2022 Coach & Organizer Convention

Peter has been playing ultimate since the late 1990s. He played college ultimate in Scranton, PA and Albany, NY, with the various club teams of upstate NY and coached at the college and club levels, all with mediocre success. The opportunity to play at the club level in several different countries was an eye-opening experience and provided insights into how ultimate brings people of different cultures together. A long-term board member of the Albany Ultimate Disc Association, Peter’s focus is on governance and event operations.

David founded David Barkan Consulting in 1994, and has worked with hundreds of organizations, communities, and collaborations in the non-profit, governmental, educational, and philanthropic sectors. David consults to diverse strategic planning and organizational culture change processes across the U.S. and around the globe.

David also founded Ultimate Peace in 2009, and currently serves as CEO of the groundbreaking organization. He brings a unique perspective to teaching strategic planning – as consultant to other’s efforts and leader responsible for driving his own organizational planning process. David started playing ultimate in 1977 and was inducted as a player into the Ultimate Hall of Fame in 2010.

Joined USA Ultimate: August 2009
Hometown: Cranston, RI
College: Siena, Purdue, Indiana

About:
I am USA Ultimate’s chief executive officer and an ex-officio member of the board of directors.

Prior to working at USA Ultimate, I was an entrepreneur, founding multiple companies, as well as working with NFL, NHL and NBA franchises. I worked for the United States Olympic Committee as Managing Director of High Performance Programs (Venture 2000), and as Director of Coaching, was honored to work with virtually all Olympic teams and coaches.

I like to run/walk every day, travel to the French West Indies and explore lots of interesting wines and books. I also love to hang out with my family and play with my grandsons!

Fun Facts:

1. Although most don’t know it, I have in fact played ultimate, and I am undefeated.
2. I was a two-sport varsity athlete at a Division I college…for 24 hours, when the tennis coach found out I had made the basketball team. He had other plans.
3. I grew up tough, and when I was 17, had a hit taken out on me by a made member of the New England Mafia. I was saved at the last minute by my tribe. It was ugly, but they never tried again!
4. My wife is amazing! She is the Senior Director of International Operations at the U.S. Olympic Committee and Director of the Summer Olympic Games. She is also gorgeous…I totally over-achieved!

Joined USA Ultimate: January 2001
Hometown: Warner Robins, GA
College: University of Georgia (BS and MS)

About:

I am responsible for overseeing USA Ultimate’s competition and athlete programs, including over 250 events in USAU’s 20 divisions of competition and over a dozen national teams. I also direct programs for coaching, youth outreach, Spirit of the Game, rules, officiating and conduct.

I transitioned into sports administration and event management from parks and recreation. Prior to working at the UPA/USAU, I worked at a regional park in Athens, Ga., and as a raft guide in Ocoee, Tenn.

I played ultimate at the University of Georgia for five years, beginning in the fall of 1993. I played club ultimate for Atlanta’s Chain Lightning (1996-2000) and Boulder’s Johnny Bravo (2001-2006, 2008). I’ve played at three College Nationals, nine Club Nationals, two WFDF World Championships (WUCC) and the IWGA World Games where I was part of Team U.S.A.’s gold-medal run in 2005.

I live in Louisville, Colo., with my wife Melanie and sons Liam and Jack. Outside of ultimate, I enjoy outdoor activities with my family, including mountain biking, camping and snowboarding/skiing. I also enjoy tennis, goaltimate and entertaining myself playing guitar and piano.

Fun Facts:

1. I co-authored the Callahan Rules for college ultimate, along with Charles Kerr, in 1997. These rules introduced many now-standard parts of the game, including the defensive (Callahan) goal, time limits and the current role of observers.

2. When I left college, I held the intramural bench press record at the University of Georgia (for the lightest weight class).

3. While playing pool in a bar, I got into a standoff with a drunk, racist guy. My girlfriend punched him in the face. I married her.

