Our Staff

Brad Ludden, Founder/CEO
Brad (aka Daril, Biff, Bud, B) was born in Wyoming and raised in Northwest Montana. He spent his days in the outdoors with his family hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, skiing and, of course, kayaking. Of all his passions, kayaking caught his eye the most. His parents gave him his first kayak when he was 9 and at age 12 he was traveling and competing internationally. By 18 he had kayaking in over 20 countries and found his true passion within the sport, first descents. A first descent is the first time a person successfully kayaks a river or section of river that has never been done. Through his first descents he found immense challenge, adventure, community and personal growth.

Cancer went from being just some random word to something very personal when he was 12 and his Aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 38. After watching her endure cancer and seeing how little support there was available to her, Brad started volunteering for a local pediatric oncology program by teaching the participants how to kayak. He fell in love with it and decided it was time to do more so at 18, he started working on an organization that would soon become “First Descents”. Its goal- to help young adults like his Aunt by giving them the life changing experience of kayaking. “I wanted to recreate the experience of a ‘first descent’, that had so greatly impacted my life, for people like my aunt who really needed it. Even though thousands of people have been down the rivers they’re kayaking at camp, it’s still the FIRST time they’ve been down it and that’s the magic of FD!”

Brad continues to kayak professionally for Teva, Dagger, AT Paddles, Kokatat and Smith Optics and still pursues his own adventures on rivers around the world when he’s not passionately working with and for First Descents.

Kelly Malin, COO/Director of Marketing
Kelly (aka #2, C-Wow) spent most of her career in automotive advertising. In 2006 she and her husband, Jamie, decided to give up the corporate life, buy a bike and ski shop and move to Vail, CO. Kelly first got involved with FD when she and her husband, Jamie, met Allan Goldberg and agreed to sponsor the first Leadville 100 FD team. She’s excited to be now be working for First Descents!

Kelly splits her time between FD World Headquarters in Denver and home in Vail. A life-long sports nut who loves to be outdoors, she spends her free time cycling, skiing, playing hockey and hiking with Jamie and their dogs.

 

Whitney Lange, Director of Programs
Raised in Glacier National Park, Whitney (aka Wang) has been a lifelong outdoor enthusiast. After graduating from the University of Montana, Whitney spent years as a whitewater rafting and fly fishing guide on Glacier’s Flathead River system. She then moved on to co-own and operate a successful land title company in rural Western Montana before joining the First Descents team in 2007, where she found a perfect union between her love for the outdoors, and her passion for people.

Today, Whitney splits her time between the mountains of Colorado and Montana, and is thrilled to continue the groundbreaking work of First Descents

Lisa Goldstein, Director of Development
Lisa (aka Stepmom, mom-a-thon) is the Director of Development and also the Manager/Captain Extraordinaire of First Descents’ athletic fundraising arm, TEAM FD.  Lisa was introduced to FD at the ripe young age of 40 when she was asked by her friend, the late former FD Executive Director, Allan Goldberg, to attend a camp.  Little did she know that this one incredible week spent at a Montana kayaking FD camp would change her life.  Soon after her return from camp, Lisa began volunteering part-time for FD.

Before long, she abandoned her budding career in real estate to become a full-time FD volunteer and then a full-time employee, first working as as a liaison with FD Participant Alumni, then working as a Programming Coordinator and more recently taking over as the head of TEAM FD.

When not “FD’ing it up”, Lisa lives with husband Brent in Rockville, Maryland where she is Mom (not Stepmom) to three beautiful daughters, Daryn (16), Arlyn (12) and Bailey (10).  Her hobbies include biking, skiing, tennis, reading and (gasp) knitting.

Rebekah Koenigbauer, Events and Communications Manager
After graduating from the University of Ohio in 2004 Rebekah (aka Remix) moved from her hometown state to beautiful Colorado in seek of a new adventure. Rebekah continued her education by working to get her Masters of Social Work from the University of Denver while simultaneously pursuing a career in the construction industry. Upon graduation with her MSW Rebekah set out to find a career path that she was passionate about and from the day she stumbled upon First Descents she has not looked back. Rebekah considers First Descents to be a complete blessing in her life. She is grateful for everything from the life-changing relationships to the valuable marketing experience.

