Our Team
About Us
Meet Our Mission’s Stewards
The people featured here are just one piece of our organization. We’re grateful to our larger community - from guides to families, participants to donors, and our neighbors at Songia Cohousing Community - who form the heart of Journeys. More information on our organizational ancestors & staff emeritus can be found below.
Administrative Staff
Our administrative team brings the Journeys village together and keeps it running from behind-the-scenes.
Executive Director
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Laura Brown (she/her) is a nonprofit leader with a foundation in justice-centered experiential education.
Originally from the Coast Miwok lands of Sebastopol, California, she has lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest on-and-off since 2014. That was the year she moved to a remote North Cascades valley and recognized that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from mountain and community wisdom.
Since then, she has spent her career designing and directing education programs with organizations such as Teton Science Schools, IslandWood, and the Overlake School, where her focus has been to combine equitable, responsive operations with vital curricular content that bonds young people to the earth and each other.
Through racial equity consulting and educational leadership roles, she also brings experience developing inclusive teams, helping organizations thrive in integrity to their mission, and facilitating learning groups in pursuit of personal growth and collective liberation.
Having been shaped by her own experiences of ritual, mentorship, and soulful self-inquiry, Laura is in deep personal and professional alignment with the Journeys mission to initiate rites of passage and foster a version of leadership that nourishes, restores, and connects. She joins the Journeys community with reverence for its powerful legacy and eager to be a collaborative steward of the ongoing work!resilience, and joy.
Program Director
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Katie (she/her) grew up on Ozark rivers and Great Plains prairies. The wonder and belonging found there sparked her lifelong connection to place and curiosity about the lessons of landscape.
Katie views the natural world as both a scientific and sacred teacher - one that models interconnection, resilience, and joy. She sees ecosystems as an embodiment of what loving communities can look like, and is dedicated to helping people cultivate a deeper sense of belonging within themselves, their communities, and the natural world.
In pursuit of this, Katie has worked in and managed collegiate and therapeutic outdoor programs since 2020, while also dabbling in environmental education, eco-chaplaincy, and eco-poetics. She holds a Master’s degree in Recreation Management, and dedicated her graduate work to creating more inclusive and equitable outdoor programs.
In her free time, Katie enjoys drinking tea and playing music. Her favorite PNW creatures are harbor seals and pika, and she is conceptually drawn to the profound symbolism of nurse logs.
Pictured above playing with crabs while guiding a recent school program on the WA coast.
Admin & Community Outreach
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West (they/them) is a proudly enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana and a descendant of the Turtle Mountain Tribe. They grew up right in the middle of the big city of Seattle.
As a born and raised city kid, they spent their youth exploring parks and beaches but also immersed in the hustle and bustle of city life. As a young person they had the opportunity to go on a wilderness Rite of Passage trip that helped them connect to nature and wilderness in a new way. Now, they spend each day in deep connection to the land they live on at Songaia Co-Housing Community in Bothell, WA where they have learned much about permaculture, herbal medicine, and many aspects of community life.
They have spent much of their career as a caregiver of children and are excited about supporting young people and their families in connecting to nature through wilderness rites of passage. West is also a visual artist and dancer. Their happiest space is deep inside the creative process, listening to what wants to emerge and bringing it forth.
Board of Directors
Our board offers guidance, perspective, and steady hands-on support to help Journeys grow and stay true to its mission.
Board Vice President
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Faculty, Cascadia Community College, Bothell, WA
Dr. Brian Bansenauer is a member of the Songaia Cohousing community, where Journeys hosts its summer basecamp. Brian joined Journeys Bard in 2012 to continue to deepen the relationship between Songaia and Rite of Passage Journeys.
Brian teaches at Cascadia College near Seattle, and spends his summers hiking and playing in the garden.
Board Treasurer
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Paul’s first experience with Journeys was as a parent, when in 2013 his daughter went on a Coming of Age trip. This was a transformative experience for the whole family. A long-time supporter of Journeys, Paul finally took his own mountain quest in 2021.
When he isn’t communing with nature or jumping in cold water, Paul is on a sailboat, or telling stories, or practicing Aikido and Jiu Jitsu, or playing with mathematics and computers as the head of research at a local investment firm in Seattle.
Board Secretary
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Annabelle (she/her) is from southwestern Washington where she picked up some of her favorite hobbies, such as looking for bugs and making fire. She has since then found many avenues for those early desires to know and love the world around us, and has pursued this in forms such as teaching outdoor education, directing summer camp, getting a graduate degree in philosophy, and working in wilderness therapy.
In all of her work, she has loved the intense, meaningful experience of outdoor living with others and often ponders what it means to be a person in community with other persons, human and more-than-human.
These days, she splits her time between the lush, squishy temperate rainforest of western Washington and the resilient expanse of sagebrush steppe in southern Idaho. In her spare time, she still likes to look for bugs and make fires, and has recently begun to learn some woodworking.
President Emeritus
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Faculty, Liberal Arts Bachelor's Completion Program, Antioch University, Seattle
Randy Morris has been a faculty member in the Liberal Studies Program at Antioch University Seattle since 1987. Prior to that, Randy taught kids, K-12, in Atlanta, Georgia and Hiroshima, Japan for ten years. Currently, he teaches adult classes in dreamwork, archetypal and spiritual psychology, history and philosophy of science, ritual process and ceremonial design. Randy has been doing vision quest work since 1990, and has successfully created and facilitated Journeys' first Ritual Leadership program.
Board President
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Jeff (he/him) was born on the Great Plains in the ancestral lands of the Kiowa and the Kansa peoples, where bison once roamed free and where towering thunderstorms roll across the prairie bringing wondrous lightning shows. Salina, Kansas is his hometown and is where he was raised. At Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, Jeff trained in the vocation of computer programming and discovered a lasting spirit source: flying discs, Ultimate frisbee, and the Ultimate tribe.
