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The Team
David Clemmons - Founder, VolunTourism.org
As one of the world’s leading authorities on VolunTourism, David has provided lectures on VolunTourism for corporations & associations, the travel industry, the nonprofit sector, service clubs, colleges & universities, and high schools since 2000. He has written extensively on the subject and is the Editor/Publisher of The VolunTourist, a travel trade e-publication. And in August 2007, he began hosting a weekly webcast, also entitled "The VolunTourist," to further educate the travel & tourism and nonprofit industries respectively.
He advises destination marketing organizations, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and tour operators. He has designed events and products & services for destination management companies and corporations to support team-building projects in the U.S. & Mexico. Occasionally he will even host a VolunTourism group in the U.S./Mexico Border Region from college, university, or corporation.
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David Clemmons, Founder of VolunTourism.org |
In collaboration with The Educational Travel Conference, he facilitates an annual discussion on VolunTourism for travel planners, DMOs, tour operators & suppliers, and nonprofit organizations. He is often quoted by the media and his insights on VolunTourism influence blogs & web sites throughout the world.
Prior to his involvement with VolunTourism, David spent 15 years in the Hospitality Industry in numerous capacities. He has worked in the nonprofit industry and has been an active volunteer for more than three decades.
Elisa Sabatini, Executive Director, Los Niños, Inc.
Elisa Sabatini serves as the Executive Director for Los Niños, Inc. She is responsible for providing strategic direction, supervising staff, creating new programs, and securing all resources for activities in Mexico, the United States and Canada. Program areas include family health, nutrition, micro-finance, sustainable agriculture, community organizing and development education. In 2003, the VolunTours™ “social business” joined the family of Los Niños’ programs.
Elisa formerly served with World SHARE for fourteen years. She served as Mexico Director (1984-87) involving food movement and storage, inventories, community development projects, program proposals, fundraising and evaluation. As Country Director in Guatemala (1987-91), Elisa set up systems, trained staff in accounting software, developed food handling and warehouse manuals, designed program proposals in the areas of maternal child health, agroforestry, infrastructure development and community banks/income generation.
Elisa was named the World SHARE Regional Director for Latin America (1992-98) and coordinated participatory processes to create an autonomous SHARE organization in Guatemala as well as develop self-funding food distribution in Mexico and a rural agricultural loan fund. In Mexico, the Compartamos (SHARE) program is now the largest micro credit initiative in the country. Elisa joined Los Niños in 1998.
Nancy McGehee, PhD - Associate Professor, Virginia Tech University
Nancy has been working in the area of tourism development for over 16 years. She received an MS in Tourism Management from North Carolina State University in 1991, worked for the Appalachian Tourism Research and Development Center from 1991-1994, then received both an MS and PhD in Sociology from Virginia Tech in 1999. Her dissertation focused on how volunteer tourism influenced individual’s participation in social movements once they returned to their home communities.
Since that time, Nancy has broadened her research focus to include what really was her “first research love”, resident attitudes toward volunteer tourism. She is in the early stages of what she hopes to be a long-term study of exploring the similarities and differences amongst a variety of communities experiencing a variety of types of voluntourism. Her other long-term project involves raising her two children, both 4 year olds, named Grace and Spencer. Any advice on either project is always welcome!
Christina Heyniger - Founder, Xola Consulting
As the founder of Xola Consulting, Christina has worked in tourism development in a range of settings. Her niche tourism consulting practice focuses on companies providing travel experiences that blend adventure and volunteer experiences. She has worked with entrepreneurial owner-operators developing innovative tourism projects serving both travelers and communities in China, India, Cambodia, and Morocco.
With her firm’s distinct emphasis on sustainable development, individual experiential growth, and adventurous travel, Christina has supported both supplier and consumer sides of the voluntourism equation.
In addition to its connection with VolunTourism.org, Xola works closely with the Adventure Travel Trade Association at industry trade show events and in regular publications to promote adventure travel’s role in biodiversity conservation; cultural and heritage conservation; natural resources management; rural economic development and poverty alleviation; and international cooperation and understanding.
Christina holds a BA in Communication from Cornell University, an MA in Communication, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University, and an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from American University.
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