Caleb has been playing ultimate for 15 years. He picked up the sport in college before competing in the both the men’s and mixed club divisions with Austin Doublewide, Minneapolis Sub Zero and Minneapolis Drag’n Thrust. He was also named a member of the 2020 U.S. Mixed National Team that was set to compete at the World Ultimate and Guts Championships. Caleb also has many years of coaching experience from clinics to high school girls to men’s and women’s college and women’s masters, as well as running coaching clinics internationally. In addition to playing and coaching, Caleb spent two years as a middle school and high school youth coordinator in Austin and currently serves as an elite-athlete representative on the USA Ultimate Observer Working Group.

Jimmy is AYU’s first-ever director of operations. He is responsible for implementing, managing and coordinating the day-to-day operations of the organization, developing new programs, leveraging volunteers and developing resources to serve the Colorado ultimate community.

Jimmy came to AYU after spending 10 years as president of Colorado Springs Ultimate Network, during which time he grew participation, sponsorships, events and leagues in the Springs area. In 2018, he was named as a candidate for the at-large board seat with USA Ultimate and continues to work with Morrill Performance to bring a long-term athlete development program to ultimate.

Donnellon has over 20 years of ultimate experience and 15 years of marketing and sales experience. When not playing ultimate or hosting ultimate events, Jimmy will most likely be playing volleyball or Spikeball, listening to podcasts or watching movies or shows.

Josh is an ultimate coach, organizer and player. Originally from Boston but now in Atlanta, Josh has coached at YCC (Atlanta Mixed U-19 and Boys U-17), in the college division (Vanderbilt Men’s), and for multiple middle & high school teams. He recently founded majority-POC ultimate teams at two different Title I schools: Wesley International Academy (Middle School Open) and Maynard Jackson High School (Boys). Over the years, Josh has played ultimate for a variety of teams including Atlanta Hustle, Atlanta Bucket, Boston Mixed Nuts and Emory Juice.

Josh is on the board of Atlanta Flying Disc Club and is the director of AFDC’s Project Diversity, which aims to increase the racial and socioeconomic diversity of the ultimate community in the Atlanta area. Through Project Diversity, he has fostered a thriving (ultimate) relationship with Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation’s MLK rec center. Josh played an instrumental role organizing the Color of Ultimate: ATL in 2019 and today remains on the board of Color of Ultimate.

Josh currently teaches 7th and 8th grade social studies at a charter school in Atlanta. In his (non-ultimate) free time, he enjoys traveling, cooking, being active outdoors, the Boston Celtics and New England Patriots, and rewatching and talking about Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Tristan Green was introduced to ultimate at McDougal Middle School in Chapel Hill, N.C. He then attended and played at Carolina Friends School in high school and with University of North Carolina Darkside in college. He has played for many club teams, including Ring of Fire in the men’s division and, for the past four seasons, in the mixed division with Toro. After graduating from UNC in 2013, Tristan was hired as the first full-time staff of the Triangle Flying Disc Association. In the past 8 years of working full time for TFDA, now Triangle Ultimate, Tristan has seen the organization grow to 3,000 players participating in 60+ programs throughout the year, supported by multiple full-time and part-time staff positions. He has overseen the evolution of the organization from its mission to “increase the quality and quantity of programs” to a vision of “collaboratively building community that represents the Triangle through the sport of ultimate.”

Pronouns: She/Her, They/Them, She/They

Joined USA Ultimate: May 2019
College: Hampshire College
Hometown: St. Paul, MN

About:

I played a lot of sports growing up, but I did not start playing ultimate until my first year of college. While I enjoyed playing, I never expected to stick with it as long as I have, but I am glad I did. Before joining USA Ultimate, I got my start coaching and volunteering with Minnesota Ultimate. Soon enough, I was helping manage the Middle School Spring League Program for them. Seeing so much ultimate growth and at the youth level was an amazing experience, one which I am excited to still be a part of. Working in the Competition & National Team Programs Department will allow me to continue working with not just youth ultimate, but other competition divisions as well.

