jim also earned a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Montana, after which he continued his wanderlust by teaching local petroleum workers in Bolivia and Argentina for awhile.

Jim also has explored the wide vistas of computers and internet communications while working for high-tech firms in Bozeman, non-profit environmental groups, and building websites for natural resource conservation groups. Finally settled in Montana, he remains inspired by the wide open vistas, rugged mountains and splendid rivers. Jim and his wife Debra have a two sons Devin and Justin, aged 2 and one-half years, and 6 months.

Lauren Dayton, Student and Parent Outreach

Lauren Dayton was born in Oregon and grew up in Michigan where she earned a Bachelor with Honors in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan. She then joined Teach for America and taught Middle School Special Education for two years on the Navajo Nation reservation in New Mexico. Lauren has a long-time interest in community service. In middle school and high school she participated in numerous volunteer service trips nationally and abroad; in college she volunteered in Madagascar and Chile.

Lauren worked as a VISIONS staff leader in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, in the 2011 summer season. Afterwards she joined the VISIONS home office in Bozeman where she now lives.  Lauren focuses on VISIONS outreach while actively engaging with alumni.  When not in the office, Lauren enjoys exploring hiking trails, spending time with friends, taking zumba dancing lessons and volunteering as a GED instructor at the local detention center.

Josh Gallatin, Outreach and Logistics

Josh Gallatin’s diverse background encompasses music, business and finance. A talented pianist, Josh attended the Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, CA, where he studied Music Business and interned at Universal Music Group. He also worked at Opes Advisors in Los Gatos, CA, in documents compliance and drawing up documents. He holds a B.S. degree in Business Finance from Montana State University.

Before joining VISIONS Josh volunteered in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with “Children of the Dump,” and in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Josh hails from Polson, Montana, and regularly helped in his father’s construction business while growing up. He hopes to parlay his carpentry skills into a staff carpenter role in VISIONS' summer season. Josh enjoys playing soccer, boating, snowboarding, camping, and playing the piano.

 

Support Team

Along with the full-time team, a number of veteran VISIONS staff and directors remain close advisors and valuable resources for the many elements of running high-quality summer programs. VISIONS also engages college interns. Read on for information about our year-round support team. You also may read about our annual summer program leaders in Summer Directors.

Joanne Pinaire, Director Emerita

Joanne Pinaire is former owner/Director of VISIONS and played a primary role in creating, shaping and directing VISIONS from its inception in 1989. Joanne's eclectic background includes writing and researching in non-profit arenas, marketing for an Equity repertory theater company and a theater troupe founded to showcase the works of Western states playwrights. She taught ESL to Hmong refugees from Laos in Missoula, Montana, and high school English on Montana's Blackfeet Indian Reservation. At the Dalton School in New York City Joanne worked in Admissions and with the Assistant Headmaster for Curriculum Development. She was Administrator for six years at The Children's School, a nationally praised early learning center in Stamford, CT.

In late 1969 while still in college, Joanne visited her Vista-volunteer sister on a Montana Plains Indian reservation. It was a a life-changing trip. She became a Montana resident for a decade, continuing to learn about its native people. She created VISIONS Montana programs and directed many seasons on the Crow, Flathead and Blackfeet reservations. Joanne and her husband, Kevin, live in Newport, PA, VISIONS' former home office base, where Joanne actively volunteers in several local initiatives, including Newport Public Library Board of Trustees and the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg outreach program in Perry County. Joanne and Kevin have one daughter, Claire, a Hendrix College graduate who, like her mother, values crossing cultures having lived, studied, and worked in Chile, Peru, and Ecuador. 

Stacy Bodow, Staffing and Leader Training

Few individuals have been as committed to and as unifying a force in VISIONS as Stacy Bodow whose first summer in the field was 1997. Stacy has led programs in Dominica, the BVIs, Alaska, and Australia. She co-facilitates VISIONS' program directors' summit and the ensuing staff training. She has represented VISIONS to families and at camp fairs, and has been a trusted liaison to local community partners. Stacy's part-time role for several years is recruiting and hiring talented adults for our summer leader positions, and playing a central role in the week-long training of directors and staff.

Stacy has a Masters in International and Developmental Education from the University of Pittsburgh. She has managed travel services for an eco-travel company, promoting environmentally and socially responsible tourism; worked three years with Pittsburgh Habitat for Humanity; and was an urban crew leader for the Student Conservation Association, among other pursuits. Stacy lives in Pittsburgh, where she volunteers with Creative Life Support, a mentoring program that connects aspiring artists with advanced technologies and opportunities in media arts. Stacy and her husband, Frank, have two young children, Kai and Krya.

Wesley Hedden, Southeast Asia Coordinator

Wesley Hedden first joined VISIONS in 2007 as a leader for VISIONS Nicaragua. The next three summers he staffed in Vietnam and was Program Director there in 2010. Wes has a B.A. from Tulane University with a major in philosophy and Latin American Studies. In 2005 Wesley studied abroad at the University of Buenos Aires where he acquired his passion for history. Wes has lived in China, Vietnam, Myanmar [Burma], and Cambodia, teaching English and world history and working in various capacities for NGOs, currently as Southeast Asia Program Director for Volunteers in Asia.

In September 2010 Wes launched Sarus Exchange Program, an inter-cultural exchange program for Vietnamese and Cambodian university students whose name is derived from the endangered Sarus Crane, which migrates annually between the wetlands of Cambodia and Vietnam. Wes was awarded a Princeton-In-Asia Carrie Gordon Fellowship to create this unique program based in part on VISIONS' philosophy and framework. Wes speaks Spanish, Vietnamese and Khmer, and can get by in Burmese. He lives in Phenom Penh, Cambodia. SARUS Exchange Program, VISIONS, and his capacity as Southeast Asia Program Director for Volunteers in Asia keep him thoroughly engaged in development work in SE Asia.