Our Team

Executive Committee

Micah Leinbach (President)
Milwaukee, WI, a gathering place by the water for the Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Menominee now and throughout history

BOAT’s founder, Micah has been running collaboratively-designed, justice-forward outdoor programs for over a decade. He has supported non-profits, schools, municipalities, faith groups, and others in incorporating outdoor travel and camping into their existing work, while helping other programs make their work more inclusive and accessible. Micah speaks nationally on the role that the history of public policy and the stories we tell about outdoor spaces have both included and excluded certain groups. Frustrated by the lack of structural solutions to outdoor accessibility, Micah worked with a team to develop the idea that became BOAT. His goal on every trip is to put both resources and support for camping and travel based programs in the hands of leaders who are already networked into and serving their community. 

Micah is a wilderness guide and certified Coach, a Wilderness EMT, Level 2 Leave No Trace Instructor and State Advocate, and experienced entrepreneur and facilitator. Based in Milwaukee, WI, he works across the Great Lakes, where he grew up and returned to for the high quality water and snow: kayaking and sailing in summer, nordic skiing in the winter. 

Samira M. Payne (Secretary)
Milwaukee, WI

Samira began her career as a social worker before moving into the education and nonprofit sectors, where she has dedicated her career to advancing equity and expanding access for underrepresented communities. She has worked extensively in higher education with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion—supporting first-generation and marginalized students as they navigate to and through college.

Across her career, Samira has been deeply engaged in the nonprofit sector, working and volunteering with organizations such as Girls on the Run, Villages to Villages, and United Way. She currently serves as the Senior Director of Programs & Strategy at Rebuilding Together’s National Office, where she leads strategy and programmatic initiatives for a national affordable housing network operating in 39 states.

Samira’s passion for the outdoors was sparked during a four-day backpacking trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, where she was confronted with the lack of representation she saw on the trail. That experience inspired her to become a volunteer leader with Outdoor Afro, a national not-for-profit that celebrates Black joy, leadership, and connection in nature. Through Outdoor Afro, Samira leads hikes and outdoor programs across Wisconsin to help others build confidence, community, and belonging outside.

Samira holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Welfare and Justice from Marquette University, a Master’s in Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Master of Nonprofit Administration from the University of Notre Dame.

 

Saskia Versteeg (Treasurer)
Philadelphia, PA – Homelands of the Lenape Nation 

Saskia Versteeg is a high-energy adventurer, known for charging up mountains whether it’s on her own backpacking trips or leading an ambitious team to develop innovative environmental projects. She works as a project developer in the forestry sector, and has reforested over 1000 acres in her career across the USA. 

Growing up as a tricultural kid in south Texas, Saskia turned to science to learn and share her fascination of her native ecosystems with others. Saskia’s graduate studies focused on modeling the environmental impacts of energy production and wastewater treatment, and how to communicate far-ranging impacts across both space and time. She was a two-time Udall award winner for her dedicated on-campus work on eco-activism. Now her specialties include business and project development, community engagement, science communication, and bringing energy and connection to diverse teams. She loves connecting friends, family, and future generations with the outdoors and looks forward to contributing to BOAT to help get more folks outside!

General Board

Jaylyn Gough
Grand Rapids, MI

Jaylyn Gough is a photographer, writer, speaker, and the founder of Native Women’s Wilderness. Designed to be an organization to share stories, to learn, and to support other Native Women on the Land. It was created in the frustration of the lack of Women of Color represented in the Outdoor Industries, let alone a Native Woman.

She is from the Navajo Reservation and grew up as a Rez kid throwing baby rattlesnakes at each other, playing in the arroyos, and doing everything she was told not to do– being a typical Rez kid.

Jaylyn hopes to assist in the change of the outdoor stigma of what women should look like and has a great desire to see more diversity in our industries. Being a woman of color is difficult, but these stories represent the resiliency our Native Women have and how much of it is tied to the Land.

She has worked with HOKA One One, Mountain Hardware, Vasque, and Backcountry. Her work has been featured in Outside Magazine, National Geographic, and CondĂ© Nast. She is an avid hiker, backpacker, angler, climber, biker… you name it and she has probably done it. You can usually find her in the desert or in the mountains with a camera in her hand.

