Board | No Barriers - Resilience, Hope & Optimism For Youth And Adults

A framework that teaches you step-by-step how to break through your own challenges and live a driven, purposeful life.

No Barriers is a registered 501(c)3 Non-Profit Guidestar Platinum Rating Tax ID Number: 06-1693441

After losing his vision at the age of 14, Erik has dedicated his life to inspiring others to embrace a No Barriers Mindset to live purposeful and meaningful lives. He has climbed the 7 Summits, the tallest mountain on every continent, and solo-kayaked the iconic whitewater of the Grand Canyon, among countless other adventure firsts

A former middle school teacher and wresting coach, Erik is, the author of Touch the Top of the World, The Adversity Advantage and No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon. He is the recipient of numerous awards, among them the prestigious National Courage Award and the 2002 ESPN ESPY award.

Erik is an internationally recognized speaker whose message helps companies, organizations and individuals around the world discover what it takes to turn into the storm, convert challenges into greatness, and reach for seemingly impossible goals. Through Erik’s groundbreaking adventures, he has explored and defined what it means to live a No Barriers Life, describing it as a map we build to navigate and to pursue a life that matters.

“A No Barriers Life is not all about hanging off the edge of a scary mountain, nor is it only applicable to someone who may be blind or can’t walk. No Barriers is for everyone.”

David Shurna served as the executive director, co-founder, and chief growth architect of No Barriers USA for nearly twenty years before passing the torch to new leadership. Building both organizational and corporate partnerships, Dave guided No Barriers to historic levels of both impact and revenue. Dave currently serves on the Board of Directors where he spends his time helping develop our Fort Collins-based field campus among other passion projects. An innovative entrepreneur and seasoned educator, Dave has spent more than 25 years in the nonprofit sector. He lives in Colorado with his wife Gina, and their two children.

Keith Allman was elected President and Chief Executive Officer effective February 14, 2014. Prior to his election, Mr. Allman was a Group President, a position he was promoted to in 2011, and had responsibility for Masco’s Plumbing Products and North American Cabinet businesses. While Group President, Mr. Allman was responsible for a number of companies accounting for approximately half of Masco’s revenues in 2012.

In this role, Mr. Allman led the development and implementation of a platform-wide strategy including the turnaround of the North American Cabinet business.

Canadian-born violinist and educator Adrian Anantawan holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale University and Harvard Graduate School of Education. As a violinist, he has studied with Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman, and Anne-Sophie Mutter; his academic work in education was supervised by Howard Gardner. Memorable moments include performances at the White House, the Opening Ceremonies of the Athens and Vancouver Olympic Games and the United Nations. He has played for the late Christopher Reeve and for Pope John Paul II, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Bob Baltimore is a managing director and co-chief executive officer at Harris Williams. During his 20-year history with the firm, Bob has advised hundreds of clients, helped build a successful industry practice, and served in a variety of leadership roles.

As co-chief executive officer, Bob is accountable for the strategic direction, life, and performance of the firm. Working in collaboration with all Harris Williams leaders, he helps deliver an exceptional experience as well as unmatched expertise and execution capabilities.

Bob has extensive experience advising clients on a broad range of mergers and acquisitions and strategic advisory assignments, including divestures, capital raisings, and financings.

Bill D’Amico is a DEI advocate, a volunteer and a fundraiser for No Barriers USA, Special Olympics, Best Buddies, Project Angel Heart, American Red Cross, Cystic Fibrosis and FoodRescue. Before retiring Bill had a fulfilling career as a technology executive with strong strategic, operational, sales, partnership, financial and technical skills. He is a proven leader, mentor, top performer, and team player adept at building and motivating organizations to maximize growth and efficiency, creating client loyalty and satisfaction, and delivering shareholder value.

Why No Barriers? Bill met Erik Weihenmayer in 1999 when he hired him to provide motivational speaking engagements at his company for a series of training events that involved harnessing a lot of internal change and upheaval in their sales processes. Even then, Erik talked about the importance of a Rope Team, which made a lasting impression on Bill. During those sessions, it became clear that Erik not only possessed a knack for sharing his journey in a captivating style, but also had a passion to become a much needed voice and advocate of inclusion for the disabled community, and that he could use his athletic endeavors to deliver a compelling message.

