Getting to the know the team: Kerry Mueller

Kerry lives in Winchester, Virginia with her husband, two daughters, and dog, Oliver. In high school, Kerry lived in Singapore. Kerry earned her Bachelor's in History at Mary Washington College and her Master's in Special Education at George Mason University.

Kerry works with middle school special education teachers in her role as Coordinator; she helps plan and implement professional development, develop specialized programs, and share best instructional practices. Kerry loves working with special education students, especially when she sees them learning to read!

In her free time, Kerry enjoys spending time with her family and participating in the annual American Foundation for Suicide Prevention walk to raise money for suicide prevention. She also works with a local Girl Scout troop and with her church to make sure seniors in nursing homes and kids in need are remembered.

Getting to the know the team: Ashley Cooper

Ashley grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee with her twin sister, Amory. She graduated from Virginia Tech in 2006 with a degree in Business Management and Leadership. Ashley is a huge Virginia Tech football fan and enjoys going to see games in the Fall. After college, Ashley landed her dream job at Walt Disney World with the Disney Event Group in the Creative Media Department. She organized photo, video, and digital graphics for convention events for over six years. Events are one of Ashley's passions and she continues to plan parties and weddings locally.

In 2013, she decided to return to Tennessee to work for her Dad as the Business Manager at GSM Filtration. GSM is a manufacturing company that makes spare parts for industrial machines that separate a solid from a liquid. The parts are used in wastewater treatment, power plants, mining and many other industries. In her spare time, Ashley's active in three non-profit boards: Engage Kingsport, a cultural arts program; Junior League of Kingsport, women's community service group; and PEAK, local young professional group. Ashley recently bought a house and is having fun planning her next vacation back to Disney.

Getting to the know the team: William Burke

William, or as his friends call him, Trey, grew up in Woodstock, VA, but now lives in Winchester, VA. Having grown up around the fire department, due to his father, grandfather and stepfather all volunteering at their local fire departments, he has always known what he wanted to do in life. Trey himself volunteered as soon as he was old enough and now works as a professional firefighter for Loudoun County, VA. Currently, Trey rotates through staffing a Tower Ladder, an Engine, and a Medic unit while also cross-staffing the county Hazardous Materials unit.

Trey graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a Bachelor's degree in Fire & Safety Engineering and a Master's degree in Safety, Security, and Emergency Management. In his free time, he enjoys being outdoors, photography, and spending time with family. He hopes to learn a few new techniques from the vocational exchange that he can take home to his station as well as learning about the French-Canadian culture.

Getting to the know the team: Jessie Vernon

Jessie lives in Danville, Virginia with her husband and dog, Brady. She works at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research as an Advanced Learning Program Coordinator. She works to provide STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) educational opportunities to students within an eight city and county region; additionally, she works with STEM educators on professional development activities. Two of her major projects are the South Virginia STEM-H Summit: which brings over 300 students, educators, and industry attendees together over two days; and the Southern Virginia Career CHoICE Youth Expo: 2014 which brought over 3,500 students together with over 80 businesses for hands-on exploration of career options in our region.

Jessie attended Eckerd College in Florida. She graduated in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marine Science with a Biology Concentration. Before her time as a Program Coordinator she taught middle and high school biology and anatomy and physiology. Jessie enjoys reading, crafting, spending time with her family and friends, and working out.

Getting to the know the team: Kitty Frazier, Team Leader

Kitty is the team leader and lives in Kingsport, Tennessee. She works as the Manager of Kingsport Parks and Recreation Department and administers leisure time programs and facilities for a municipality of 51,000 residents. Offerings include sports, athletic facilities, children's after school programs, special events, neighborhood parks, greenways/trails, a southern mansion, community centers, a dog park, skatepark, and splashed. The Department has received numerous awards as well as many grants. Kitty is involved with professional Parks and Recreation Associations and has been recognized as an outstanding professional and received the highest honors at both the state and national level.

Kitty earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from East Tennessee State University. In her free time, Kitty officiates volleyball, rides horses, plays sports, sings, knits, works in her yard and enjoys time with her pets. Kitty and some of her pets are involved in Dog Therapy programs.

Pins

Our GSE pins have just arrived. We are looking forward to exchanging our pins with the Canadian team Saturday. See you at the conference!

Welcome!

Hello everyone, we officially have our blog up and running. We hope to keep you all informed on our preparation for the exchange, and of course the exchange itself during our stay in Rotary District 7790.

We would also like to give a big thanks to the United Methodist Church of Salem for allowing us to use their church for our meetings. We greatly appreciate the opportunity and are looking forward to our next meeting at the end of March.

Be on the lookout for some updates on how we are preparing as well as a short bio on each of the team members before Rotary District 7570's Conference this year. We hope to see you all on March 14 at the Homestead Resort.