People ask what I enjoy doing outside of ultimate, since it seems to be all I ever talk about, but I swear I have other hobbies. When I am not doing something ultimate-related, I am often exploring the town for the best brunch spots, camping, hiking, biking, hanging out with friends/family, traveling, binging my new favorite show or sleeping.

Fun Facts:

1. I impulsively buy potted plants at the grocery store.

2. I had a pretty epic bowl cut as a kid.

3. I own a minivan that has over 344,700 miles on it and counting. Hoping to get it to 400,000. Bring it on Byron.

Mike is a USA Ultimate-certified tournament director who has been playing ultimate since Reagan was president. He is an active member of the Cincinnati Ultimate Players Association and has been running tournaments since 2009. In addition to wondering how his kids surpassed his ultimate skills, Mike is a high school coach and a great grand masters player with Age Against The Machine. Mike and his partner, Deb, currently live in the U.K. and are trying to start new youth programs in the Manchester area.

Joined USA Ultimate: May 2010
Hometown: Delafield, WI
College: University of Wisconsin–La Crosse

About:

At USA Ultimate, I am responsible for establishing the organization’s overall marketing, communications and public and media relations strategy and directing the department’s day-to-day operations, including television and media partnerships, sponsorship and licensing, branding and business development.

Prior to my relatively recent introduction to the sport of ultimate, I served in a similar capacity for USA Cycling (2003-08) after spending several years as an assistant director and global operations and media relations manager for Saturn Cycling – one of America’s longest-running and most successful professional cycling teams. As a sports marketer on the agency side with Team Sports, Inc., I also planned and implemented mobile marketing tours and athlete-brand relationships for several A-list clients in the action sports space, including Tommy Hilfiger, Volvo, Timex, Saturn, Cannondale and Rollerblade.

My experience in the Olympic world began with one of the most exclusive internship programs at the U.S. Olympic Committee as a sports management undergrad at UW-La Crosse. Since then, I had the privilege of serving on three U.S. Olympic Team delegations as a press officer in Athens (2004), Torino (2006) and Beijing (2008), as well as an athlete/media liaison at 18 World Championships and Pan American Games for Team USA.

When not working, I enjoy cycling, snowboarding, traveling, eating, watching the Green Bay Packers, mowing the lawn and spending time with my wife Julia, our daughter Sophie and our dog Maya.

Fun Facts:

1. A fanatic of Led Zeppelin, along with my childhood friend since the age of eight, Mike, we’ve attended 69 live performances by the surviving members of the band since 1995 across 22 states, the U.K. and China, including the legendary 2007 reunion concert in London where we camped out for three days to be the first two people in line, scored front row seats and witnessed the final, private rehearsal for the show as VIP guests of the band.

2. I was a record-holding NCAA collegiate high jumper with a 42″ vertical and a college dunk contest victory to my name.

3. As a travel enthusiast, I’ve been to 49 states – all but Alaska – and 25 countries.

Joined USA Ultimate: February 2011
Hometown: Atlanta, GA
College: University of Georgia

About: 

As lead for the finance and administration department, I mastermind financial planning and reporting and support the board, the staff and all of the administrative office functions, including human resources, IT, logistics, insurance, etc. I also help out with fundraising and the new Ultimate Foundation.

I worked as an accounting and tax consultant at Ernst & Young before specializing in non-profits.

I played ultimate for 10 years on Atlanta Ozone before moving to Boston, where I joined Brute Squad for one season (although I tore my ACL two weeks into the season – doh!). After moving to Colorado, I played one season with Atlanta Bucket and one season with Boulder Jackwagon but mostly started focusing on coaching.

I like cooking (and eating!), reading, UGA football and spending time with my husband Andy, our daughter Sophie and our dog Maya.

Fun Facts:

1. I have a daughter named Sophie. She’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

2. I have played at 15 UPA/USA Ultimate National Championships – four in college with Georgia (including winning it all in 2001!), 10 in the club women’s division with Ozone and one in the club mixed division with Bucket.