Over the course of those events and thereafter, Bill and Erik stayed in touch and became friends. When Erik told Bill about his fledgling non-profit No Barriers, and their plans for an inaugural US Summit Event at Lake Tahoe in 2007, he was happy to get involved (along with his children) and help out anyway they could. They were immediately drawn to the energy of that gathering, and witnessed the transformational power it had on people, especially for those who were unaware that such a community even existed for them. Bill’s children have continued to stay involved and Bill has attended and volunteered at every Summit since then, as well as other regional events. It’s been a very rewarding experience for Bill to help people reach beyond their perceived limits, watch them break through their own barriers, and achieve personal summits that bring them joy, satisfaction and a sense of fulfillment; all in the company of other like-minded people. Bill simply wants to help spread awareness and share the No Barriers experience with as many others as possible.

Keely Cat-Wells is a Disability Activist and the Founder of C Talent. Keely founded her first company at a young age during her time in hospital, which developed into C Talent. C Talent is an award-winning talent management and consulting company that represents high-profile Deaf and Disabled talent. C Talent’s goal is to change the way the world views and defines disability. C Talent was acquired by global leading creator company, Whalar. This acquisition marks one of the largest investments ever made in Disabled talent within the creator industry. Keely has been appointed as an Advisory Board Member to Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation. And has been named Forbes 30 Under 30, Diana Award Winner and One Young World Entrepreneur of the Year. Keely has participated as a subject matter expert in discussions with the President of the United States, Joe Biden and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Keely is passionate about No Barriers USA and its role is moving the needle for Disability Justice, in addition to positively changing and impacting lives on a daily basis.

Steve currently serves as VP of Marketing for DaVita, a Fortune 500 company located in Denver. DaVita is a leading healthcare provider operating over 2,800 clinics across the country for more than 200,000 people with kidney disease. He is responsible for messaging to key stakeholders including patients, physicians, payors and policy makers about what makes DaVita unique and better.

Prior to joining DaVita, he worked with many companies in different industries including PepsiCo, Pfizer, Kellogg’s, Eli Lilly, Kraft Heinz, Beam Suntory, Amgen, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aspen Dental, Craig Hospital and many others on consumer research, new product development, positioning strategy, communications and change management.

He holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and an undergraduate degree in business from Drake University.

Steve supports No Barriers because it is a unique brand with a positive message of possibility that impacts so many different people. He has seen firsthand how the organization transforms lives and helps those in need of a true rope team!

Harry Dalessio is head of the Full Service Solutions businesses within Prudential Retirement, a unit of Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU) and a leading provider of defined contribution, defined benefit, nonqualified deferred compensation plan administration, institutional investment and participant services. Since 1924, Prudential Retirement serves nearly 7,800 public, private and not-for-profit organizations and more than 4.2mm individuals accounts for over $401.3B of retirement account values.

Dr Friedman, a Past-President of American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), has been a student, and teacher, of mindfulness for over a decade. He has presented at both the ACEP annual meeting, and BalanceED on numerous topics; including Meditation, Hypnosis, and Mindfulness.He has a strong interest in the diagnosis and treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Syndromes. He was elected President of ACEP in October of 2018. He was elected to the Board of Directors of ACEP the in 2012, and again in 2015. He has served as Chair of the Emergency Medicine Foundation & is a Past-President of the Florida College of Emergency physicians (FCEP).

Rich Goodstone oversees Superfly’s agency services. As head of the agency offering, Rich is responsible for driving development of award-winning strategic and creative lifestyle marketing solutions for a variety of leading brands, leveraging Superfly’s unparalleled expertise driving youth-minded culture. He also develops and oversees revenue sources for Superfly’s landmark festivals with a focus on creating innovative partnerships and multi-channel brand extensions.

No Barriers represents the love and empathy that our world needs. While we were all created equal, we all have unique mindsets and challenges. I’m inspired by No Barriers ability to create experiences that change the way people feel about the world and themselves, inspiring people to overcome challenges and find joy. I’m grateful to be around this organization and the work they do.

Gena Harper was born with congenital Glaucoma, but she has never let that stop her from accomplishing her goals or motivating others to reach for their dreams.

