About the Opening Plenary
Tuesday, November 19 | 8:00 AM - 10:30 AM CT
Forget the Ice, Build Bridges
Kick off AORE’s 2024 Outdoor Professional Conference with the engaging and participatory session, Forget the Ice, Build Bridges, led by Sasha Griffith, Interim Associate Director of Programs & TEAM at James Madison University (JMU) and Owner and Chief Experiential Officer for Ferelith Consulting, LLC. This session will set the stage for a great week of networking with your colleagues (both new and old). Not only will this experience be used to ensure a great week in New Orleans, you’ll also have a few takeaways to use back home in your programming right away.
Rave Reviews from Previous Sessions by Sasha
"Sasha brings the energy to AORE sessions!"
"Sasha you're a great presenter and it was wonderful to attend your presentations!"
"Sasha is a great presenter! Seriously one of the best I've had in a while."
"The session was very interactive and enjoyable! Excited to bring this back to my program."
"This was an incredible and interactive session. Thank you for sharing these experiences with us!"
"Excited to implement more ice breaker games into our trips and be able to share with our trip leaders!"
"Loved it! New ways to improve team building with new and current staff."
About Sasha
Sasha Griffith is the Assistant Director for Adventure & TEAM Programs at James Madison University (JMU) and is the Owner and Chief Experiential Officer for Ferelith Consulting, LLC. She began her journey as a facilitator and outdoor leader in 2006 with her first job at Florida Elks Youth Camp. Since then she has worked on at least 12 ropes courses and helped to open two on university campuses. Sasha has become a contracted trainer where she travels around the country offering training and certifying practitioners. Sasha has served on a number of committees regionally and nationally. She has presented over 70 times at conferences of different sizes and has over 4500 hours working with teams to build their cohesion.
Her company Ferelith Consulting, LLC works with those seeking to develop programs, engage and grow their collaboration within their team, and take reflection into action. Beyond that Fereltih Consulting, LLC specializes in creating intentional spaces that build micro communities which allow people to be themselves, connect with others, reflect, and work to understand how that can help them in the now and in the future.
Sasha graduated from University of Central Florida (UCF) in 2010 with a Bachelor's degree having studied business, music, and recreation. She then accepted the graduate assistant position at Texas A&M University-Commerce where she was able to start the ropes/challenge course program and she learned what it takes to run outdoor adventure trips. Sasha earned her Master’s degree studying Training and Development. Some of her memberships include Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI): a music fraternity, the Association of Challenge Course Technology (ACCT), the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), and the Association of Outdoor Recreation Education (AORE).
Sasha was born in Georgetown, Guyana but grew up in Orlando, Florida. She has 4 younger siblings, Hugh, Victor, Jarod, and Alyssa. Sasha enjoys spending time with her wife Jojo, her son Sajan, and her family as much as possible. Her favorite activities include traveling, cooking, watching movies, hiking, paddling, and learning new things.
"If you really challenge yourself,
you can truly change your world."
About the Closing Plenary
Thursday, November 21 | 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM CT
Higher Ground: Transformative Power and Impact of the Outdoor Recreation Industry
Luis Benitez will deliver the closing plenary session, inspiring attendees to recognize the transformative power of outdoor spaces. Highlighting the "Butterfly Effect," Luis will illustrate how outdoor educators can create lifelong positive impacts on those they instruct—our nation's future leaders, scientists, healthcare professionals, and voters.
This session delves into the critical role of public lands and the outdoor recreation industry amid growing environmental threats and regulatory rollbacks, themes explored in his book, Higher Ground: How the Outdoor Recreation Industry Can Save the World. Generating over $1.1 trillion annually and employing 5 million people, this sector stretches from the ski slopes of New Hampshire to Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Inn.
Benitez, an international mountaineering guide and influential figure in the outdoor recreation movement, is Chief Impact Officer for Trust for Public Land. He uses his extensive experience to illustrate how outdoor activities and industries are both avenues for adventure and crucial drivers of economic, social, and environmental progress. This session will explore the significant potential of the outdoor recreation industry as a bipartisan force capable of addressing global challenges and why investing in our outdoor spaces is key to preserving our planet.
Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with one of the leading voices in the outdoor recreation movement and discover the profound impact you can have. A book signing for Higher Ground will follow the plenary session, where Luis will be available to sign copies for attendees.
About Luis
Throughout his career, as a professional mountaineering guide, Luis has summited the top of the famed Seven Summits a cumulative 32 times, including being a six-time summiteer of Mt. Everest.
Because of this, between managing expeditions on some of the most remote peaks in the world, while working in the public and private sectors, Benitez works to tie the lessons available from the outdoors and carry them back to the everyday challenges of life and business while always holding a keen focus on the global development and advancement of the outdoor industry.
At the start of his career, Benitez spent a decade managing the well-established outdoor leadership development school, Outward Bound Professional.
Luis has also served as the COO and Director of Operations for Adventure Consultants (AC), a highly respected New Zealand-based global expedition firm with a long and storied history of leading trips on Mt. Everest that was featured both in the book Into Thin Air and in the movie Everest.
Benitez has reported from Mt. Everest for ABC-TV News, and has filmed segments for National Geographic on Mt. Everest.
At the heart of his career, Luis has always focused on servant leadership. Some of his most rewarding work has been to help create the internal university for Vail Resorts, focusing on leadership development for every level of employee and executive.
Benitez has also worked with VF Corporation, creating and leading a global government affairs function and restructuring and re-launching The VF Foundation. VF is a Fortune 500 holding company whose portfolio includes some of the most iconic brands in the outdoor industry like The North Face, Supreme, Smartwool, and Timberland to name a few.
Benitez also helped create the nonprofit Trekking For Kids, which focuses on service based expeditions allowing participants to climb and trek while teaching them about local issues like housing and healthcare for disadvantaged youth around the world. Benitez was also a founding partner for Warriors to Summits, a nonprofit focusing on serving returning Veterans by connecting them with the outdoors.
Benitez has also served as an adjunct professor in Ecuador and Chile for the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and at The University of Colorado at Boulders Outdoor Recreation Economy masters program
In the last 10 years, Benitez has grown to have a deeper investment in public service 1st by serving as a Town Councilman in Eagle, Colorado and then serving as the 1st State Director for the Outdoor Recreation Industry office for the State of Colorado under Governor Hickenlooper’s administration and then with the Polis administration.
Benitez recently served as the Chief Impact Officer for the Trust for Public Land and is now the VP Global Government Affairs for Lululemon.
Benitez holds a professional mountaineering guide accreditation with an Honoris Causa from Colorado Mountain College in Outdoor Recreation Leadership and Avalanche Science and an Executive MBA from the University of Denver (DU) with an emphasis certification for behavioral sciences and public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
If there is any message that Luis likes to leave with the clients he works with, it is this;
If you really challenge yourself, you can truly change your world.