Jeff MacCharles is an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Michigan State University. He primarily teaches courses in the Sport Coaching and Leadership program. Drawing upon his educational background in sport management, he focuses on courses related to sport administration topics. Broadly, his research is centered around issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion in sport organizations. He has a particular interest in investigating employee authenticity and the use of identity management strategies by marginalized employees in the sport workplace.

Matt is currently an assistant professor in the College of Business at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Matt’s research interests lie at the intersection of organization, identity and entrepreneurship theories. He is particularly interested in processes of organizational identity emergence, the agentic and organic ways that organizational identities are maintained and changed and whether/how identities and other cognitive filters influence entrepreneurial processes. Current projects examine:

• The change or maintenance of an identity ascribed to a category of similar firms in the face of nascent forms of competition
• The influences that effectual approaches to entrepreneurship have on new technologies
• The possibility that an organization’s identity can be “resurrected” after long periods of dormancy

Education

• Ph.D. Management, University of Oregon, Lundquist College of Business, Eugene, OR, 2012
• MBA, Entrepreneurship Concentration, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, 2007
• BA, Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 2004

Joined USA Ultimate: January 2015
Hometown: Columbus, OH
College: Allegheny College

About:

I manage USA Ultimate’s outreach programming, initiatives and volunteers, including Learn to Play and clinics and leagues and the Girls’ Ultimate Movement. I run our Coach and Organizer Convention and National Team Talent ID Camps as well. Previously, I worked for an academic department at The Ohio State University coordinating events, managing the website, developing programming and trips for students, initiating fiscal transactions and managing, writing and taking photos for the departmental newsletter sent out to alumni.

I am a long-time runner and have really enjoyed getting into trail running since moving out to Colorado. When I’m not training for a race, I like tackling 14ers, hiking, biking, backpacking, reading and live music.

I began playing ultimate after Bexley High School cross country practices. I played for one semester in college and continued while living in Madrid after graduating. Since then, I have played in Columbus leagues and with a mixed club team, coached a high school ultimate team and volunteered for CUDA. I continue to play ultimate in Colorado.

Fun Facts:

1. I started my high school cross country team at Columbus School for Girls and practiced with Bexley during my first year as the only runner at my school.

2. I taught English and introduced American culture to elementary students in Madrid, Spain, for nine months after college. My favorite part was singing songs with the kindergarteners and creating science Jeopardy for the third graders.

3. I competed in pageants as a child and modeled. I have a few tiaras, sashes, medals and grocery store ads as proof!

Malik was born in Oakland, Calif., and moved to Oak Park, Ill., when he was 10; he’s now 16. Oak Park is a small suburb west of Chicago. He is a junior at Oak Park and River Forest High School. His ultimate career started in 6th grade at Percy Julian Middle School, then continued at OPRF for all three years, and he hopes to play in college. He has also played for Illinois Youth Ultimate’s U-17 team for two years and has been to the Youth Club Championships twice. Malik also really enjoys cooking at a gourmet level, and he is thinking of going to college and culinary school to become a chef.

Dan Rule started playing ultimate in high school in 2001. Dan has experience at 12 world championships, including seven as an athlete and five as a head coach, including coaching the 2015 Indian Under-24 Mixed team and the 2017 Australian World Games team.

Dan commenced his current role as Ultimate Australia’s High Performance and Business Development Manager in 2016. Dan has completed a Bachelor of Applied Science (Human Movement), a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and is currently completing an MBA. Previously Dan has been employed as a Development Officer by NSW Ultimate (2009-2012) and Ultimate Victoria (2015-2016). In his current role, Dan has been instrumental in the development of the Girls Love Ultimate and Ulti-Mates programs as well as Ultimate Australia’s national coaching courses.