In Wichita, Kansas, Jeff worked at Boeing and met his anam cara, Jane. Together Jeff and Jane followed their hearts and traveled to the other side of the earth, Aotearoa - land of the long white cloud, New Zealand, ancestral home of the Maori people, and new home to the Zimmerman family. There, in that beautiful place, they started a life together and gave birth to two Kiwi-American kids. Four years later, they returned to the northern hemisphere and found their way to Edmonds, Washington.
Since 1989, Jeff and Jane have worked, and played, and thrived in the Great Pacific Northwest. They love their Edmonds community and are deeply rooted there. Their children are now adults and live in Oregon with their partners. Jeff still works as a technology consultant and still plays a bit of Ultimate. Drumming circles resonating with afro/caribbean rhythms, learning to surf in the cold waters of the Pacific, and a regular meditation/yoga practice are the latest additions to his list of passions.
Jeff’s involvement with Rite of Passage Journeys extends over the past decade+, including Dream of the Earth lodges, ritual classes, and storytelling workshops. Jeff’s most recent Rite of Passage experience was the 2020 Adult Wilderness Quest, which is still marinating in his heart, soul and mind.
As a part of the Journeys Board, Jeff feels he has found a place where he can integrate his entire self, soul and spirit, vocation and avocation. Nourishment of the earth and the human spirit are at the core of the Journeys mission and this is where Jeff plants his center pole. Beyond that core stance, Jeff feels he brings organizational skills, tech smarts, rhythm elements, recruitment experience, love, fun, energy, spirit, and other nuances that will emerge with time.
In summary: Jeff is committed. He is committed to serving in the co-creation of an inclusive, spirited, beautiful, diverse, and profuse flowering of the Journeys vision and mission. Jeff intends to be a spirit steward and to act as an agent for sustainable growth, imaginative change, and generative vision. This is a key part of his vibrant path forward and he is very excited to grow in this way.
Board Member
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unemee (she/her) was born and raised in Lake Forest Park, WA. A graduate of Seattle’s Lakeside School, she was a Social Studies concentrator at Harvard College and earned a Regional Studies master's degree at Harvard's Griffin Graduate School of Arts & Sciences with further doctoral-level studies in History and Social Anthropology. During her time in Cambridge, she was a prefect, proctor, resident tutor, and assistant resident dean, as well as an award-winning teaching fellow and academic advisor in both the humanities and social sciences.
After the birth of her first child, Junemee educated herself about child-rearing using the same rigorous attention to detail she had brought to her scholarly pursuits. She then combined her academic and residential advising expertise with her lived experience to begin coaching students and other parents.
Not only has she served in multiple family association roles, Junemee was a blogger, an Etsy store owner, and professional organizer. She also gained corporate experience as a client and operations manager first at Merrill Lynch and then Rockefeller Capital Management.
In her private mentorship practice, she utilizes 25+ years of educational and developmental acumen to guide families from preschool to grad school, crafting personalized roadmaps for academic and socio-emotional success and fulfillment – building skills, connections, mindsets, and self-understandings which last a lifetime.
Her calling is to cultivate courageous and self-aware young people and guide caregivers to hone a value-driven parenting approach. She hopes to role model resilience, discernment, and compassionate citizenship while promoting diverse definitions of success.
In addition to her mentorship work, she dedicates many hours to service – volunteering as a Harvard College Admissions alum interviewer, chairing the DEIB committee of Lakeside School’s Alum Board, co-leading Lakeside’s LGBTQIA2+ PG affinity group, advocating for neurodiverse and differently-abled communities, guest-speaking at schools, moderating panel discussions, and emceeing events.
Junemee's connection to Rites of Passage Journeys began when her son participated in Olympic Odyssey. She joined the Journey's Board of Directors in 2026 and is excited to also engage as a facilitator for community programming.
In her spare time, she enjoys cultivating houseplants, going on hikes, doing arts & crafts, reading books borrowed from the library, and playing board games.
Board Member
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Bothell, WA, Songaia Member, Youth Program Elder
Nancy Lanphear has lived in intentional community for 41 years. She and Fred, her husband, along with their children, were voluntary staff of the Ecumenical Institute and the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA), serving in Kenya, India and the USA for 18 years. Working with villagers and local governments in these other countries gave their lives a global perspective — and one full of adventure.
Our Great Ecosystem
Rite of Passage Journeys is a web of connections and relationships. Although our year-round staff team is small, our community creates a rich network of support for the organization for which we are forever grateful.
Bios for guides and community programs facilitators can be found on individual trip or program webpages.
Honoring Transitions
Journeys gratefully acknowledges the contributions of all our past staff and Board of Directors members, who continue to serve Journeys and the world in many ways!
We honor past staff: Stan Crow • Leif Oden • Rebecca Orton • Darcy Ottey • Ursula Popp • Oz Ragland • Lisa Reddick • Kathleen Redmond • Danna Schmidt • Brent Stuart • Tamara Walker • Gary Yonge • Jenny Macke • Kylie Loynd • Tarek Kutay • Akasha Dove • Jakob Ledbetter • Chris LaLiberte
We give gratitude to past board members: Fred Lanphear • Holm Albrecht • Amanda Ayling • Molly Brown • Carol Crow • Chris Dishman • Nina Franklin • Stef Frenzl • Marisa Gant • Maria Garcia • Kathie Gillet • Ricardo Gomez • Edith Kusnic • Glenn Martin • Drew Middlebrooks • David Moskowitz • Ed Mosshart • Peter Nguyen • Amara Oden • Julie Adams