Randy Richards

Dexter " Randy" Richards, founder and executive director of MSI, has guided and taught individuals, clients, and participants throughout South America, the European Alps and the Western US since 1981. He has been a senior guide for Alpine Ascents International on Aconcagua, Argentina, four of Ecuador’s major volcanoes, and expedition co-leader on Mt. Huascaran, Peru, as well as a respected instructor in the North Cascades, Sierra Nevada and Alaska. He was a senior staff-trainer for Pacific Crest Outward Bound along the west coast ranges, instructing semester, rock, mountaineering, sea-kayaking and seamanship programs. He is the recipient of the 2004 OBP Leadership Award for his work with corporate and civic groups on the eastern seaboard with Outward Bound Professional. Richards attended the Peruvian Government sponsored conference on sustainable and alternative tourism called ALTUR and was the first North American invited to this conference. There he met some enthusiastic locals in the Peruvian outdoor field, adding to the contacts and friends that Randy has known from guiding in South America. He has been meditating regularly since a young age, and has been doing intuitive readings for 17 years. He accepted an invitation by an elder, to be a member of a Native American church "in the capacity of shaman, healer and minister." He is an individual member of American Mountain Guides Association; Level III Alpine Ski Instructor, Level II Backcountry Ski Guide, Level II Nordic Downhill Instructor with Professional Ski Instructors Association- Intermountain, holds a USCG 100-ton license from Pacific Maritime Academy in Honolulu and is a graduate of University of Utah. He speaks English, French, Spanish, German and some Quechua.

Robert Stremba, Ed.D.

Bob Stremba, Ed.D., is Coordinator and Associate Professor of Adventure Education at Fort Lewis College in Durango Colorado. He also instructs courses for Outward Bound focusing on leadership. His personal and professional adventure pursuits include mountaineering backpacking and sea kayaking. Bob’s international travels include Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, and much of Europe. He has previously worked as director of Counseling, Health and Wellness at the University of Puget Sound, and has been a visiting Professor of Adventure Education at New Mexico Highlands University. He serves as an accreditation reviewer and executive board member for the Association for Experiential Education and is the Vice President and a guide/facilitator for Mountain Spirit Institute. Bob second language is Spanish.

Craig Cimmons


Craig has a solid wilderness leadership and program management background mainly from Green Mountain College in Vermont where he ran the outdoor program. Craig has a passion for connecting people with nature and draws upon his breadth of natural history knowledge as well has his spiritual connection. His position on the board brings needed focus to our Northern New England outdoor programs.
Craig is currently putting the finishing touches on his Masters degree at Antioch New England.

Richard Cari

Richard and his parents Sigundino and Marcelina Cari, own the Kantuta Lodge on the Island of Amantani on Lake Titicaca, Peru. Richard is a graduate of the Puno University and studied tourism and hospitality. Since graduating from the University, Richard and his family have been improving the family lodge which lies just meters from the shores of Titicaca. Sigundino is a former town official and assistant to the head shaman on the island. Richard Speaks Spanish, Quechua, English and Aymara.

 

Brenda Dowst

Brenda is a certified public manager and program director for Collaborative Strategies with Mountain Spirit Institute, and a certified trainer and coach for Collaborative Action Technology, Inc., and an organizational and community development specialist, and a dialogue consultant.

For more than twenty years, Brenda has shared a unique set of communication and analytical tools with scores of executives, their boards and key managers in private and public administration, education, industry and government as well as grassroots leaders in small and large communities. These tools achieve mutually desirable outcomes through collaborative dialogue

Her services are now available through Mountain Spirit Institute to clients and participants who seek to maximize their effectiveness as collaborative agents for change. As a facilitator and collaborative design coach, Brenda's skills help overcome barriers to implementation and sustainability, while promoting and advancing individual, group, and community needs and goals. Brenda holds a BS in Sociology from the University of Southern Maine, and completed work for a Masters in Consumer Studies at University of New Hampshire with honors. Brenda calls two places home, Sunapee, NH and Pictou County, Nova Scotia but also spends time in the Salt Lake City area.

Chris Mulcahy

Chris is a gifted teacher and instructor of wilderness survival, backcountry travel and techincal climbing skills. He's a graduate of Plymouth State University and holds a Wilderness First Responder certificate. He has conducted programs for Plymouth State, The Sunapee SunFest as is co-coordinator of MSI's Kearsarge Wilderness Experience and other programs slated for the calendar.

 

Guillermo Seminario

Guillermo is the musical director for the band Chimu's in Cusco, Peru. He coordinates the Cusco Music Exchange for MSI. He is a talented performer, having played various instruments since an early age. His interest in music led him to particpate five different cultural/educational organizations for a number of years. Guilllermo also makes professional instruments such as Zamponas, pan pipes, flutes and charangos. He, Lourdes Usca and Augusto Taype will be in the USA performing and teaching in the Fall of 2007. Guillermo states, "Just as we depend upon the sun, we can't exist without the strength, warmth and inspiration of music." Guillermo speaks Spanish and English.

 

The following individuals have their own organizations, and conduct programs under a co-venture, contractual relationship, or sponsorship by Mountain Spirit Institute.

Theo Paredes, Ph.D.

Theo Paredes, Ph.D., is the founding Director of Poqen Kanchay Foundation in Cusco, Peru. Growing up in Cusco, he has always had contact with the native people of Peru worked with them to maintain sustainable communities. At 11 years old, he was initiated into the traditional healing practices of his people and has continued to work with shamanic practices for over thirty years, particularly in the use of ceremony and the practices of managing energy to make living an art. He has survived two lightening strikes, which in the Andean tradition, is considered a "call by nature" to train and practice in the Earth traditions. He combines his knowledge of the myths and the life view of the societies, which culminated with the Incas, together with Andean energy concepts, to form the perspective of a different kind of society.

Dr. Paredes has studied and practiced anthropology in Europe and the Americas. For the past fifteen years he has worked within the Peruvian government as Director of National Projects and the Governor of the Cusco Department and as a consultant for IFAD (Internal Foundation for Agricultural Development). Dr. Paredes is fluent in Spanish, English, and we think Quechua and possilby other languages.

 

Jorge & Teresa Martel

Jorge is a veteran Peruvian mountain guide in the Andes’ Cordillera Blanca range in Peru. He is a past president of the Peruvian Mountain Guides Association, and has studied tourism and hospitality in Austria. His experience and knowledge of the high Peruvian Andes is substantial. He is a founding executive member of the cultural non-profit group Llama 2000, a program dedicated to bringing sustainable environmentally and culturally sensitive backcountry programs to his native Ancash region of Peru. Jorge speaks Spanish, English, German, French and Quechua.

Gary Acevedo, MSW

Founder of DreamMakers Academy, Gary has lead personal empowerment training, retreats, and seminars for a diverse spectrum of corporate organizations, social service agencies, and private individuals since 1971. These include the World Futures Conference on Education, the 10 state Regional Conference for the Division of Rehabilitation, and he was chosen by the Utah Governors Commission to design the state wide Victims Rights Conference, training Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" course, training Career Track's “Self-Discipline and Emotional Control." In 1981, Gary founded the unique personal empowerment retreat known as "The Awakening," He founded Dream Makers Academy; one of the most advanced training programs in the country for coaches, healers, facilitators of experiential training, and is recognized as a trainer of trainers. Consulting projects include Franklin Covey, AT&T, Mass Mutual, Einstein Bagels, consulting with members of the 1992 & 2000 Olympics, and designing training for VitalSmarts (Authors of bestsellers “The Balancing Act” and “Crucial Conversations,” and invited to advise Gorbachev before the fall).

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