Having parents who play competitive ultimate, Lia Schwartz grew up on the sidelines, where she came to appreciate the spirit of the ultimate community. She started playing pickup and leagues around seventh grade and played more seriously in high school in Washington, D.C. In 2020, she was planning on playing at the World Junior Ultimate Championships with Team Japan, but due to COVID, the tournament was canceled. Over the summers, Lia has played on local club teams and is currently a freshman at Tufts and on their women’s team, Ewo. Off of the field, Lia has worked on growing and organizing youth and women’s ultimate. She started the ultimate team at her high school as well as a D.C.-area girls’ team for players who didn’t have a program at their schools. During the pandemic lockdown, she started a website called Ultimately Together where she made pages for college women’s teams to showcase their programs for prospective students who couldn’t visit. She also helped collaborate on the GUM High School Leadership Curriculum with the hopes of adding the perspective of a youth player to the development process.

Rose Snyder is a leading governance consultant for national and regional organizations across the country. Her unique experience in the Olympic sports world at USA Swimming, U.S. Figure Skating and the U.S. Olympic Committee allows her to “coach” and prepare boards, staff, and c-suite executives for high performance and achievement. 

Rose’s expertise in team building and passion for excellence helps organizations advance their mission and improve effectiveness. Her cornerstone programs include team building, communication, strategic planning and performance and leadership coaching.

While Rose has enjoyed nearly 15 years as a successful nonprofit consultant, she has recently taken her success to the business coaching arena. She received her credentials through The Institute for Integrative Coach Training and recently earned her ACC, (Associate Certified Coach) through the International Coaching Federation.

Prior to her work in administration, Rose was a successful swim coach whose swimmers went on to compete at the Olympic trials. Rose has a Master of Organizational Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Education. In addition, Rose has trained extensively with Board Source, formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards. She is also a recognized trainer through Consultants Psychologists Press Inc (MBTI). and one of only a handful in the world, trained to conduct Psycho-geometrics® (Shapes) communication seminars. 

Rose is married to Charlie Snyder who heads up marketing and communication for the College of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona. She is excited to be back in Tucson as she is a proud Alumna of the U of A. Rose and Charlie have three grown children: Carli Rose, Gina Maria, and Sam Andrew.

Peter has been playing ultimate since 1998. He currently participates in the masters division with Minimum Effort and the grand masters division with Peter & Friends. He is a current board member of the Cincinnati Ultimate Players Association and previously served as president. He also coaches at Indian Hill High School.

Peter is also a long-time tournament director, having served as either the tournament director or assistant tournament director for the following events:

WFDF World Ultimate Club Championships 2022 & 2018
USAU College Nationals 2014 & 2017
USAU US Open 2015
USAU Grand Masters / Women’s Masters Championships 2013
USAU High School Centrals 2011
UPA High School Easterns 2009 & 2007
SCINNY, CHUBBY & Arctic Vogue

Away from ultimate, he is a project, process and materials engineer at Procter & Gamble where he has worked for the last 23 years.

Darius played college ultimate at University of North Texas in Denton. He captained and was on the leadership team for two of the four years. In 2012, he started coaching youth ultimate with Highland Park High and Texas YCC. That same year, Darius began coaching Maeve, a club women’s team from Dallas-Forth Worth. He coached Maeve off and on for five years.

After seeing the youth talent DFW had compared to other large ultimate hubs, he decided to join a group of organizers to create Texas Youth Ultimate. The goal was not only to create talent but to create more opportunities for youth to play and develop their skills. Texas Youth Ultimate later partnered with Dallas Ultimate and E.R.I.C. to centralize efforts.

From 2016-2019, Darius served on the Dallas Ultimate (DUA) board, including one year as president. His goal with ultimate has always been to create more opportunities for youth and adults to play the game, regardless of skill or background. In order to accomplish the goal, Darius recommends taking an audit of all available resources and joining forces with groups and organizations with like minds. He believes that ultimate will always be around, but it’s part of an organizer’s role to make it accessible for all people.

Alyssa started playing ultimate in eighth grade at Salmon Bay School in Seattle, Wash. She then continued to play at Nathan Hale High School, where she captained and helped get the team club sport status for the first time. She attended Western Washington University and played there for five years until she started coaching at WWU, where she stills coaches. Alyssa started playing for Seattle Riot at the end of her sophomore year of college and played for Riot for 14 years.

