Ashton Palmer Founder & President
At age 18, Ashton left his native town of Sutton Coldfield, England, with a one-way ticket to Australia via Bangkok. He has never looked back. Since then, Ashton has pursued his childhood dreams of travel all over the world, along the way becoming an expedition leader, guide, naturalist, conservationist, Zodiac driver, bird-watcher, and photographer. Read More
Meg Rand Director of Operations
Meg grew up in a suburb of Seattle. At the age of 16, she spent a summer in Germany and fell fast in love with the opportunity to view the world through the new lenses that different cultures and landscapes provide. At 18, she made the 3,000 mile move east to attend Vassar College in New York’s Hudson Valley. Read More
Jennifer Santoyo Expedition Specialist
With an open mind, positive attitude and adventurous spirit, Jennifer has wandered off the beaten path and allowed her own curiosities to be her guide throughout her ventures. She has trekked the Outback, dived the Great Barrier Reef, journeyed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, witnessed the rising sun atop Mount Fuji, and ice climbed the challenging walls of Fox Glacier. Read More
Chris Myers Expedition Specialist
Chris grew up in the woods and waterways near the Chesapeake Bay. Fishing, camping and canoeing from an early age led to a passion for adventures in the natural world. After moving west to Oregon, the urge to travel became too much to resist and Chris bought a backpack and a ticket to Europe. Read More
Alison Ashton Expedition Specialist
Alison became passionate about adventure travel after studying abroad in Chile, where she was inspired to embark on an epic year-long overland journey from Tierra del Fuego to Los Angeles. Infused with an appetite for adventure and exploration, she has traveled, lived, studied, and worked across the globe – from South America and Central America to Mexico, and Europe. Read More
Olivia Zimmerman Expedition Specialist
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Olivia had no shortage of the glorious outdoors growing up. The abundant mountains, lush forests, and beautiful beaches instilled a deep love of the natural environment—both in exploring and protecting it. An adventurer at heart, she took her studies overseas and canceled her flight home in favor of spending a year taking in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. Read More
Aubree Wilson Expedition Specialist
Aubree is grateful to call the Pacific Northwest her forever home, an oasis where the awe inspiring mountains, forest, and sea meet in harmony. As a former tour guide, she shared Seattle’s unique history and sensational cuisine with adventurous travelers from all over the world. Read More
Caitlin Moore Expedition Specialist
Caitlin grew up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and although she has a strong bias for evergreen trees, she feels at home when surrounded by nature in all its glorious forms, whether in her backyard or across the world. Her passionate love affair with travel began when, as a college graduation gift to herself, she ventured to Europe. Read More
Kelsey Bumsted Expedition Specialist
At the age of twenty-one, Kelsey de-enrolled from a semester of college to spend four months pursuing her own educational path in Nicaragua. Inspired by connecting with others during her independent travels, Kelsey joined the Peace Corps, spent two years in Belize, and has followed her insatiable curiosity across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. Read More
Brandye Alexander Expedition Specialist
It was time spent in the US Peace Corps which ignited Brandye’s passion for travel. Living abroad in Ukraine and experiencing its culture, history, and geography made her hungry to see more of the world. Later, when she visited the Galapagos Islands, travel shifted from something Brandye merely loved to something she absolutely needed—as essential as breathing. Read More
Tom Mountford Expedition Specialist
Originally from Staffordshire, England, Tom first started traveling when he accepted a diplomatic posting with the UK Foreign Service in Mumbai. After three years of living, working, and traveling around the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, Tom relocated to Shanghai for his second overseas assignment. Read More
Amanda Parshall Travel Coordinator Manager
After spending her childhood in a small town in Maine, Amanda was ready to break out and explore the world! That exploration started with a cross-country road trip the summer after graduating high school. The spirit and character she felt during her one-day stop in Seattle was the only inspiration she needed to pack up her life and move to the Emerald City. Read More
Marybeth Coghill Travel Coordinator
Marybeth is a Western Washington University graduate and a proud Seattle native who loves the Pacific Northwest and exploring its natural wonders. As a big fan of road trips, she continues to check destinations off her list, including trekking and hiking Yellowstone National Park. Read More
Sarah Anthony Travel Coordinator
Sarah is a proud Midwest native and semi-recent Seattle transplant, moving to the Emerald City in the summer of 2013 to pursue interests in the arts and theatre. Her love of travel was cemented with a five-month stay in the Emerald Isle to study Irish music and culture at the University of Ireland Maynooth, with frequent excursions to experience the countryside and coasts. Read More
Erin Phelan Travel Coordinator
While Erin loves to travel far and wide, she’s a proud Seattle native who thinks few places compare to the Pacific Northwest. She started traveling during her junior year at Washington State University, and she caught the inevitable ‘travel bug’ while studying abroad in Barcelona. Her curiosity eventually led her to the other side of the world to teach English in rural Thailand. Read More
April Petersen Accounts Manager
April received her first taste of international travel while still a teenager, volunteering with community service organizations in Europe. During the next several years, she explored the world on board expedition cruise ships working in retail and management positions. Her travels have taken her to such places as Antarctica, South America, Galapagos Islands, and Alaska. Read More
Sabrina Yoshitomi Accounts Manager
When people meet Sabrina, they get an instant shot of her high energy, positive attitude, and outgoing personality! As someone who enjoys math and loves building relationships, she has pursued a career path combining her number crunching skills with her desire to help others and her passion for travel. Read More
Shelley Fry Marketing and Media Manager
Shelley believes that penguins can change lives! She first discovered ExpeditionTrips as a client planning to visit penguins in Antarctica. A few months after her fantastic voyage to The Ice, Shelley packed up her business background to join the ExpeditionTrips crew. An independent-minded traveler, Shelley thrives on researching destinations and seeking out unique experiences. Read More
Jennie Drazan Marketing and Content Coordinator
Jennie discovered a love of travel and the outdoors from an early age on family trips to the Oregon Coast and National Parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite. While earning her degree in biology, she spent a summer in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands living with local families and studying environmental science and conservation. Read More
Maria Romero Marketing and Content Coordinator
Maria attributes her love of discovering new places and cultures to the Weekly Readers she devoured in elementary school. She began her first travel bucket list in the 3rd grade, when she read an article about the Galapagos giant tortoise. Read More