Instructors - Vision Workshops

Akuot (Bullen) Chol Mayak

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
I dreamt to be a businessman which now turned out to be a cameraman.

Favorite song or band or musician?
The Man, by Aloe Blacc

Fun fact
I'm afraid of caterpillars.

Alison Harbaugh

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Architect

Favorite song or band or musician?
Graham Parsons

Fun fact
I've flown on a zero gravity flight.

Amy Toensing

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Artist

Favorite song or band or musician?
John Prine

Fun fact
I used to work and live on tall ships.

Anand Varma

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
A dead bird scientist.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Ludovico Einaudi

Fun fact
I learned how to knit in 4th grade. I never graduated past knitting scarves though.

Andrea Bruce

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Firefighter

Favorite song or band or musician?
Radiohead

Fun fact
I lived in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Mexico, and I like to eat the chocolate off of a Snicker's bar before I eat the rest.

Arati Kumar-Rao

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
I dreamed of walking across landscapes, chronicling stories for National Geographic.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd

Fun fact
I can write with both hands and backwards (mirror handwriting), something I have practised doing since childhood. Why? I have no clue.

Ashima Narain

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a car mechanic.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Tu Jaane Na by Aatif Aslam

Fun fact
During lockdown I did 3 online courses on snake ecology as we moved to an area where we were surrounded by a myriad of snakes, including cobras and Russell’s vipers. (But they were not as interested in us as we were in them!)

Clifton Shipway

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
A vigilante crime fighter like batman!

Favorite song or band or musician?
Nick Murphy

Fun fact
I rode a motorcycle to Mt Everest.

David Guttenfelder

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Baseball Catcher

Favorite song or band or musician?
Sufjan Stevens

Fun fact
I went to university in Tanzania.

Deonte Ward

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Professional Football Player

Favorite song or band or musician?
Three Little Birds, Bob Marley

Fun fact
Every car I've ever had has been silver.

Dominic Bracco II

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Marine Biologist

Favorite song or band or musician?
Pancho and Lefty by Willie Nelson. Album: DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar

Fun fact
I travel with a skateboard.

Ed Kashi

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Baseball Player, Novelist

Favorite song or band or musician?
VanMorrison/Stevie Wonder/ Beatles/Brazilian music/Senegalese Music

Fun fact
My parents were born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq.

Erika Larsen

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Astronaut

Favorite song or band or musician?
Unbroken Chain, Grateful Dead

Fun fact
Sticker books are a big deal to me.

Evgenia Arbugaeva

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
A painter and Jacque Cousteau

Favorite song or band or musician?
Space Oddity by David Bowie

Fun fact
I can ride a dog sled. My family in Siberia has seventy dogs of Yakutian Laika breed, all very pretty and fluffy with blue eyes.

Federico Pardo

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
A vet, then a doctor.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Depends on the mood but Radiohead is an all time favorite, Bomba Estéreo a great Colombian band and old salsa music is the perfect energy booster.

Fun fact
Since 2012 I have been photographing myself at barber shops around the world and thus far I have almost a 100 stories to tell.

Francesca Ciglar

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Work in the UN as a translator

Favorite song or band or musician?
Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin)

Fun fact
I speak a little Spanish, Greek and Italian and I love to cook for relaxation.

George McKenzie Jr.

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Fighter pilot

Favorite song or band or musician?
Swedish House Mafia

Fun fact
I know the smell of rats.

Jahawi Bertolli

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
A jet fighter pilot, geologist and precious stone prospector.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Le Onde by Ludovico Einaudi

Fun fact
At age 9 I had set up the East African Snake Catching Society and I used to catch and relocate snakes from peoples gardens in Nairobi back to the wild.

John Marshall

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Cartoonist

Favorite song or band or musician?
James Taylor

Fun fact
I'm the guy posing with the cardboard cutouts at "Sunset Selfies" on Instagram.

Jon Brack

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Astronaut

Favorite song or band or musician?
While my Guitar Gently Weeps, The Beatles

Fun fact
I lived at the South Pole for a year.

Jordan Henson

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a Sports Agent.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Morning Sunrise by Weldon Irvine

Fun fact
I collect vintage 80's and early 90's steel road bikes, refurbish, and ride them.

Julie Winokur

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to a be professional dancer, which I actually did achieve as my first career.

