GRAHAM JACKSON – TRAINING DIRECTOR

Graham Jackson was born in Lesotho in Southern Africa. He grew up racing motorcycles off-road, as well as helping his father design, build and race off-road buggies. At age 10, Graham completed his first safari across the Kalahari in a Range Rover with his family. That trip planted the seed for Graham's lifelong obsession with deserts. In 2004, he and his wife completed a 30,000-mile overland adventure from London to Cape Town, which included crossing both the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. He has guided expeditions in Africa, the American West, Mexico and Central America, and trains US Special Forces on desert operations with a focus on North Africa. A scientist by trade, Graham tries to combine his interest in the natural world, his passion for overlanding and his love of things mechanical. He is a member of the Explorers Club, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a member of the Field guide Association of Southern Africa. Currently, he is the Director of Training for Overland Expo, a partner in 7P International and a NPTC certified off-road driving assessor.

ALISON DELAPP – OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

Originally from the greater Los Angeles Area, Alison has been a traveler all her years, a motorcyclist for half, and combining the two passions changed her life. In 2009, she bought a KLR650, and embarked on multiple journeys throughout the Americas, accumulating 60,000+ solo miles between Alaska and Argentina. Alison’s Wanderland was created as an avenue to share her adventures through stories and photographs, which eventually that led to self-publishing her own books through ADVantage Point Publishing. Although her degree and background are in the arts and photography, she always gravitated toward computers and technology. Now she works remotely from Rhode Island, overseeing the programmatic, creative, and technological development for Overland Expo, taking local trips when she can on her Triumph Tiger 800XC. 

CYAN SAMONE – VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Cyan began her travels backpacking primarily around Europe and Central America during summer breaks while she was studying graphic design and illustration. She later discovered a passion for motorcycles and stumbled into the world of overland adventure travel. Attending early Overland Expos and meeting international adventurers inspired her to embark on a ride from Alaska to Argentina. That trip is chronicled via a series of amusing videos on her YouTube Channel.

She lives by the ethos of never taking life too seriously, viewing challenges as opportunities for learning and always having as much fun as humanly possible. She has begun a new chapter recently, changing her name from Becky and buying a big old military truck which she is in the process of fixing up and converting into her go-anywhere overland home.

Rachael Elseman - Admin Support Specialist

A natural born traveler, Rachael has spent her life bike touring the West Coast, teaching in China, giving bike tours in Alaska, and working at ski resorts in the Colorado Rockies. She is an avid cyclist and is constantly searching for the best gravel bike routes in the country.

Rachael has diverse work experience in multiple industries including education, recreation and tourism, and small-business ownership. When she met her husband, Zach, the two quickly made plans to travel the American West in their converted school bus. Rachael enjoys traveling to new places, snowboarding, hiking and biking and generally anything outdoors. Rachael and Zach plan to spend the foreseeable future exploring the Western US from the Baja Peninsula to Alaska.

Zach Elseman - Admin Support Specialist

Fresh out of college, Zach pursued a career in non-profit Finance and Accounting working with the US Department of Labor. He cut his teeth in the outdoors by spending his time in the woods hunting, fishing, biking, running and generally exploring Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, and Colorado.

When he met his wife Rachael, he quickly realized a shared passion for travel. The two converted a school bus for full-time travel, quit their desk-jobs, and spent their first year of marriage exploring the American West in their skoolie.

Zach enjoys documenting their travels through videography and photography and publishes his work to www.okienomads.com. He is always planning the next leg of the adventure and is constantly looking for the next opportunity and the next destination. 

GRACE howard – KIDS ADVENTURE PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Born in Flagstaff, Arizona; Grace came home from the hospital in a Range Rover Classic. She started camping a few months later and now has traveled throughout the USA, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Guatemala, and Belize. Grace has been camping, running trails, and just having fun with the Arizona Land Rover Owners Club since before she can remember. Recently, Grace became one of their youngest trail leaders.

Her best memories include visits to Palenque, Mexico City, Tikal, Chaco Canyon, and the Four Corners area. Recently armed with her driver’s license, she drove her Mom to Alaska. All this time spent outdoors has instilled a love for the environment, and she wants to study environmental science in college.  When not attending high school or traveling, Grace actively participates in her school’s robotics team, CRUSH 1011. She lives in Tucson with her parents and is resurrecting her own 1994 Range Rover. 

DUNCAN BARBOUR – CAMEL TROPHY EXPEDITION SKILLS

Expedition Leadership, 4x4 Driving and Off-Roading are genre synonymous with Scotsman Duncan Barbour who has carved an impressive 25-year career as a world-leading exponent in these fields and built a reputation that is second-to-none.

