This month we want to honor one of Adventure Risk Challenge’s founding Board members. Kasey McJunkin has been a member of ARC’s Board of Directors for a combined 7 years since ARC became an independent 501c3. Kasey was the first Board Chair of ARC, and thus played an extremely important role in mentoring Sarah Ottley as the Executive Director and in establishing the vision and organizational culture of ARC. She was a member of the committee who revised ARC’s mission statement at that time and wrote the first ARC values and vision statement.
Prior to her family’s move to Truckee, Kasey was a board member and volunteer with a youth development nonprofit in the Bay Area, Summer Search, who has partnered with ARC since 2006. When Kasey moved to the Tahoe area in 2013, she researched youth organizations and discovered that ARC was a natural fit for her to contribute her passion and experience. She first got involved as a volunteer and writing coach, then as a mentor and a member of the Advisory Council. In 2015 Kasey ushered ARC into a new era as the organization left UC Berkeley, its fiscal agent of 11 years. Her business education and nonprofit management experience ensured that the decision to form a 501c3 was fiscally and legally wise and was grounded in financially realistic forecasting.
Kasey is pictured here as a writing coach during a summer course in Sagehen Creek Field Station.
Kasey’s contributions have been just as significant in programming as they have been in leadership. Kasey is a college access advisor and is particularly passionate about expanding access to college for low-income and English Learner youth. She has provided hundreds of hours of college and financial aid support to ARC participants and alumni, and to other local first generation high school students. Kasey speaks Spanish and shows up for ARC students and their families at school and community events. As a member of ARC’s Program and Curriculum Committees, she has more insight into and guidance of ARC’s curriculum design, program progression, outcomes goals, and evaluation tools than any other volunteer, except ARC’s founder, Katie Zanto. Kasey has also opened her home to ARC events and staff in Truckee since 2014, when she hosted a strategic planning session for the first time.
One of ARC’s Co-Directors, Sarah Ottley, said this of Kasey: “It’s impossible to imagine ARC without Kasey. She has played such an integral role in supporting the evolution of the organization. I was an inexperienced and young Executive Director when Kasey stepped up to become Board Chair in 2015, and she was always available to me as a sounding board and thought partner. Her consistent mentorship and thoughtful questions helped me begin to think of myself as a leader and helped ARC to become a mature organization. I will forever be thankful to Kasey for her support of ARC’s staff and students.”
This month Kasey’s term on the Board of Directors is ending, and we will greatly miss her thoughtful leadership, strategic ideas, and the experienced perspective she has brought to many important decisions. Fortunately Kasey will continue to engage with ARC as a committee member, mentor, and writing coach, and we are grateful that she will remain a committed member of the ARC Family!