Favorite song or band or musician?
“I’ll Take You There” by the Staple Singers. It rocks my core every time I hear it.

Fun fact
I love condiments so much that I see most food’s main function as a means of delivery for the condiments.

Kirsten Elstner (Instructor 2001-2023)

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Adventure travel trip leader

Favorite song or band or musician?
Three Little Birds, Bob Marley
Love is My Religion, Ziggy Marley

Fun fact
I swam across the Chesapeake Bay, and my first job was as a photographer for a white water rafting company in New Zealand.

Kirsten Luce

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
A veterinarian.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Otis Redding

Fun fact
My name is Danish because my uncle married a woman from Denmark and each of their children came to live with us for a while when we were growing up. These experiences with my family was my introduction to different cultures and worldviews and ignited my interest in traveling.

Lynn Johnson

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Artist, Photographer, Helicopter Pilot

Favorite song or band or musician?
Yo Yo Ma

Fun fact
I am a slightly crazy road biker.

Luján Agusti

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Everything! Photography gave me the possibility of knowing many worlds in just one life.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Zamba para Olvidarte, by Mercedes Sosa

Fun fact
I put avocado on everything I can, including desserts.

Matt Moyer

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
A vet for exotic animals

Favorite song or band or musician?
Bruce Springsteen

Fun fact
I lived in Egypt for 3 years and my favorite non-photography thing to do is fly fishing.

Matthieu Paley

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Windsurf champion

Favorite song or band or musician?
Where is my Mind, by the Pixies

Fun fact
I am nicknamed “eye eater” by a nomadic community in Afghanistan. Because they occasionally eat goat’s eyes there and I never refuse.

Meghan Dhaliwal

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Marine Biologist

Favorite song or band or musician?
On sunny days: Anderson .Paak, on rainy days: Fleetwood Mac, on all days: Beyoncé

Fun fact
I'm terrified of clowns.

Mel Burford

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Musician

Favorite song or band or musician?
Crowded House, Jon Batiste, Fantastic Negrito

Fun fact
I'm from New Zealand, met a Danish guy in Texas, we now live in Norway with our two boys who were born in New York.

Paul Salopek

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Didn’t know. Still don’t.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Baka water music

Fun fact
Can walk and write at the same time.

Pete Muller

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
A firefighter or police officer but a civil war soldier, mobster or Robin Hood were also in play. I just knew that I wanted to be where the action was.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Van Morrison

Fun fact
I am the third generation of professional photographer in my family. I never thought I'd choose this path, however. I think I was conscripted through cosmic conspiracy.

Ronan Donovan

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
A mountain man living off the land in Alaska.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Coffee, by Sylvan Esso

Fun Fact
I rode a motorcycle 3,500 miles solo across eastern Europe in 2007.

Sara Hylton

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
I was a performer and a dancer as a child and I was pretty certain I wanted to be on stage.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Rolling Stones, Beast of Burden. My father used to play it on repeat when I was a kid, it reminds me of my roots and brings me back to the people and places that made me.

Fun fact
I have an identical twin and I am plant based.

Stacy Gold

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Inventor

Favorite song or band or musician?
Me and Bobby McGee/Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Tracy Chapman

Fun Fact
I was in the half time show at a PSU basketball game breakdancing in tenth grade.

Tomas Ayuso

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
An astronaut.

Favorite song or band or musician?
Las Grecas and Caribou

Fun fact
For the longest time I was deathly afraid of dogs. Until one day, my college roommate got a rescue dog named Steve. Steve and I became quick friends, and he helped me get over my phobia.

Tony Ayigah

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Actor or a professional athlete

Favorite song or band or musician?
Kendrick Lamar

Fun fact
In 2014 I won the USA Men’s Club Rugby National Championship with my team Rocky Gorge.

Tyrone Turner

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Photographer, Psychologist

Favorite song or band or musician?
New Orleans brass band, Brazilian samba, and anything by Green Day

Fun Fact
When I was a kid, I thought how fast I ran depended on my shoes.

William Daniels

What you wanted to be when you grew up?
Something that flies, whatever it is!

Favorite song or band or musician?
Fela Kuti and Frederic Chopin

Fun fact
When I was 20, I travelled across the West Indies by sailboat hitchhiking.

[ Instructors ]