Ted's journey into the travel and tourism industry started the summer after his sophomore year of college. A two-month backpacking trip throughout Europe ignited what has come to be a life-long passion for international travel. After spending a semester studying abroad in southern Spain and a summer in Southeast Asia, Ted graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in psychology. Getting a "real job" didn't sound like nearly as much fun as traveling, so he and a few friends decided to spend a year living, working, and exploring Australia and New Zealand. Living "down under" opened his eyes to the full scale of the tourism industry and solidified his desire to pursue it as a career. After returning from the southern hemisphere, Ted earned a master's degree in Tourism Studies from Arizona State University, where his thesis research investigated ecotourism development in Central America. Since then, Ted has focused his efforts on helping STI promote sustainable tourism development across the globe. In his free time, Ted enjoys most things outdoors, particularly skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, and backcountry hiking.

Kyra Ahlstrom, Director of Administration

Kyra grew up in California and New Mexico. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature. After spending her junior year of college in Padua, Italy, and a few summers in places as diverse as Mexico and Iceland, she knew she wanted to integrate her love of travel into her work, while trying to have a positive effect on the world. Luckily, she found STI!

When she's not working, Kyra practices yoga, attempts to windsurf, goes hiking, reads everything she can get her hands on, and plans her next adventures.

Gordon Woodcock has been involved with renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency for over 10 years. His background includes work with hydrogen fuel cells, algae based biofuels, solar electric and solar thermal systems. Gordon holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado – Boulder.

When he’s not thinking about energy, Gordon enjoys getting outside and enjoying the mountains, deserts and oceans, whichever is closest. Some of his favorite places outside of the U.S. include British Columbia, Ecuador and Spain.

Judith McElhinney, Marketing and Web Design

Judith has been designing and marketing web sites for more than six years. Her expertise covers everything from web and print design to branding, advertising, search engine optimization and online and traditional marketing campaigns.

In her free time, Judith likes to run, read and travel. Originally from Ireland, she's extremely well traveled, having spent time traveling throughout the Caribbean, Europe, South America, and the South Pacific.

Lisa Hoffman Mullis, Marketing and Design

With a degree in Journalism, Advertising and Graphic Design, Lisa has over seven years of professional design and marketing experience. Her expertise covers brand identity creation, marketing collateral design and execution, custom illustration and website user interface design and development.

In her free time, Lisa likes to hike, snowboard, mountain bike and just be active in the outdoors. She also enjoys gardening, writing, reading and cooking. An avid traveler, she's feels fortunate to have spent time in the Caribbean, South America, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, China and Japan, as well as her home country of the United States!