Visions Service Adventures

Administration

Along with the full-time team, we enlist a number of veteran VISIONS summer directors on a part-time basis throughout the year. Former field directors who no longer work summers with us remain close advisors and valuable resources for program planning. Often former program directors take time off from full-time jobs to join VISIONS for a week or two ahead of the summer to help train and mentor new directors and to lead workshops during staff training.

Read on for information about VISIONS full-time year round team. Read more about our seasonal team in Summer Directors.

Joanne Pinaire and Teena Beutel, Owners-Directors

Owner-Director, Joanne Pinaire has taught ESL to Hmong refugees from Laos and high school English on Montana's Blackfeet Indian Reservation. At the Dalton School in New York City Joanne worked in Admissions and with the Assistant Headmaster for Curriculum Development. She was Administrator and taught for six years at The Children's School, a nationally praised early learning center in Stamford, CT. Joanne's eclectic background includes writing and researching in non-profit arenas, marketing for an Equity repertory theater and for a theater troupe founded to showcase the works of Western states playwrights.

Joanne has a B.A. in English Literature and Anthropology with a minor in Art History, and completed course and field requirements for a secondary education degree. When she was 19 she visited her Vista-volunteer sister who lived and worked on a Montana Plains Indian reservation. The visit marked the start of a life-long love of Montana and its native people. That first trip to the rez, and subsequent trips during her decade as a Montana resident, instilled a belief in the value of cross-cultural living and learning. Five seasons as a summer counselor at Longacre Leadership on a 300-acre farm solidified her bias for experiential learning. Joanne has played a primary role in creating, shaping and directing VISIONS since its inception in 1989. She and her husband, Kevin, live in the country outside of Newport where they enjoy the natural beauty surrounding their home. Joanne volunteers on a number of fronts, including on the local library board of directors. Joanne and Kevin's daughter Claire took a Gap Year in southern Chile after graduating high school and is currently a senior at Hendrix College.

Owner-Director, Teena Beutel has an education and working background in finance and business management in the non-profit and for-profit sectors. Before starting a family and later joining VISIONS, Teena amassed considerable administrative and hands-on experience in the field of construction. Her entrepreneurial spirit inspired the creation of successful small businesses including a day care center, and retail and wholesale handmade basket businesses. Teena's handmade basket artistry earned her numerous awards in art shows in the East. Work with children has been woven through Teena's adult life. She operated a day care center in Oregon and was a foster parent to teenagers in Utah. Teena volunteered for over a decade at Perry County's Community Day Camp, serving as President for four years. She was voluntary chair of her local township planning commission at a critical time in the township's growth and development. She is currently on the board of directors of the local library.

Teena joined VISIONS in 1992 and has played a central role in managing and developing its growth ever since. A native of the southern Oregon coast, Teena grew up loving nature, actively exploring the outdoors, caretaking and harvesting the annual cranberry crop from her family's two farms. Teena has two sons, Jason and Andy, who live in Oregon and New York City, respectively. At home and with her husband, Paul, Teena tends impressive plant and vegetable gardens, and looks forward to frequent lively visits with her pre-school age grandson and toddler granddaughter.

Katherine Dayton, Director

Director, Katherine Dayton's first VISIONS season was 1996 in the Dominican Republic (DR). Her commitment to VISIONS and its philosophy emerged early; she returned four subsequent summers to the DR and later directed programs in Montana, Peru and Ecuador. With VISIONS contacts and her own personal connections, Katherine started our Vietnam and Nicaragua programs while concurrently coordinating Latin American program sites.

Katherine holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies and Policy Studies from Dickinson College, where she played Varsity basketball, and also studied for one year in Venezuela and Costa Rica.  She later earned an MBA, with side graduate work in Environmental Studies and a thesis in corporate social responsibility, collaborating with one of Montana's distinguished Regent's professors.  Katherine has traveled extensively overseas, while also enjoying outdoor excursions and overseeing programs in the U.S.  She returned to her home state of Montana in 2000 to join a budding technology firm, then developed her own business as a private contractor for nonprofits and businesses on strategic marketing for sustainable products, fundraising and outreach.  Katherine has been based in Pennsylvania with VISIONS since late 2007.  She travels to near and far pockets of the world to meet with VISIONS community partners, schools, participants and families.

Cindy Stehley, Administrator

Cindy Stehley is the hub of VISIONS’s home office team as our long-time Administrator. Since 1995 Cindy has been indispensable in remembering everything and keeping us on track without losing her cool or calm. Cindy manages the data and the meticulous processing of applications and other forms, supervises and organizes multiple day-to-day operations including all mailings, helps promote and articulate our programs to parents when they telephone, and more. Hers is often the first warm, welcoming voice on the phone when parents call with questions. Cindy holds an Associates Degree in Specialized Business. Performing echocardiograms and ultrasound scans, dressing wounds and working in the emergency room, and processing mounds of paperwork at Poly Clinic, Harrisburg, PA, were all aspects of earning her degree. Cindy volunteers actively in our community. She teaches nursery school at her church, coordinated a Bike-a-thon for St. Jude's Children's Hospital, was treasurer and committee member of Boy Scouts of America for nearly a decade and is a long-time member of the Perry County Day Camp Steering Committee, a non-profit organization for local children. Cindy and her husband, Mike, live just outside Newport, PA, not far from her family's original homestead. Their two sons, Nathanial and Patrick, serve in different branches of the armed forces, which leaves Cindy and Mike lots of time to tour far and wide on their Harley Davidson.

Tim Parsons

From 1997 to September 2009, Tim Parsons was a versatile member of our home office team, deftly juggling a variety of key jobs. In the off-season months, Tim primarily represented VISIONS by speaking with families on the telephone and traveling throughout the northeast to meet potential participants, educators and others. Additionally, he was a jack-of-all-trades with responsibilities as varied as creating and designing marketing materials to troubleshooting technology to ordering and organizing first aid supplies, tools and equipment, and other materials for VISIONS program sites. Tim spent a least a decade in the field as a summer leader, carpenter and often first-aid honcho for programs in Alaska, Dominica, South Carolina, Australia, Montana, and Mississippi. Tim has moved on to other jack-of-all-trades pursuits as the Special Projects Program Manager, National Service Projects for Rebuilding Together in Washington, D.C., but he remains on the VISIONS team by accomplishing special select projects for us from afar.