Josh Adam

Josh Adam is an assistant coach for the Washington State varsity women’s rowing program. Mr. Adams has over 10 years of collegiate coaching experience. Before joining the coaching staff at Washington State, Mr. Adams was at Indiana University, where he was the assistant coach and domestic recruiting coordinator. He has also coached at Seattle Pacific University, Lewis and Clark College, and the University of Minnesota.

Heather Alschuler

Heather Alschuler is the Program Coordinator for the Seattle Public School-based ErgEd program run by the George Pocock Rowing Foundation. Through this program Ms. Alschuler introduces students in Seattle middle schools to the sport of rowing through a unit on erging, field trips to the University of Washington, and opportunities to join local rowing clubs. Prior to coming to Seattle, Ms. Alschuler was an assistant women's rowing coach at the University of Michigan and a high school coach and teacher in Brookline, MA. 

Ms. Alschuler’s involvement in the ErgEd program is a reflection of her own path to rowing: During her senior year in high school, she and her classmates were visited by the local Kelowna Rowing Club. After a brief in-class erg lesson, Ms. Alschuler won a short erg race and received free learn to row lessons. She quickly learned the sport and received a scholarship to attend the University of Michigan. During her four years at UM, her crews repeatedly finished among the country's elite, and Ms. Alschuler received Big Ten Athlete of the Year and first team All-America honors. After graduating from UM, she rowed for the Canadian National Rowing teach for five years, where she competed in many World Championship and World Cup regattas, placing in the top six each time. She has earned medals at international regattas competing in both the women's eight and pair events. The highlight of her athletic career was representing Canada in the women's 8+ at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Dr. Kevin N. Alschuler

Dr. Alschuler is a Psychologist who works with athletes and medical patients.  He is currently an Acting Instructor and Senior Fellow in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, where he works with patients who have chronic medical conditions and serious injuries.  He is also a sport psychology consultant with a specific interest in rowing.  He has previously given presentations to rowers on the Canadian women’s national team, University of Michigan men’s rowing team, and Eastern Michigan University women’s rowing team.  Dr. Alschuler rowed for the University of Michigan (1999-2003), continues to row and race a 1x, and has coached rowers at the elite, collegiate, club, and high school levels, most notably as the Director of Rowing at the Ann Arbor Rowing Club.

Dr. Alschuler has produced over 40 professional articles and conference presentations primarily on innovative strategies for utilizing psychologists in nontraditional settings to maximize behavior change and factors that impact chronic pain patients’ levels of functioning.  In his young career, Dr. Alschuler has received awards from the Society of Behavioral Medicine and Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Michigan for his work focused on advancing the role of psychology in nontraditional settings.

Dr. James Antony

Dr. James Antony is the Co-Director of the Center for Leadership in Athletics.  In this capacity Dr. Antony is expanding efforts to translate research findings, develop new academic programs, and facilitate community networks to develop effective leadership practices. The goal is to maximize the positive impact of athletics within educational settings, especially for young people. He also serves as the Associate Vice Provost & Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Graduate School and an Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Washington. His research and teaching interests revolve around the development of forward-thinking leaders.  He teaches courses on foundations of leadership, data-based decision making, the governance and structure of collegiate settings, and sociological issues within sport and education.

Dr. Antony has a rich background in rowing, initially as a coxswain for UCLA and later experience as a judge-referee and coach. He was a recent speaker at the USRowing Annual Convention on Coaching Leadership.

Sam Blades

Sam Blades currently works at Canadian Sport Centre Pacific as a Performance Technologist. His duties include the design, fabrication and testing of leading edge sport measurement and feedback systems. He also helps national teams operate and enhance their current sport systems and technologies. Mr. Blades works with several national programs including rowing, cross country skiing, bobsleigh, luge, skeleton, diving, and yachting. 

Mr. Blades was recruited early in 2009 to work at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games as a performance technologist. Mr. Blades is also the performance technology lead for the National Sports Science and Medicine Advisory Council. Recently (June 2010), Mr. Blades was seconded by the Sport and Innovation Centre (SPIN) to operate as the NSO liaison, and project manage the development of a Multi Sport Measurement System. He still continues his work though CSCP with the National Rowing Program.