Tenacious and inspiring, Gena is one of the very few blind Financial Advisors at Morgan Stanley and in the United States. She is a Certified Investment Management Analyst ® (CIMA), who, along with her business partner of 31 years, provides custom financial planning for her clients that delves into and simplifies even the most complex situations. Her commitment to meeting life head-on extends to her work with her clients, encouraging them to look beyond the immediate and challenge themselves to live full and meaningful lives.

Gannon has extensive experience as a marketer and general manager in consumer oriented businesses. He has a consistent track record of delivering strong business results across a variety of consumer categories, all while developing high performance teams.

Gannon has led numerous iconic brands including Miller Lite, Coors Light, Quaker, Tropicana, Lays, SunChips, Jell-O, Post Cereals, Kraft and Frito-Lay, with broad experience across brand strategy, advertising & communications, P&L management, cross functional team leadership, CRM & loyalty, digital, innovation and insights.

Antoinette Lee Toscano, MBA, is an outdoor industry influencer, model, consultant, writer, philanthropist, and motivational health and wellness speaker, delivering the “New Normal Big Life” talk and blog. Her debut book is Four Hours to Live—A Soldier’s Journey of Adoption, Assault, and Advocacy. Aside from an amazing recovery journey from using a walker, a service dog, and a full-time caregiver after a traumatic brain injury, spine injury, and PTSD, Antoinette shows others how to create their “new normal” and live the “biggest life” they can envision. One of her passions is talking about how outdoor recreation is at the intersection of health, wellness, conservation, and adventure. Antoinette is a passionate practitioner of the No Barriers lifestyle.

Billy was diagnosed with a rare brain abnormality when he was 15 years old, and as a complication from life-saving surgery, he suffered a slow and regressive stroke. The stroke left him neurologically paralyzed on his entire left side. Having been an athlete his whole life, the burden of losing the ability to take part in sports was tremendous to cope with. The void in his identity would eventually spiral into suicidal behavior; in his words, he was “only surviving life, not living it”. In 2009, Billy found the thing that saved his life – No Barriers. He discovered a universal notion that being physically active with a disability is no different than being without a disability. Billy took the No Barriers mindset to a Paratriathlon camp for the Challenged Athletes Foundation in 2011, where he got on a bike for the first time since his 17th birthday. In 2016, Billy went on to defy all odds and achieve his dream of becoming a United States Paralympian, representing TeamUSA at the Rio de Janeiro games. Along the way, Billy has earned a closet full of National Championships and numerous medals at International World Cup and World Championship events.

Dennis Malinis is the Director for Global Disability Inclusion for Expedia Group. In this role, Dennis leads work on strategy and efforts to foster an inclusive environment for people with disabilities within Expedia Group’s employees, travelers, partners, and communities.

Dennis supports and is committed to No Barriers because he believes in their mission, values, and priorities.

Dennis has the Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies designation from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals as well as the Certified Scrum Master designation from the Scrum Alliance. His educational credentials include a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, an MBA in Finance, and a Master of Science in Information Systems Management.

Mitch Moffett is a retired corporate executive with over 35 years of sales, marketing, and organizational management experience. Mitch has a successful leadership track record in a variety of complex corporate settings. Prior to retirement and since 2003, Mitch was the Vice President of Healthcare for Kronos (now UKG).

Mitch has a passion for building successful teams and helping individuals exceed their goals. Mitch has been a volunteer for No Barriers for the past 7 years and strongly believes in No Barrier’s mission to help everyone reach their highest potential.

Jamie Moldafsky is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Nielsen, the world’s leading provider of actionable insights into the media choices global audiences make. She joined Nielsen in November 2020 and is responsible for all of Nielsen’s product and brand marketing and communications.

Jamie is a seasoned marketing and communications professional with invaluable expertise which she has gained over 30 years across a range of industries. Before Nielsen, Jamie was CMO at Wells Fargo. In addition to
that role, she was also an internal thought leader for and sponsor of diversity and inclusion and the WF Foundation.

Prior to Wells Fargo, Jamie held various senior leadership and general management roles at Whirlpool Corp., Charles Schwab and American Express, including VP and General Manager of KitchenAid, where she had full P&L responsibility for the brand.

Jamie has a Bachelor’s Degree in English from the University of Michigan, where she graduated Cum Laude, and an MBA from The Wharton School. She is a board member for the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco and No Barriers USA, which helps people break through personal challenges and live a driven, purposeful life. She also chairs the advisory board of Wharton Customer Analytics.