Julia Huggins

Julia Huggins is a scientist, educator, and wilderness guide whose career spans scientific research and environmental education in some of the world’s most remote places. Her work sits at the intersection of Earth-system science, outdoor education, and science communication, with a focus on helping people feel comfortable in places and conversations where they may have previously felt out of place.

As an undergraduate at Lewis & Clark College, Julia studied interactions between biological and physical components of Earth’s systems, work that took her to Alaska, New Zealand, and Patagonia. She began working as a guide and environmental educator early in her career and later taught aboard National Geographic expedition ships in Alaska, the Arctic, Patagonia, and Antarctica. Her doctoral research in climate and oceanography further expanded her experience navigating complex logistics and research operations in remote environments, including expeditions in the tropical Pacific and the Bay of Bengal.

Julia is currently a postdoctoral scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and is pursuing a career centered on science communication and wilderness education. She brings to the BOAT board a commitment to accessible language, humility, and welcoming learning environments—along with a deep belief that everyone deserves access to the outdoors without having to adopt a particular identity, background, or worldview.

Julietta Dasilva(she/her/ella)
Denver, Colorado – Ancestral lands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute Peoples

Julietta DaSilva is a community-centered nonprofit professional whose work sits at the intersection of relationship-building, equity, and organizational sustainability. After nearly a decade shaping teams and culture in the tech sector, she transitioned into mission-driven nonprofit work—bringing with her a strong foundation in strategic coordination, stakeholder engagement, and systems thinking.

In her current role as Membership and Development Coordinator at Colorado Nonprofit Center, Julietta supports a statewide network of nonprofits by strengthening member relationships, advancing development efforts, and helping build the infrastructure organizations need to thrive. Her work focuses on fostering meaningful connections, stewarding partnerships, and supporting initiatives that empower nonprofits to better serve their communities.

Previously, Julietta served as Community Engagement Manager at Museo de las AmĂ©ricas, where she expanded the museum’s reach across Denver through inclusive programming, membership engagement, and community partnerships. Her Brazilian-Mexican heritage informs her deep commitment to creating spaces where Latinx communities and other communities of color feel seen, celebrated, and welcomed. Her leadership elevated local artists, strengthened collaborations with schools and neighborhood organizations, and deepened the museum’s role as a cultural anchor.

Outside of work, Julietta is passionate about community-building beyond traditional nonprofit spaces. An avid rock climber, she volunteers with outdoor affinity groups that support people of color in building confidence, safety, and belonging in nature. Across all areas of her life, she is driven by values of equity, access, and care—believing that strong communities are built through intentional relationships and shared stewardship.

Taylor Feldman
Portland, OR – confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, which served as an important trading ground for Chinook, Clackamas, Kathlamet, Multnomah, and many other tribes.

A manager of a collegiate outdoor program, Taylor Feldman is passionate about risk-aware adventuring, mountaineering, foraging, dancing, fermenting, and forest-bathing. Based on the Chinook, Multnomah, and Kalapuya land of Portland, OR, she has a decade-long career as a wilderness instructor and has led teams up more than 60 peaks in the US and abroad. She holds certifications as a Wilderness First Responder, Leave No Trace Level 2 Instructor, and Avalanche AIARE Level 1.

Though Taylor is based on the West Coast, she was born in Chicago, IL and is a midwesterner at heart. Her support of BOAT is rooted in her devotion to help all people to explore the land and connect to the nature that surrounds them, whether that’s a national park or a city park.

Taylor’s passion for incorporating justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion into all of her projects include workshop facilitation, curriculum development, and partnership building. Personal projects include “Building a Culture of Accountability,” a 2020 workshop on how white people can work towards repair after causing racist harm; creator of the Inclusive Outdoor Language Guide;  a contributing author to “Beneficial Risks: The Evolution of Risk Management for Outdoors and Experiential Programs”; an annual presenter at Wilderness Risk Management Conference, Association of Experiential Education Conference, and Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education Conference; and was the Lead Guide and a feature narrative in “Who’s On Top? LGBTQs Climb Mount Hood,” a documentary which premiered Spring 2021.