Jason Coffman

Jason Coffman is currently the Head Girls Coach and Junior Program Lead at Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center. He began coaching juniors in 1992 at Mount Baker as a novice coach and held assistant coach positions in both the boys and girls programs and was named the Girls Head Coach in 1996. His crews won national championships in the Varsity 8+ in 1997 and 1998 as well as the Lightweight 8+ in 1998.

Mr. Coffman had a brief collegiate coaching career from 1998 to 2002 during which he held positions at the University of Tennessee, the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, and the University of Tulsa. He returned to Seattle and the Mount Baker in 2002. Mr. Coffman’s rowing career began at Mount Baker as a sophomore in high school in 1997. He rowed four years at Seattle University where he was team captain.

Mr. Coffman has been the Northwest Representative to the USRowing Youth Advisory Committee since 2006 and was the Northwest Rowing Council Junior Chair from 2005 - 2010.

Anna Cummins

Anna Cummins won a Gold Medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a Silver Medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the women's eight. She is a three-time World Rowing Champion ('02, '06, '07) and was the only American woman row in two events in the 2008 Olympics, the eight and pair. She won three NCAA titles while competing for the University of Washington as a walk-on.

Ms. Cummins earned her Bachelor's of Arts from the University of Washington, majoring in Communications. Part of her formula for success was cutting edge health care that maximized her potential. The same health concepts that create Olympic champions, also create healthy moms and dads, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. After retiring from Elite competition following the 2008 Games, Anna and her husband, 1997 World Rowing Champion, Dr. Bob Cummins, created Cummins Chiropractic & Wellness to serve the greater Seattle area with the best of chiropractic care.  From her deep well of experience as an elite athlete, Ms. Cummins acts as a patient advocate, a wellness expert that conducts health workshops and promotes health to the community at large, and day-to-day as the Office Manager. She trained under Emil Kossev at the Pocock Rowing Center in 2005 and believes he would have loved the technology incorporated into care at Cummins Chiropractic & Wellness. Ms. Cummins strives to stay connected to the rowing community and is a Board Member of the National Rowing Foundation.

Dr. Robert Cummins

Dr. Bob Cummins, Jr was a bronze medalist at the 1993 Junior World Rowing Championships in Arungen, Norway. He won a collegiate national championship with the University of Washington in 1997 and with the US National Team won the world Championships in Aix Les Baines, France that same year.

After attending Cornell University and the University of Washington studying biology, he graduated Summa Cum Laude from Life West Chiropractic College. He completed a two-year mentorship in New York and became advanced certified in the postural correction technique called Chiropractic Biophysics, the most researched technique in chiropractic history. He now serves the greater Seattle community to bring people to better health, alongside his wife and office manager, Olympic gold medalist, Anna Cummins.  He believes one of the keys to his success is coupling the best of traditional chiropractic techniques with the latest in technologies in his clinic. From in office treatment to educational outreach, Dr. Cummins strives to help all people achieve their health potential and be able to enjoy life to the fullest.

Diana Cutaia

Diana Cutaia brought her life-long passion for athletics to Wheelock College as the Director of Athletics & Sport-Based Initiatives in 2005. Wheelock has seen a 200-percent increase in student-athlete participation and has grown the number of varsity programs from five to 11, adding men’s sports for the first time in school history. The Sport-based initiatives include the creation of the sport-based youth development academic program as well as the promotion of professional development programs for youth coaches, administrators and educators.

Ms. Cutaia continues her work on the local and state level in advocating for increased physical education and activity in schools.

Carlos Dinares

Carlos Dinares has been rowing since age 13. As a Spanish national team member, he competed in three World Championships and won medals in team boats at the 1997 Luzern World Cup and Mediterranean Games. After a devastating motorcycle accident in 1992, Carlos fought for four years to get back in shape despite his doctors’ advice to give up rowing because of his missing spleen. He was finally selected to the team again in 1996 and 1997. After a 10-year hiatus, he placed second in the lightweight single at the 2007 Head of the Charles.

Before coming to the U.S., Mr. Dinares managed the Catalan Rowing Federation for eight years and organized the 2004 World Rowing Championships in Banyoles as the Executive Director. He has a BS in Sports Science and an MBA from the University of Catalonia. He has been coaching at the University of Washington for seven years and in the past three years has coached elite lightweight athletes to international success, including coaching Ursula Grobler to a world record on the Concept2 and the LW2x to Gold at the World Cup in Bled in 2010 and the LW4x to Silver at the 2010 World Championships.

