Camp Directors

Camp Directors, 2009, from left to right, David Gregal, Jane Megginson, Diane Fedorchak, Linda Garrettson, Elaine Brigham, Jennifer Schneider, and Riley Lark

Director Bios

Elaine Brigham started her BYM Camping Program career in 1980, as a staff child. She has been a camper, counselor and Assistant Director at Catoctin. Elaine started directing Opequon Quaker Camp in 2000. Elaine studied history, Women Studies, education, and African-American Studies at Guilford College. After teaching middle and high school social studies in public schools she entered the Social Justice Education (SJE) Program, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she received her M.Ed. Elaine served as Coordinator of LGBTQA Student Support and Services, Area Coordinator for Residential Life and Diversity Educator at Amherst College for four years, and left to pursue her current fulltime studies as a doctoral candidate in the SJE Program. Currently she co-coordinates the Intergroup Dialogue Program in Race, Ethnicity and Class at Mount Holyoke College and teaches an undergraduate diversity education course at UMass Amherst. She is finishing her second year in the Institute for Engaging Leadership in Friends Schools. For the ten months she is not at Opequon in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, she lives in Northampton, MA with her partner, the camp dog, Highland and their cat. She loves taking pictures, singing with camp folks, and canoeing. 

Linda Garrettson has directed Catoctin Quaker Camp since 1996, and has spent most summers there since 1972, starting as a staff brat and working her way through the program as camper, counselor, staff, and assistant director. She took a short break from working at Catoctin to direct Camp Holiday Trails in Charlottesville, VA for a few years, where she met her husband, Michael Minnig. Linda is a graduate of William & Mary College and has a MPH from Emory University. She currently teaches music at Westtown School. Linda is an accomplished basoonist and has biked across the United States.

Jesse Austell, co-director of Teen Adventure, began working for the camping program in 2003. He has worked as a counselor, trip leader, trip manager and starting in 2010 as TA director. When not at camp, Jesse is a research and financial consultant for nonprofit organizations. He has an MA in Applied Sociology and Nonprofit Management and a BA in Nonprofit Finance. Jesse enjoys biking and urban agriculture and recently completed a cross-country bike trip from Florida to San Francisco. In the past Jesse has also helped lead an outdoor adventure and experiential learning program for inner city youth in DC.

Riley Lark has been the director of Shiloh Quaker Camp since the summer of 2009.  He was assistant director in the summers of 2007 and 2008, and was on the staff as in other various roles during five summers before that.  In the off season, Riley teaches math at Scattergood Friends School (www.scattergood.org).  He has a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Maryland, and worked as a computer programmer in Seattle for a summer before deciding that he couldn't stay away from Shiloh and teaching!

Jane Megginson, the Camping Program Secretary, started working at BYM Camps in 1985, as a scullery maid at the old Opequon. In addition, she has worked at Shiloh as an assistant director, at old Opequon on the staff, and at Catoctin and Teen Adventure in the kitchen. In addition, Jane has served on the Camping Program Committee. She has worked at Baltimore Yearly Meeting full time since 2002 and as the Camp Administrative Secretary since January 2005. Jane has a BA from Earlham College in Sport and Movement Studies and an MA from the University of Maryland in Sports Management. The most ridiculous job Jane has ever had is selling frozen meat door-to-door in central Ohio.

Jen Schneider, co-director of Teen Adventure Quaker Camp, has had a wide variety of experiences in the Baltimore Yearly Meeting Camping Program over the past twenty-one years. Jen began her camper career at Opequon and subsequently attended Teen Adventure for two summers. She was a counselor at Teen Adventure, Shiloh, and Opequon and an assistant director at Shiloh. After graduating from Oberlin College with a BA in Psychology, Jen taught preschool at D.C.’s School for Friends, worked at Friends Community School in Maryland, and was a volunteer facilitator for Alternatives to Violence workshops in a Maryland prison. For the past three years, Jen was an environmental educator in California’s Bay Area. There she taught an experiential curriculum focused on the local redwood forest and coastal ecosystems. Jen is currently pursuing a Masters in Education at Antioch University New England.