Rebekah equally enjoys her time spent in the office and her time spent at the FD programs. In her off-time Rebekah continues to coach youth soccer in Denver.

Peta Sheridan, Programs Manager
Peta (aka Pita) was raised in the United Kingdom, and fortunate to travel extensively with her family. Her love for the outdoors started at an early age. Following her father up and down mountains became a regular event, and a challenge, for it was only when he turned 65, did she finally start beating him to the summit!
Peta left the UK after high school to follow the dream of skiing year round, which took her all over the world. After spending a few months in Africa on the way home one year, she decided it was time to get a ‘real job’ and learned how to fly. From Africa, her newly acquired flying skills bought her to Park City, UT where she lived for 7 years, pursuing her career in Aviation and taking full advantage of what the American outdoors has to offer.

Peta has been in Colorado for the last 4 years, and last spring decided to change things up, and took off in a van with the dogs, pulling a trailer loaded with boats, to work as a Camp Director for FD in MT, OR and CO.  We are so excited to have her on FD Staff year round as our Programs Manager.

Julie Kinamore, Programs Coordinator
Julie hails from the great city of Collinsville, IL — the horseradish and ketchup bottle capital of the world. After graduating from the University of Dayton in 2006 she spent several years guiding snorkeling and whale watching tours in Maui as a marine naturalist and a summer in Juneau, Alaska as a zipline guide.  Julie continued her education at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she studied to earn her Master of Science in Kinesiology while working as the Outdoor Recreation Graduate Assistant. While not in class, she coordinated and led camping, canoeing, skiing, and climbing trips for the university community. Immediately following graduation Julie moved to Denver to escape the humidity in southern Illinois and explore the mountains. Julie is pumped to be working at First Descents and is excited to bring the outdoors to others as a source of personal, emotional, physical and spiritual growth. Besides FD, Julie loves cooking, scuba diving, backpacking, traveling and rollerblading.

Matt Glowinsky, Programs Coordinator
Matt (aka Doogie) is a recent addition to the First Descents family.  Matt has always felt a strong pull to experience the outdoors and help others do the same.  While in college studying psychology, he had the opportunity to go on a month-long sea-kayaking and backpacking expedition in Alaska through National Outdoor Leadership School.  It was on this trip that he decided to combine his passions for the outdoors and helping people into a career. After receiving his BA in Psychology in 2008 from University of Brockport, Matt moved to Utah.  There, he worked for an outfitter and whenever possible would climb, bike and hike throughout Zion National Park.  In 2009, Matt moved to Colorado to complete a Masters in Social Work at University of Denver.  He received his MSW in 2011.

Having experienced first hand the therapeutic benefits of the outdoors, Matt truly believes in the positive effects First Descents programs will have on those who participate in them.  He is thrilled to be a part of such a dedicated team and furthering the mission of First Descents.

Jenna Catalona, Marketing Coordinator
Jenna (aka Lucy) is originally from Kent, Ohio. Graduating from Kent State University in 2011, she studied Marketing and has an extensive background studying French. She loves to travel and spent a summer studying French at the University of Paris and took time to explore much of Europe.  She moved back to Denver a few months ago after briefly living here in 2006, mainly for the sunshine, and the mountains. She loves spending time traveling, hiking, camping, catching live music. She also likes to try to raft once or twice a summer and has recently found an interest in rock climbing and stand-up paddle boarding. After graduating, she knew that she wanted to find work with an organization that had a truly meaningful purpose, and when she discovered First Descents, she knew that it was meant to be!

Jenna finds finds solace in the outdoors and in challenging herself, and she fully believes in what FD can do for a person’s confidence and soul. She also has a strong passion for animals- she has two cats (Kiki and Koopa) and a dog (Ruby), who she adores more than anything! Jenna is pumped to be a part of the First Descents team and is excited and eager to help fulfill FD’s mission.