Today he runs the Lake Samish Training center where he organizes camps for High Schools, Colleges, and Masters of all ages. He also helped develop the RP3 dynamic ergometer.

Bob Ernst

Bob Ernst is the Head Coach of women’s rowing at the University of Washington. For 38 years, Bob Ernst has put his stamp on the Husky Crew program. The longest-tenured coach at the University of Washington, he has won at every level he’s coached, whether it was a run of six national championships with the women’s crew team in the 1980s, or the two IRA gold medals he won as the leader of the Husky men’s program in 1997 & 2007. In between, Mr. Ernst has also won an Olympic Gold Medal (1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles), in addition to coaching hundreds of athletes who have gone on to represent their countries at international competitions.

Mr. Ernst joined the UW in 1979, serving as the freshmen coach for the legendary Dick Erickson. He took over the women’s program in the spring of 1980, where he achieved an incredible amount of success. After serving as the men’s coach for 20 seasons (1987 to 2007), Mr. Ernst returned to lead the women’s program. He also serves as the Husky Crew program’s rowing director. Mr. Ernst is married and has two children. The family resides in Edmonds, Wash.

Conal Groom

Conal Groom is the Head Coach at the Seattle Rowing Center. Mr. Groom rowed on the U.S. Olympic and National Teams for over ten years, rowing as both a lightweight and heavyweight in the single, double and quad. Since 2006, he has been focused on developing young athletes through small boat training; his athletes have won medals at Youth Nationals, Junior World Championships and U23 Worlds.  

Mr. Groom was assisted in his presentation by Jon Greer who is a database marketing consultant and elite athlete. Mr. Groom was also assisted by Ed Meyer, Ph.D.; Mr. Meyer is a mechanical engineer and software developer for the solutions of dynamic stability and response problem.

Keith Jefferson 

Keith Jefferson has been coaching rowing at Seattle Pacific University for 22 years, the last two decades as Head Coach for both men’s and women’s teams.

Prior to coaching he was a business manager in international logistics, and retired in 2007 as a reserve Marine Corps officer. Mr. Jefferson earned his Master of Arts in Sport and Exercise Leadership.

Mora Kanim

Mora Kanim is the president and founder of Coaching C.L.O.U.T. (http://coachingclout.net/), a company she started with the vision of sharing her background in athletics and human behavior with others to help them build more effective relationships in their quest for excellence. Ms. Kanim is a former NCAA Division I athlete and coach. As an intercollegiate volleyball player at UCLA, she was a member of the1984 NCAA National Championship, and two Final Four teams (1983,1985). She was the Head Volleyball Coach at Kent State University (1997-2007) and the First Assistant Volleyball Coach at the University of Michigan (1992-1996) and Cal State Northridge (1989-1991). Ms. Kanim also worked with the USA Volleyball team (Atlanta ‘96). She recently left UCLA as their Director of Volleyball Operations to launch Coaching C.L.O.U.T.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from UCLA (1988) and a Masters Degree in Sports Psychology from Kent State University (2003). As a certified human behavior consultant, Mora trained extensively with Personality Insights, Inc.

Dr. Valery Kleshnev

Dr. Kleshnev spent 10 years as a member of USSR National Rowing team, winning a Junior World Championships in 1975, an Olympic Silver medal in 1980, a World’s bronze in 1982, and four National Championship titles.

In 1984 Dr. Kleshnev received a Masters Degree from Leningrad Academy of Physical Education as a rowing coach.  In 1991 he received his PhD in the biomechanics of rowing and coaching science.  In 1998 he began a seven year stint at the Australian Institute of Sport where he worked with the Australian national coaches and crews including three time Olympic champions Tomkins and Ginn
(M2-).  In 2005 he took a position as the National Biomechanics Lead in the English Institute of Sport and moved to Britain, supporting the British National Rowing Team through the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, at which they won six medals, two of them gold.

Since April 2009, Dr. Kleshnev has been running his own company, BioRow Ltd. (www.biorow.com), which provides consultancy and R&D in Rowing Biomechanics and sports science. He also continues his support of British Rowing.

