Along with the full-time team, we engage a number of veteran VISIONS summer directors on a part-time basis throughout the year. Former field directors who no longer work summers with us remain close advisors and valuable resources for program planning. Often former program directors take time off from full-time jobs to join VISIONS for a week or two ahead of the summer to help train and mentor new directors and to lead workshops during staff training.

Read on for information about VISIONS full-time year round team. Read more about our seasonal team in Summer Directors.

Home Office in Newport, PA

Teena Beutel (left) and Joanne Pinaire (right)

Director, Joanne Pinaire has taught ESL to Hmong refugees from Laos 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 and taught for six years at The Children's School, a nationally praised early learning center in Stamford, CT. Joanne's eclectic background includes writing and researching in non-profit arenas, marketing for an Equity repertory theater and for a theater troupe founded to showcase the works of Western states playwrights. Joanne has a B.A. in English Literature and Anthropology with a minor in Art History, and completed course and field requirements for a secondary education degree. When she was 19 she visited her Vista-volunteer sister who lived and worked on a Montana Plains Indian reservation. The visit marked the start of a life-long love of Montana and its native people. That first trip to the rez, and subsequent trips during her decade as a Montana resident, instilled her belief in the positive impact of cross-cultural living and learning. Five seasons as a counselor at Longacre Leadership on a 300-acre farm affirmed her bias for experiential learning. Joanne has played a primary role in shaping and directing VISIONS since its inception in 1989. She and her husband, Kevin, live in the country outside of Newport where they enjoy the natural beauty surrounding their home. Joanne volunteers on a number of fronts, including on the local library board of directors. Joanne and Kevin's daughter Claire took a Gap Year in southern Chile after graduating high school and is currently a student at Hendrix College.

Director, Teena Beutel has an education and background in finance and business management in the non-profit and for-profit sectors. Before starting a family and later joining VISIONS, Teena amassed considerable administrative and hands-on experience in the field of construction. Her entrepreneurial spirit inspired the creation of successful small businesses including a day care center, and retail and wholesale handmade basket businesses. Teena's handmade basket artistry earned her numerous awards in art shows in the East. Work with children has been woven through Teena's adult life. She operated a day care center in Oregon and was a foster parent to teenage girls in Utah. Teena volunteered for over a decade at Perry County's Community Day Camp and served as President for four years. She was voluntary chair of her local township planning commission at a critical time in the township's growth and development. She is currently on the board of directors of the local library. Teena joined VISIONS in 1992 and has played a central role in managing and developing its growth ever since. A native of the southern Oregon coast, Teena grew up loving nature, actively exploring the outdoors, caretaking and harvesting the annual cranberry crop from her family's two farms. Teena's sons, Jason and Andy, have both grown out of the nest that Teena and her husband, Paul, currently and quietly share just outside Newport, Pa; that is, until her grandson, born 2005, comes for lively visits.

Cindy Stehley, Administrator, is the Grand Factotum of the home office team. Since 1995 Cindy has been indispensable in remembering everything and keeping us on track without losing her cool or calm. Cindy manages the data and the meticulous processing of applications and other forms, supervises and organizes multiple day-to-day operations including all mailings, helps promote and articulate our programs to parents when they telephone, and more. Hers is often the first warm, welcoming voice on the phone when parents call with questions. Cindy holds an Associates Degree in Specialized Business. Performing echocardiograms and ultrasound scans, dressing wounds and working in the emergency room, and processing mounds of paperwork at Poly Clinic, Harrisburg, PA, were all aspects of earning her degree. Cindy volunteers actively in our community. She teaches nursery school at her church, coordinated a Bike-a-thon for St. Jude's Children's Hospital, was treasurer and committee member of Boy Scouts of America for nearly a decade and is a long-time member of the Perry County Day Camp Steering Committee, a non-profit organization for local children. Cindy and her husband, Mike, live just outside Newport, PA, not far from her family's original homestead. Their two sons, Nathanial and Patrick, have joined the armed forces, which leaves Cindy and Mike lots of time to tour far and wide on their Harley Davidson.

Tim Parsons (Assistant Director) has been a versatile, invaluable member of the full-time team since 1997, deftly juggling a variety of key jobs. During the non-summer months, Tim divides his VISIONS time as a jack-of-all-trades with responsibilities as varied as creating and designing marketing materials to troubleshooting technology to ordering and organizing first aid supplies, tools and equipment, and other materials for our program sites. A big part of his job (and one of his favorite parts) is communicating with families by phone, email, and in person, traveling throughout the northeast meeting potential participants and their families. His long tenure, variety of roles, and many years helping to lead summer programs make Tim a knowledgeable, well rounded, and committed representative. Summers usually find Tim in the field where he has been the director, the carpenter, or the first-aid honcho on programs in Alaska, Dominica, South Carolina, Australia, Montana, and Mississippi. Tim is an aspiring computer geek, a newbie indoor climber, a recovering comic book collector, and a fan of both noir and near-future literary fiction. He is something of a film buff (ask him how he got hired onto VISIONS some time) and a supporter of both the fine and performing arts. He lends his free time and his carpentry skills to the Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival and, more recently, to the Allenberry Playhouse, where he took a summer off from VISIONS to help get a brand new Conservatory Program off the ground. Tim holds a degree in Secondary Education from Penn State University.

Katherine Dayton's first VISIONS season was 1996. As Coordinator of Spanish Language Programs, Katherine is liaison to our Latin American nonprofit partners. She has led five programs in the Dominican Republic and others in Montana, Peru and Ecuador. Katherine holds an MBA complemented by graduate work in Environmental Studies. She earned a Bachelor degree in Environmental Studies and Policy Studies from Dickinson College and spent an academic year studying in Latin America. After a four-month trip through Asia and then leading educational and environmental trips in the U.S., Katherine returned in 2000 to live in her home state of Montana where she joined a budding technology firm. She also has worked as a private contractor for environmental nonprofit organizations and private businesses on strategic marketing plans for sustainable products. Katherine continues to marry business skills with a passion for conservation and humanitarian issues.

Austin, TX Satellite Office

Stephen Tidmore spent his first summer with VISIONS in 2003 and joined the full-time office team in 2004. After two years in the home office, he moved back to Austin, Texas, to establish his primary residence and our satellite office there. He currently serves as the webmaster on a part-time basis. In the past, Stephen has represented VISIONS to prospective families by phone, at home appointments and camp fairs; managed the website, and assisted in marketing, program planning and development. He spent his first summer in 2003 as a staffer in the British Virgin Islands and became a program director in the BVI, Montana, and Nicaragua in subsequent summers. He holds a B.S. in Communication Studies from The University of Texas and a Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate. Before finding VISIONS, Stephen was part of Dell Computer's global marketing team where he coordinated web site content and development worldwide. Since escaping the cubicle world, Stephen has followed his passion for living and working in different cultures. He has worked as an English teacher in Spain, and as the Student Activities and Adventures Coordinator for ProBelize in Hopkins Village, Belize, where he organized and led trips for college students including rainforest hikes, snorkeling trips, treks to Mayan ruins, and caving expeditions. He is an avid photographer and coffee drinker and loves spending time outdoors in the wonderful city of Austin.