Alyssa has coached around the world as well as at all levels locally. She has worked for DiscNW summer camps since 2005, moving from a coach to a director, and played a major role in the an overhaul of how camps train coaches, use their CITs, and develop curricula.

She founded Seven Hills Ultimate in 2015, with Shannon O’Malley and Sarah Griffith. Shannon and Alyssa played in the first version of youth club ultimate in high school with MoHo, and all three later coached youth club ultimate with Seattle Fryz. When Fryz was coming to an end, the trio worked with a number of people in the community to reimagine the third version of youth club ultimate. They started with two middle school teams and four high schools teams and have grown to four middle school teams and six high school teams. They hope to continue being creative in developing high-level experiences for youth all all ages and ultimate experience.

Jenny Wei (JWei) started playing ultimate at UNC Chapel Hill on Pleiades in 2013 and has played locally for both Phoenix and Radiance. She has also played on the 2016 All-Star Ultimate Tour and the 2018 U-24 Women’s United States National Team. JWei has coached the U-17 YCC team Kitty Hawks and the Chapel Hill High School girls’ team, Ember.

Professor Scott Brooks is the interim Director of the School of Social and Family Dynamics and Director of Research at the Global Sport Institute (globalsport.asu.edu) at Arizona State University. Brooks is a sociologist who studies the athlete experience. He has consulted for the NFL, NCAA, U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, USA Basketball, MLB, adidas, college and high school coaches and athletes. Professor Brooks has published in academic journals, edited volumes and textbooks; been quoted and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Der Speigel and SLAM magazine; and been invited to speak on the topic of sport internationally. His book, Black Men Can’t Shoot (University of Chicago, 2009), tells the importance of exposure, networks and opportunities young men strategically accumulate to earn an athletic scholarship – it is more than their natural ability. Professor Brooks closely followed two young Black men in South Philadelphia through their high school basketball experiences and documented how they ascended the ranks  –getting known – and navigated Philadelphia’s basketball world. He is currently working on two books: one that investigates athletes’ playing time and another that studies coaching methods.

Richard is the HR manager for Talent and Wellness Development for the City of Pittsburgh and an adjunct professor for Robert Morris University, where he has taught Leadership, Organizational Ethics, Argument and Research, Understanding and Managing Diversity in the Workplace, and Applied Organizational Leadership Skills.

He is the owner of Coachrtb Coaching and Leadership Group, a diversity, equity, inclusion consulting practice that focuses on real-world problems with real-world strategies.

He is the former executive director for Three Rivers Rowing, former inclusion manager for USRowing and presently is the co-chair for USRowing’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. He also served on the USRowing Diversity Taskforce and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Diversity Committee.

CoachRTB Diversity and Inclusion Consulting is a diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting practice that focuses on real-world problems with real-world strategies. It assists organizations, sports teams, and leaders in creating culturally and racially literate environments, driving sustainable change through education, self-reflection, and continuous training at all levels of the organization. CoachRTB creates custom presentations and workshops on topics including Microaggressions, Implicit Bias, Anti-Racism, Inclusivity in the Workplace, and Cultural and Racial Literacy.

Joined USA Ultimate: October 2019
Hometown: Rome, GA
College: University of Georgia, Appalachian State, Georgia State

About:

The main focus of my role is working on coach education and youth programs to make ultimate even better!

So far, my biggest career highlight was probably being heavily involved in sport science research projects at the 1996 Olympic Games.

I am a runner, although less competitive than in my younger days. These days, I am content running the amazing trails around Colorado Springs and spending summer days on the Arkansas River kayaking, rafting and SUP-ing.

Fun Facts:

1. I have been to every craft brewery in El Paso (CO) County.

2. I love to whitewater kayak but have not gotten my roll down…yet.

3. I have solo parachuted twice – looking to do it again!

Bert is a strength and conditioning coach with Strive & Uplift in Seattle, is a long-time captain of Seattle Mixtape, and has coached all levels of ultimate. She draws on past experience as a secondary science teacher to accommodate learners of different styles and help athletes feel success in moving and growing.

