NAVIGATION GAMES

Cristina joined us as Executive Director in 2018, after seven years in Norway immersing herself in orienteering culture. She has been involved with orienteering, maps, and navigation for as long as she can remember: first as a navigational assistant to her dad while driving, then as a geoscience student, combat search and rescue navigator in the Air Force, and finally as a top level orienteer representing the US at the World Orienteering Championships and World Ski Orienteering Championships. Cristina has also coached groups ranging from 8 year-old beginners up to Junior and Senior US Teams and spent several years in the classroom teaching middle school, high school, and college students. She is infectiously enthusiastic about orienteering and its potential as a lifelong activity that helps develop confidence, decision-making, and map reading skills. 

Adam grew up near Chicago and is a recent graduate of the University of Vermont with a degree in environmental science. He joined Navigation Games in May of 2018 and is bringing an environmental outlook to our programs. When he's not busy with our community school classes, he's also working as an EMT. You may see Adam riding his electric bike all around Cambridge. 

Eugenio loves cultural experiences, outdoor sports, and learning more about different cultures in the world. When he is not working on the family farm, he is an Orienteering expert and a digital marketing freelancer. He likes to spend free time in volunteering, networking, and traveling. Cool facts: Organized more than 100 orienteering races, founded OrienteeringTime.com, collector of useful website libraries, wrote and recited monologues (theater).

Melanie is a former member of the US Junior National Team, and has participated in multiple Junior World Championships. Melanie now represents the Bulgarian Federation and competed for Bulgaria in Ski-O. She recently graduated from the Northern Vermont University with a degree in Outdoor Education and is always hiking somewhere new or cross country skiing.

Maiken came from Norway to volunteer with Navigation Games during the summer of 2018. She studies Sports Management and her knowledge was very helpful during the youth summer program. Maiken has been orienteering for several years in Norway and has done a lot of event management for the Norwegian O Festivalen, and volunteered with the organizing committee for JWOC and WOC. She also enjoys coaching children. 

Tomas came from Czech Republic with Marie. He is not on the Czech National but enjoys mountain bike orienteering a lot. He also coached middle school teams and taught classes in the Cambridge Public Schools. He works with organizing club trainings and training camps. Altough specializing in bike orienteering, both Tomas and Marie still participate in Foot-O regularly. 

Violeta is on the national orienteering team of Spain, and she brought her passion to Cambridge to share with our students. In Spain, she taught orienteering to childrne in extra-curriculuar classes, and worked as ain instructor in a summer orienteering camp called "Muyer y Deporte" (Women and Sport), in which girls and women of all ages with different levels of knowledge of the sport want to learn how to orienteer or just improve their technical skills. In Cambridge, Violeta taught and coached many children. She also made an awesome video about her time in the United States.

Marie was a volunteer from Czech Republic who is on the National Czech Mountain Bike team and has competed in several World Mountain Bike O Championships. She worked with coaching middle school teams and developing programs for Navigation games in 2018 along with her boyfriend, Tomas. In the Czech Republic, she has experience with course setting and organization for MTBO events. 

Juan Manuel ("Juanma") Merida teaches orienteering and coaches sports in Spain. He is perhaps best known for organizing the Madrid Orienteering Olympics - a large event for schoolchildren held annually in a large park in the city of Madrid. The goal of the program is to give children the opportunity to try out the sport, and to make sure they have a great time doing so. Any school can participate, and each year they have more than 1000 children ranging in age from 9 to 16.  While he was here, Juanma coached middle school teams, taught children in grades K-5, and helped with our high school athletes. Juanma came to us thanks to his friendship with USA Junior Coach Greg Ahlswede.  Thanks, Greg!

Tanairi was the Operations and Outreach Coordinator at Navigation Games where she worked to identify school and organization partners and foster new and current relationships. Tanairi joined the team with five years of education and non-profit work, including facilitation experience around social justice topics. Her previous non-profit experience along with her passion for social justice helped further the organization's mission to provide equitable access to outdoor education.​​

Charlotte was a Program Delivery Coach at Navigation Games where she helped to develop and implement orienteering activities for kids, as well as design online trainings for teachers to help individualize their orienteering lessons. 

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​Charlotte brought to the team many years of working with kids in outdoors settings, including leading rock climbing courses, ropes courses, as well as paddleboarding and kayaking courses.

Pavla and Juan are from Brazil with experience in coaching. Pavla was a coach for the Silva O Camp, which has had participants from many different countries, and many of them go on to be on their country's national team. They have worked with kids between ages 8 and 18 and teaching/coaching them orienteering. They worked with Navigation Games in April/May of 2018, volunteering with program development and teaching kids. Juan is also a member of the Brazilian Air Force Orienteering Team. 

Ethan was Program Director at Navigation Games for 6 years prior to graduating to the Board of Directors. He has raced for Team USA at both Junior and regular World Orienteering Championships.

Summer staff & designer of our animals

Meka spent summer 2024 at Navigation Games and ran the Cambridge Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment program. He has fantastic experience working with youth, has a wonderful vibe and is super enthusiastic. His deep conversations, analytical way of thinking and his ability to critique and challenge processes and the way things were done at Navigation Games improved everything he touches.