Matthew Lacey

Matt Lacey has served as the Director of the Pocock Rowing Center since 2008 and has been involved with rowing as either an athlete, coach, or administrator for the last 25 years. Prior to his time at Pocock, Mr. Lacey was the Director for the Everett Rowing Association, and has coached for the Lakeside School, Green Lake Crew, and the Everett Rowing Association. He holds a BA in History from UW and a Masters in Public Administration from Seattle University.

Karla Landis

Karla Landis is the Senior Program Director for the George Pocock Rowing Foundation in Seattle. She has nearly ten years of coaching and program management experience and an aptitude for community development within the sport of rowing. Most recently reflected through her work with US Rowing, Seattle Public Schools, and Seattle Parks and Recreation, Ms. Landis understands the power of rowing to serve as a means for young people to develop lifelong skills for healthy living, embrace teamwork and build new friendships, and expand academic and professional horizons.

She continues to strengthen rowing in the Northwest by improving community awareness of rowing opportunities and creating greater access to high-quality junior programs. Ms. Landis is a former rower (‘98-‘02) and coach (’03-’09) from Western Washington University.

Jane LaRiviere

Jane LaRiviere is the Head Coach of women’s rowing at Washington State University. Under her direction, the program has competed at four NCAA Championships, and she was voted West Region Coach of the Year in 2006 and Pacific-10 Conference Women’s Rowing Coach of the Year in 2006. Before taking the helm at Washington State, Ms. LaRiviere was the recruiting coordinator and novice coach at Oregon State University. She has also coached at the University of Oregon, the University of Western Ontario, and for the London (Ontario) Rowing Club.

Sara Lopez

Sara Lopez serves as Co-Director for the Center for Leadership in Athletics and Executive Director for the Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership (IAL) M.Ed. program. In the IAL program she teaches two courses, Foundations of Leadership in Intercollegiate Athletics and Event and Facilities Planning & Management. Ms. Lopez is also pursuing a doctoral degree with a research focus on the professional preparation and continuing education of intercollegiate athletic coaches. A graduate of Pacific Lutheran University where she began rowing, she has been an active coach for 25 years with various junior, collegiate and masters programs.

After earning a degree in physical education with a secondary teaching credential, she worked for eight years with the U.S. Rowing Association overseeing club development, coaching education, national championship events, and U.S. national team logistics. Following two years with the 1996 Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games as the Assistant Competition Manager for rowing, Ms. Lopez returned to Seattle and worked as a Region Director with Washington Special Olympics. She has been at the University of Washington since 2000. Currently, Ms. Lopez is also Head Coach for Conibear Rowing Club serving competitive masters women in Seattle.

Julie McCleery

Julie McCleery’s involvement with rowing includes a broad range of rowing-related activities from national team athlete to junior coach to elite coach. She helped to found the Kossev Consortium in memory of her dear friend and colleague Emil Kossev, with whom she coached the Pocock High Performance Team for 8 years; she currently serves as the Board President of the George Pocock Rowing Foundation. In 2005, she founded McCleery Coaching and Consulting which provides strategic planning and grant writing services for educational organizations and non-profits.

She has written successful grants to federal and state government agencies as well as family foundations and corporations. Through her involvement with Pocock and other non-profits she has planned fundraising events and annual campaigns as well as assisted with fundraising strategic planning and grants management. She received a B.A. from Georgetown University, an M.Ed. from Harvard University, and is months away from receiving her Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Washington.

Christina Meyer

Christina Meyer is a counseling associate at Sparks Consulting, LLC, where she guides rowing athletes and their families through the arduous task of finding the right college culture and rowing program to meet their academic and athletic needs. Ms. Meyer joined the staff at Sparks after coaching and recruiting at Harvard, Michigan, and Washington State Universities. She has also coached in the high school ranks at Brentwood College School in British Columbia, The Shipley School in Philadelphia, and currently at the Seattle Rowing Center. 

Ms. Meyer graduated from the University of Michigan as an All-American rower in 2002 and competed on the elite racing team at Vesper Boat Club from 2009-2011. She holds an M.Ed. in human movement and coaching from Boston University and a BA in psychology from the University of Michigan. 

Adrienne Moore

Adrienne Moore serves as a Program Administrator for the Center for Leadership in Athletics. She has spent the last two years working closely with youth sports organizations to help build collaborative networks and improve the quality of their programs. Specifically, she focuses on ways that sport can be used as a tool for addressing the critical issues that young people face and for promoting positive development at pivotal times in their lives.