Manisha “Slap” Daryani has coached all levels of ultimate since 2011. She coached at the college level for seven years, as head coach of the UC Davis and UC Berkeley women’s teams. In 2018, she transitioned to coaching high school boys, helping found the Bay Area’s first boys’ youth club team, Gold Rush. She was recently named assistant coach for the 2022 WJUC U-20 girls’ team after being named a selector for U-24 Mixed National Team in 2018. Slap also coaches in the women’s club team division with San Francisco Nightlock and is co-founder and head coach of the San Francisco women’s pro team, the Falcons.

Khalif has been playing ultimate for 15 years and coaching for nine. Within the last seven years, Khalif has done a deeper dive into higher-level coaching and what it means to bring the new era of ultimate players to new heights. Khalif has represented the U.S.A. internationally four times and won a club championship in 2017 in the mixed division. Khalif strives to have a big impact on the players he interacts with, even the players who attend a week-long camp or a coaching clinic. 

Kate “KK” Kingery has been playing ultimate for 20+ years and coaching ultimate for 10+ years. She started playing on an intramural team in college which led to an ongoing love of the game and the community that plays it. She joined her college team and then played both women’s and mixed club in Chicago before relocating to Seattle, where she played women’s for many years before playing and coaching mixed club. She has had the honor of coaching and playing internationally as well as coaching in the local Seattle community all ages, elementary school through adult. She is the USA Ultimate National Spirit Director and a member of the WFDF Spirit of the Game Committee.

Yannick Kluch (Ph.D., Bowling Green State University) serves as Assistant Professor and Director of Outreach & Inclusive Excellence in the Center for Sport Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Kluch’s research is focused on utilizing the potential of sport as a vehicle for inclusive leadership and social change as well as on eliminating barriers to social justice in sport. Specifically, his areas of expertise include cultural studies of sport, athlete activism, and equity, diversity, and inclusion in U.S. and global sport. In addition to his research, Dr. Kluch frequently serves as a consultant on equity, diversity, and inclusion issues in sport, most recently for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), USA Diving, and the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association. In 2020, Dr. Kluch was one of only four U.S. thought leaders appointed to the inaugural Team USA Council on Racial & Social Justice by the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), where he aided a steering committee on athlete protests and demonstrations – work that has led the USOPC to no longer sanction U.S. athletes demonstrating in support of racial and social justice. For more information, visit his website at www.yannickkluch.com. 

Ken started playing ultimate in 2005 at NC State and got hooked early! In 2008, Ken started playing with Raleigh Ring of Fire and fell in love with the process, the teammates and the individual and team growth process. In 2013, Ken represented Team USA in the Dream Cup in Fuji City, Japan. Ken moved back to the Charlotte area in 2013 and continued playing with Ring while starting as a coaching consultant at Davidson College during the 2014-2015 season. He has been coaching for Davidson ever since.

Rachael “Romy” Romaniak started playing ultimate during college in 2011 for the University of Wisconsin Bella Donna. Romy has played club ultimate for Madison NOISE, Madison Heist and Madison Lockdown and has coached for Madison Lady Forward. Currently, Romy coaches at Madison Memorial High School. 2021-2022 will be her fifth year in the program and third year as the head coach of the girls’ program. Outside of ultimate, Romy works as a video engineer in the Madison and Milwaukee markets covering the Bucks, Brewers, Packers and University of Wisconsin athletics.

After a highly successful playing career, including 13 years with Seattle Riot, Alyssa has coached in the middle school, high school, youth club, and college divisions, along with coaching internationally and for the U-20 National Team. Most recently, Alyssa has coached in the adult club division. They got their M.Ed in Education in Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership from the University of Washington in 2016 while also co-founding a youth club program called Seven Hills. In that time, Alyssa has continued to coach teams and athletes but has also changed their main focus to coach development.