Paul Kelly, Administrative Coordinator
Originally growing up in Houston, TX, Paul (aka Crash) moved to Colorado as soon as he could to major in Marketing and minor in skiing at Colorado State University. During this time Paul fell in love with the river, working as a raft guide and kayak instructor on the Cache la Poudre River outside of Fort Collins, CO.  After graduating, Paul continued to pursue his passion for the outdoors by traveling throughout the west in search of new rivers and new adventures. While he still claims homes all over Oregon and Colorado, he has finally settled down in Denver, CO. Paul is stoked to be working with a great group of people in a great organization. He feels that the places he has been and the people he has been there with have shaped his life forever. Now he wants to help others to experience their own connections with nature and find the support to overcome anything through the FD mission!

Willie Kern, Global Experience Developer
Willie Kern (aka sweet D) was raised in northern New England and beyond as a skier,a boater, a biker, and ultimately a lover of all things wild. He is a self-proclaimed river runner respected by generations of paddlers who is also recognized internationally as a voice of conservation, communication and safety on the river.
Over the last two and a half decades, Willie has assembled a portfolio of kayak descents covering nearly every corner of the northern hemisphere, from the Americasto Asia and often on first descents of the world’s most technically and logistically challenging runs. For some, most notably he was a member of the expedition that became the first to run the legendary “Upper Gorges” of the Great Bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo.

In addition to becoming one of the foremost expedition paddlers, Willie has also worked developing eco-tourism and guide training programs in Asia for over a decade. Consequent to that experience he is a founding member of the Oregon based charity, FLOW (forloveofwater).
He has served as a co-cameraman for the adventure documentaries, “The Yunnan Great Rivers Expedition”, and a discovery channel series on the “Lost Worlds” of Bhutan. As well, Willie has co-facilitated logistics and safety for the SLP documentaries “Into The Tsangpo Gorge”, “Liquid off the Throne of Shiva” and the “Liquid Lifestyles” series, and he has done voice over work for “Unparalleled” telemark ski films.

Throughout, Willie has taught and coached with a host of incarnations of accredited experiential and outdoor education programs. He speaks publicly in favor of  the protection of cultural and natural heritage and he has guided on and around rivers for his entire adult life, most enduringly with Tarkio Kayak Adventures.

Most importantly, Willie may be new to FD but he is not new to what we do, do.

Corey Nielsen, Global Experience Developer
Before coming to First Descents in 2000, Corey trained and raced whitewater slalom kayaks at the national and international level. Having earned two national championship medals in wildwater and slalom, he dedicated his life to pursuing his passion of excellence in whitewater kayaking. A major highlight in his athletic career came in 1996, when he served as the head coach for the Republic of Panama in the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. After retiring from paddling, Corey targeted the multi-sport discipline of adventure racing as a medium to continue to push himself in his life. He raced for one of the top teams in the United States in such races as the Eco-Challenge, Four Square Challenge, and the Adventure Extreme Series. As a result of his life experiences in both whitewater and adventure racing, Corey founded the Nielsen Training Group (NTG), a leadership and sales training-based company specializing in professional skills training. Recently, Corey has utilized his community influence and passion and has begun work with a grassroots environmental organization striving to designate numerous rivers near his hometown of Durango, Colorado as Wild and Scenic River status. Corey not only brings his unbridled enthusiasm and energy to First Descents, but also a vision to touch as many lives as possible in an attempt to maximize the quality of life for fellow humans surviving cancer. Corey’s first job; “Helping my dad clean up a housing project (that he “invested in”) and using a fire hose to clean out sewers. It was a humbling experience at age 13 and every job from then on was a walk in the park!” His inspiration, he says, “without a doubt is the participants of First Descents’ programs over the years who have taught me the true “meaning of life” – to laugh and to love. For this, I am eternally grateful.

Kristina Gritz, Sr. Accountant
Krissy (aka F Bomb) was born and raised in Long Island, New York and attended Hofstra University.  Krissy was introduced to FD while working for an FD board member & they moved into the office.  After seeing what FD is all about and the amazing people involved she acquired a strong admiration and fondness for the courage and achievements for everyone FD touches.

Krissy left the city life and great beaches of New York and now enjoys the wonderful things Colorado has to offer.  Krissy enjoys traveling, hiking, caddying, reading, the beach and spending time with her husband, two children and beloved cat.