Inspired by his great great uncle, Henry Alexander, the first man to drive a car (Model-T Ford) up Ben Nevis in 1911, Off-Roading is in Duncan’s blood and his naturally chosen and driven career path has taken him to all corners of the globe organising over 50 expeditions through all manner of terrain across seven continents.

From internationally acclaimed events such as Camel Trophy and Overland Expo and the launch of his specialist company BATT (Barbour All-Terrain Tracking) Duncan’s extraordinary skills-set have been sought from a wide diversity of industry, from Motor Manufacturer product launches and incentive expeditions for Land Rover, Jeep, Mercedes and Lexus, to Formula One Teams and the big screen of the Motion Picture Industry, his film credits the envy of many a Hollywood A-Lister.

ANDY DACEY – CAMEL TROPHY EXPEDITION SKILLS

Forestry, The Forces and Arboriculture finally led Andrew to apply for the Camel Trophy competition in 1990 – where, by hanging on in there, he became one of the two competitors for the UK during the Siberia event. It was a match made in heaven for the Welshman since he was able to combine his passions of off-road driving, recovery, and pioneering skills coupled with the occasional medicinal beer!

Andrew worked with Camel Trophy for many years after his first competition, becoming one of the event coordinators and travelling throughout the boonies of most continents.  The work with Camel Trophy meant that he worked closely with Duncan Barbour and this association has continued over many years and many expeditions. Training has become a big part of work over the last ten years, allowing the boundaries to be pushed on advanced recovery, including utilization of old and new techniques and equipment.

Tim Huber – Training Team Member
 

Born and raised in Southern California, Tim has enjoyed a variety of outdoor activities, from surfing and scuba diving to snowboarding and mountain biking, since a young age. After moving to Arizona 15 years ago, Tim created and ran the largest volunteer cleanup in the southwest collecting over 50 tons of trash from public lands. Tim has worked as a Tread Lightly Trainer, Overland Driving Instructor, Backcountry and Expedition Guide, Vehicle Outfitter for suspension and overland companies, and was published in Overland Journal. He is also a data collector mapping the most remote areas of the South West for the Federal Government using 4x4's, dirt bikes, mountain bikes and hiking. In his free time, Tim enjoys pursuing his passion for adventure by racing the Baja 1000 and countless other desert races in a buggy he helped build, endurance mountain bike racing, hunting, backpacking, riding dirt bikes and getting out to camp and explore in his Landcruiser every chance he gets. 

Nick Taylor – Training Team Member

Nick is a Colorado-based Brit–originally from Sunderland–and a Chartered Engineer and technologist who became a devotee of the worlds deserts. He’s lived in half a dozen countries and traveled to over 70. Over the last 15 years he’s extensively traveled in the Sahara and Rub’ al Khali, with much practical knowledge of remote solo desert travel. 

Elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 2002, Nick has delighted in sharing his experience with many expedition groups. He is a member of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Explorers Club and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. As a technologist, Nick has a particular interest in communications technology and autonomous systems, the antithesis of the simple diesel Land Rovers he loves. 

Nick is also a City & Guilds NPTC assessor, and is a partner in an international off-road driver training and expedition company.

Connie Rodman – Staff Kitchen and Wellness Coordinator

Born in Colorado, Connie has made numerous overland trips through
Africa, along with countless excursions into the Rocky Mountains, the
American Southwest, and Mexico. In 2004, she finished a nine-month
overland trip from London, England, to Cape Town, South Africa, with
her husband, Graham. Connie has a passion for the unique “outback”
culinary arts and has worked as chef on overland tours, concocting
delicacies to tempt any pallet in campsites all around the world. Give
her a can of this, a box of that, and her secret seasoning stash and
she can whip up some amazing dishes. When not cooking, you might find
her hovering around the campsite, fighting off vervet monkeys with her
twin frying pans of fury.

Chris Bradley – Venue Tech Manager

Chris first developed a love for travel at the age of eight while on a twenty-five hundred mile family road trip through the American West. Each subsequent summer would bring a new family trip, a new adventure, and an increased hunger for more travel. That desire eventually led him to live in Italy for a short time during his early twenties, where he was struck by how accessible the rest of the world could be and vowed to experience as much of it as he could. Since then he has managed to travel through fifteen countries and, as a result of a particularly inspiring Overland Expo experience, is planning “something big” for next year. Chris currently works as an architect in Oakland, California, specializing in school and multi-family projects. When not working or dreaming of travel, he is obsessed with landscape photography and can often be found plucking away at his Stratocaster.