As President of Ascend Learning’s Safety & Security Segment and international, Mehul Patel leads several brands including JB Learning, Public Safety Group, ExamFX, ClickSafety and CDX Learning Systems. Mehul brings more than 20 years of experience driving growth through acquisitions and corporate strategy, with a broad background in marketing, operations and product management.

Prior to Ascend, Mehul served as Chief Operating Officer at PharmaCann. He also has an extensive background in education, including serving as a Group President with Adtalem Global Education, President of Apollo Global (subsidiary of Apollo Education Group) and previous senior leadership roles with Kaplan, Inc., Thomson Learning, and UNext. Mehul began his career as a marketing professional with The Leo Burnett Company.

Mehul earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois and resides in the suburbs of Chicago with his family, where he enjoys watching and rooting for his hometown Chicago sports teams. He also enjoys global travel and has visited over 40 countries across six continents.

Mehul’s passion for No Barriers is an extension of his career which has largely focused on helping people achieve their personal and professional dreams through educational offerings. He is a believer in the power of the human spirit and has run businesses that have helped millions of people change their life trajectories through learning. In the same spirit, Mehul believes that No Barriers helps individuals achieve their full potential through interventional and transformative experiences.

Jeff Plush is a dynamic leader and respected senior executive with over twenty-five years of tangible operating experience and increasing responsibility in the sport and live entertainment industry. He has an established track record of leading organizations to achieve both financial and competitive success and is well known for building long-term, valued relationships while demonstrating a particular strength in strategic planning, complex partnerships and revenue generation.

As a highly visible senior executive for multiple organizations, Plush has been a frequent speaker, panelist and media presence in the United States and abroad, appearing in live television broadcasts, media events, industry conferences and even speaking from behind the Presidential lectern in the East Room of The White House.

Steve Rae is the global SVP of Customer Experience at Berlitz, a 140-year-old global language training provider. In this role, Steve is driving the transformation of learning platforms, technology, and products and creatively bringing new offerings and business models to the market leader in Language training.

A true global citizen, Steve has extensive experience working abroad and managing international business teams. His international upbringing and career have allowed him to see the role that diversity, inclusion, and community can have on building cultures that welcome creativity and innovation.

John Rose has dedicated his life to making the world a better place to be. John does this as the founder of Revive Hemp Industries, processing industrial hemp for a happier, healthier world. Most recently was the CFO of ANDE Corp, making the world a safer place with Rapid DNA. Previously John was a partner at AVL Growth Partners, was the CFO at Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt, and also served as a fractional CFO for many other companies. John also serves on the boards / advisory boards of several businesses including AVC Global, Rodeo CPG, and Flapjacked.

Keith Sultana was appointed senior vice president of global operations and integrated supply chain and member of Ingersoll Rand’s enterprise leadership team in October 2015. Ingersoll Rand’s family of brands includes Club Car®, Ingersoll Rand®, Thermo King® and Trane®. The global integrated supply chain (GISC) team under Keith’s leadership has responsibility for Operational Excellence; Global Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning (SIOP) & Materials Management; Global Procurement; Advanced Manufacturing Engineering (AME) & Quality; and Environmental, Health & Safety.

Even as a child Tom Sullivan was an entrepreneur. He’d charge the kids in his Boston neighborhood to watch him do bicycle tricks, and as the oldest of 11 children there were plenty of kids around. His first official business, a contracting firm, wasn’t quite the success he hoped for and neither was the syndicated travel show he tried to launch in the 1980’s.

His persistence and desire for success paid off in 1993. He began buying excess and scrap wood from lumber yards and reselling it out of the back of his pick up truck to homeowners and contractors.

No Barriers Board of Directors

They make it possible

Erik Weihenmayer

David Shurna

Keith Allman

Adrian Anantawan

Robert Baltimore

Bill D’Amico

KEELY CAT-WELLS

Steve Clouthier

Harry Dalessio

Dr. Vidor Friedman

Rich Goodstone

Gena harper

Gannon Jones

Antoinette Lee Toscano

Billy Lister III

Dennis Malinis

mitch moffett

Jamie Moldafsky

Mehul Patel

JEFF PLUSH

Steve Rae

John Rose

Keith Sultana

Tom Sullivan