Ms. Moore has over ten years of experience leading and developing programming for youth-focused organizations, from sports clinics to leadership teambuilding retreats to wilderness trips. She graduated from the Evans School of Public Affairs at UW with a Master’s in Public Administration and studied non-profit management.

Hannah Owings

Hannah Owings currently works at the University of Washington’s Center for Leadership in Athletics. Ms. Owings primary work in the Center is focused on the management and execution of the Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership (IAL) M.Ed. program in the UW’s College of Education. In addition to her work with the Center, she is simultaneously pursuing a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership & Policy Study. The focus of her research is the impact of coaches and parents on the psychosocial development of youth athletes.

Ms. Owings is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she was a four-year letter winner and academic All-American for the Cavalier softball team. After graduating with a B.A. in psychology, she spent time coaching softball at the collegiate level and played and coached internationally in the Netherlands. She returned to the United States and earned her Master’s of Education in the IAL program and went on to work for the Seattle Mariners Baseball Club in a marketing and event production capacity before returning to work at UW in 2008. Hannah has coached softball at the youth, high school, club, and collegiate levels for over 10 years.

Dr. Dan Tripps

Dr. Tripps holds leadership positions with two organizations, serving as Director of the Center for the Study of Sport & Exercise at Seattle University, and COO and Director of POTETNRX, a sport-science / medical fitness assessment and training facility.

His research and clinical practice focus on biomechanics, physiology, and psychology of high performance. Dr. Tripps has coached world-class swimmers and triathletes, was President and Executive Director of the 1984 Olympic Scientific Congress, and has published 12 books on achievement and human performance appeared on several History Channel and Discovery Channel television programs and speaks widely to sport audiences and coaches. Dr. Tripps pursued his undergraduate education at U.S.C. and San Francisco State University, earning a BA in English. He earned his MA in Teaching from Stanford University and his doctoral degree from the University of Oregon.

His relationship with rowing and the rowing community has grown since his first met and worked with Emil Kossev in 2004.  Since then, Dr. Tripps and his lab have worked closely with the Pocock High Performance team, conducting both on and off the water physiological and biomechanical testing, which he has also done for the national team.  He currently has a number of national team athletes as clients in his lab.

Matthew Weatherley-White

Matthew Weatherley-White is co-founder of Restwise, the world's first non-invasive, global fatigue monitoring system. Having competed at an international level for nearly 30 years in four different sports, Mr. Weatherley-White brings a wealth of direct experience to the process of optimizing elite endurance training. More recently, he has coached and advised athletes who have won seven world championships and countless national titles in cycling, rowing, endurance running, Nordic skiing, adventure racing and randonee racing.

Mr. Weatherley-Wise’s interest in sport science was triggered while rowing in Australia in the mid-1980s, where he spent time at the Australian Institute of Sport: at the time, the AIS was the world's most progressive sport science organization. He has been fascinated with the interaction of science and athletics ever since. Between remaining competitive (he took fourth place in the pro mixed division at The Cape Epic mountain bike race in 2009, and third place at the US National 100k Trail Running Championships in 2010), running two successful companies and trying to keep up with his 18-month old girl, he lives a life in Boise, Idaho crammed full of wonder and gratitude.

Matt Zatorski

Matt Zatorski is the Coordinator for the Institute for Rowing Leadership at Community Rowing, Inc.  His current responsibilities include the administration of the ‘What Works’ Summit and curriculum design and development for the Advanced Certificate in Rowing Leadership.  After graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a dual degree in the Program of Liberal Studies (Great Books) and Classics (Greek) in 2005, Mr. Zatorski returned to Chicago to teach English Language Arts and coach at New Trier High School, leading his crews to gold medal finishes at both the regional level at the Midwest Scholastic Championships and the national level at the SRAA Regatta. He currently serves as the Head Boys Coach for the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, where his crews have gone from newcomers to the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association Championship Regatta to NEIRA finalists in a few short years.

At Community Rowing, Mr. Zatorski’s coaching duties have included working with the Competitive Women’s Team, the Competitive Sculling Program and many of the different recreational programs offered at CRI.  He currently heads the development and execution of the IRL’s Corporate Leadership Training Program, where executive leadership teams utilize the rowing experience to develop the skills and understand the strategies needed to successfully manage the complex challenges faced by modern organizations.