17100 Quaker Lane
Sandy Spring, MD 20860
301-774-7663
info@bymcamps.org
Catoctin Staff
Dyresha Harris, Director, Catoctin (she/her)
Dyresha Harris, Director of Catoctin, first joined the BYM Camps community as a child in 1988. She was a camper for 8 years, on staff for 11 years and director since 2012. She believes that camp is, at its core, about discovering and strengthening connections: connection to self, to others, and to the natural world. In 2010 she co-founded the Strengthening Transformative Relationships in Diverse Environments (STRIDE) program to increase equity and access within the camping program. Outside of BYM, Dyresha has spent the last 20 years working with young people in schools, nonprofits, and community programs, while also engaged in her other passion: facilitating anti-oppression work and transformative justice programs around the country. Most recently, she served as the Director of Education and Training for the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives. Dyresha earned her BA with a double major in Sociology & Political Science and a Master’s in Urban Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Originally hailing from the heart of Washington DC, she has spent the last 18 years in her beloved West Philadelphia neighborhood. In her free time, Dyresha enjoys craft (fails), dance, outdoor adventures and spending time with her partner, camp alum, Eo Trueblood.
Opequon Staff
Jared Wood, Director, Opequon (he/him)
Jared Wood, Director of Opequon, is a lifelong educator and artist, committed to the work of learning about our differences so that we can, in his words, “learn to love each other more precisely”. Jared was a camper, Counselor, G-Staff, and Trip Leader at Catoctin, Opequon, and Teen Adventure. He was a Teaching Artist with the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia for a decade, is currently an Art Teacher at Germantown Friends School, and is a Board Member with Reconstruction, Inc. Jared comes to Opequon and BYM Camps with his vision of creating spaces where “people from disparate backgrounds can engage in dialogue, reflection, and making that moves us past the destructive ideas we’ve inherited to the collective love, brilliance, and liberation we all deserve”.
Shiloh Staff
Hope Swank, Director, Shiloh (she/her)
Hope Swank, Director of Shiloh, was born and raised outside of Washington DC and grew up attending Shiloh and Teen Adventure as a camper. She later worked at Shiloh as a Counselor, and then Teen Adventure as a Trip Leader and Trip Manager. Hope studied Spanish Literature and Anthropology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She moved to California in 2006 for an internship in teaching for San Mateo County Outdoor Education. Since then she has worked for a number of local outdoor education and nature awareness programs including Vide Verde Nature Education, Pigeon Point Environmental Education Program, and Riekes Center Nature Awareness. She has taught about redwood ecology, goat milking and cheesemaking, and the life and times of the Northern Elephant Seal. Hope is happy to be spending her summers in Virginia, and thrilled to be returning to Shiloh as a Director! She is happiest when outside.
Teen Adventure Staff
Jesse Austell, Co-Director, Teen Adventure (he/him)
Jesse Austell, Co-Director of Teen Adventure, began working for BYM Camps in 2003. He has worked as a Counselor, Trip Leader, Trip Manager and starting in 2010 as a Director of TA. 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.
Rosie Eck, Co-Director, Teen Adventure (she/her)
Rosie Eck, Co-Director of Teen Adventure, was a camper at Catoctin and Teen Adventure starting in 1999. After TA, she worked as a counselor and staff at Catoctin for five summers and as a trip leader at TA for two, spending one summer away in Chile, but returning in time to cook at Catoctin! She has been a Director at TA since 2016. She majored in Studio Art and Hispanic Studies at Oberlin College and especially enjoyed painting animals. In 2013, she moved to Baltimore where she facilitates art-making among various groups, including Make Studio, an art studio for adult artists with disabilities. She also enjoys fiber arts, reading, volleyball, and spending lots of time outside with friends.
BYM Camps Staff
Brian Massey, Program Manager (he/him)
Brian Massey, Program Manager of BYM Camps, started attending Shiloh as a 9-year old in 1994, and then proceeded to spend 19 of the next 20 summers as either a camper or a staff member with the BYM Camps. His favorite parts of camp included: canoe trips on the Rappahannock, James, and New Rivers; hiking up Pocosin Hollow and Old Rag; building relationships in Rockbridge Country through service projects for TA; fire circle on the first night of camp; general silliness while on Pots & Pans chore at Shiloh; and driving the bus down winding country roads while campers sang songs behind him.
Before coming back to BYM, he spent a decade as an educator and urban farmer working in the schools, and with the youth and families, of Washington, DC. Committed to justice, equity, and the transformative nature of youth empowerment, Brian was a classroom teacher in the DC schools, did early childhood special education outreach for DCPS, and ran school garden, edible landscaping, and food security programs all over DC. He was the Founding Family & Community Engagement Coordinator with Bard High School Early College DC, and was the Founding Enterprise Coordinator with The Sojourner Truth Montessori Public Charter School. When he’s not working, Brian spends as much time as possible with his wife, Ellie, and their two young sons, Rye and Cypress, biking together on the trails next to the Anacostia River, and caring for the veggie beds, fruit trees, and backyard chickens at their home in Mount Rainier, MD.
Randy Carl Mattern, Camping Program Associate (they/them)
Randy Carl has been involved with BYM Camps since 2016 when they joined the staff at Opequon for four summers. They have stayed connected, working on several projects for the program. Randy is passionate about the potency of summer camps as a container for campers and staff to experiment with and grow their visions of community and self as well as practice the skills to realize those visions beyond camp. Before coming to BYM, Randy helped organize Queer Rock Camp in Olympia, WA and worked with other summer camp programs. Outside of camp, Carl spends their time working as a studio assistant in a community ceramics studio, participating in mutual aid projects in their city, and caring for friends.
David Hunter, Camp Property Manager (he/him)
David grew up in New England, attending the Farm and Wilderness Camps in Vermont in the summer and spending many hour exploring and learning during the other 3 seasons on the F and W properties while his father was employed there as the executive director. He studied at Sandy Spring Friends School, Sterling Collage, Wilmington Collage and Attended classes at Earlham School of Religion. He has worked as a Kindergarten teacher, a director of extracurricular activities and on numerous farms, forests and ranches across the country.
David’s time at the BYM Camps began when he and his wife JoAnn became co-directors at Catoctin Quaker Camp in the late 1980’s. He has served on the Camping Program Committee and the Camp Property Management Committee and volunteered on the property before becoming the first Camp Property Manager in 2003 where he coordinates the management of the nearly 1000 acres of primarily forested land in Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia that are homes to our Camps.
David loves being outdoors in forests and natural settings and working with young people. He is passionate about our camping programs, preserving forests and offering young people opportunities to understand the importance of forested land and sustainable land use.
Rai Carter, Coordinator, STRIDE
Rai Carter was born and raised in Philadelphia and grew up spending much of their free time outside, connecting with natural environments in both the city and on the trail. Over the past decade they have specialized in Racial Equity work by supporting organizations and individuals in building spaces in which everyone can thrive. They have spent numerous years working with youth and young adults and cultivating communities of practice with these age groups. Rai has had a focus on Peace and Social Justice, Labor Rights, Food Justice and Religion which has meant cultivating an understanding of the intersections of many experiences. In their free time Rai enjoys gardening, cooking new recipes for friends and family and indoor climbing.
