Meet Our Management Team

From medical school in England to educational travel in the United States; working as a tour director while studying at Bristol University changed my life completely. Showing young people new cultures, new places and a new dimension on their world was a phenomenal experience; incredibly challenging, but at the same time so much fun.

Justin Sockett and I founded NETC to bring much needed modernization to educational travel by making our programs more than just sightseeing tours. The result is programs that are student centered, engaging, challenging and experiential. Today it's as exciting and invigorating as it was when I was waiting, in absolute terror, for my first group to come through customs in Paris in 1977!

My wife Josie and I have three sons: Boris works for a nonprofit media company in Washington, Max is a recent graduate from the University of Denver, and Connor is serving in the United States Marine Corps.

Both my parents were teachers and I have always been fascinated by other cultures, so working with educators on student travel programs was a perfect fit for me. Although it doesn’t feel like it, I have worked in educational travel for over 20 years! I founded NETC with Des Maguire in 1993.

I am originally from Cambridge in England and now live outside Boston with my wife Stacey, my two children, Abby and Jake, and our two dogs. I love to cook and enjoy playing and watching soccer.

I caught the travel bug on a high school ski trip to Switzerland and Italy. My professional travel career began with AAA, where I managed outside travel agencies for 8 years before joining NETC in 1998.

I live on the south shore of Boston with my wife Jennifer and three young children,  Zachary, age 9, Mason, age 7 and Kaitlyn, age 5. We are quite the adventurous family and can be found hiking, camping, or skiing on most weekends depending on the season. I am an avid cyclist who typically hits the roads at sunrise on most weekend days.   

I caught the travel bug early, while traveling back and forth between England, where I was born, and Ireland, where my parents are from. I grew up in the Boston area and have traveled to many countries throughout the world with school, work, friends, and family. I have been with NETC for 10 years now! My husband Jamie and I are very active and spend a lot of time pursuing outdoor activities and having backyard barbeques with family and friends. During my free time I like to stretch it out in a hot yoga studio!

I am from Central Uganda, East Africa, where I spent my childhood. I have been living in Massachusetts for twenty years and working for NETC since 2002. My friends are always surprised that my favorite sport is American football and not soccer, which most Africans are obsessed with.

My wife Sheila is from Western Uganda and we have two sons, Brandon, age 10 and Dorian, age 7, who both love basketball and have dreams of being the next Kevin Garnett!

My first trip abroad was to Italy during my sophomore year of high school. That experience completely revolutionized the way I viewed the world and myself.

After college, I helped American students travel abroad and international students come to the US for a high school year abroad. I have also worked in higher education, helping colleges and universities better understand their enrollment patterns and specifically looking at how student involvement impacts graduation rates. I began working at NETC in the summer of 2010 and am thrilled to be in a position where I can combine my two loves of education and travel.

I'm a sports fanatic with my favorites being American and European football. I love music, movies and literature and try to consume as much as possible whenever possible.

The seeds that were planted during my initial trip to Italy are still flourishing and have a profound effect on the person I am today. Being able to provide students with similar opportunities during a crucial time in their life is something that is extremely motivating to me. I love hearing from students when they return from a trip; even though they were gone for only a few weeks, the person they were prior to leaving seems a lifetime away.

I fell in love with Europe on a student tour led by my Spanish teacher in high school in southern California. I pursued a degree in International Relations and spent a semester studying in Argentina. I joined NETC in 2002. I am an amateur ballerina, having danced and taught ballet over the years as my primary sport. I love imagining the first ballerinas in France dancing at Versailles or the Paris Opera Garnier. I live in San Francisco with my husband Dan. On weekends, you will find us hiking around the city, trying new restaurants, volunteering at our church, or dreaming about our next international trip.

I grew up in Seattle, Washington before coming east to Brandeis University outside of Boston. As a French major, my first trip abroad was to Paris during my junior year and I haven't stopped traveling since! During my free time, I'm probably playing, watching, reading about, or talking about sports. I remain loyal to Seattle teams, although I have become a Boston Celtics fan and season ticket holder since the sad departure of my hometown Sonics.

My wife, Kelly, and I just recently bought our first house in Salem, MA and have spent the past few months learning the ins and outs of home ownership. We're also very excited about the newest member of the Shutoff family, our cat Milo!

I left my home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to study French and Spanish at Edinburgh University in Scotland. Since then my travels have taken me to over 30 countries, including a 3 year stint as an English teacher in a high school in rural Japan followed by a year backpacking in South East Asia and Australia. When I am not training for marathons (I am doing my fourth this year), searching for off-piste snowboard trails or being humbled on a golf course, I am watching the Boston Celtics, where I am a season ticket holder and an avid fan. I led my first tour as a Tour Director for NETC in 2001 and I knew immediately that educational travel was the field in which I wanted to pursue a career.

I came to Boston at age 19 from my native Russia and live with my wife, Irina and my 3 children - Mark (13), Joseph (6) and Elizabeth (4). We've always loved traveling and have taken many trips to the USSR and Ukraine, where my wife is from. However, it is somewhat difficult to travel the world with 3 children, so we have another family hobby - ballroom dancing - for all 3 of my children, and my wife and I. The farthest trip we've taken together was to Los Angeles for the US National 2010 Ballroom Championship to root for Mark, who won the bronze medal in the Latin division.

Before I went to China a few years ago, I had traveled all over Central America and France. However, I became addicted to travel during a stroll around a hutong in Beijing; a family saw me wandering around, and invited me in for a visit. I met three generations of the family, 8 people, who all shared a two-room house in the historic districts of Beijing. Here I was, a modern American girl, in the midst of a traditional Chinese family, eating traditional Chinese food, in one of the most traditional buildings in Beijing!  What stuck with me the most, however, was the fact that their walls were completely covered in Chicago Bulls memorabilia! Since then, I have been traveling the world looking for these interesting cultural juxtapositions; my journeys have included a week-long traveling music festival through the towns surrounding Lake Atitlan, meals with locals in New Delhi, and a public cremation ceremony just outside Kathmandu. Experiences like these have made me so passionate about travel that I can’t wait to get others on board! In between adventures I am enjoying the city of Boston, and all it has to offer to us locals and tourists from all over the world!