Fourth Annual Riverport Women's Sailing Conference Fourth Annual Riverport Women's Sailing Conference #HRMMWSC @Hudson River Maritime Museum Virtual Event November 6-7, 2020 NOV. 6, 5:00 PM Welcome & Intros 5:15 PM Keynote Address FRIDAY Keynote speaker Dawn Riley: Sailing Pioneer, Executive Director, Oakcliff Sailing SCHEDULE Center 6:05 PM Breakout Discussion 6:20 PM Door Prize Drawing NOV. 7, 1:00 PM Welcomes, Intros 1:10 PM Opening Address SATURDAY Tracy Edwards, captain of Maiden SCHEDULE and founder of The Maiden Factor 2:10 PM First Period Workshops 3:05 PM Second Period Workshops 4:00 PM Community Outreach: Equity and Inclusion in the Sailing Community Chase Jackson, Laura Botel, and Alexe Taylor 4:55 PM Third Period Workshops 5:50 PM Closing - Connections going forward; Final “Door Prize” Drawing educator, facilitating both day and multi-day programs at Laura Botel various organizations. Amali prioritizes engaging the community on the intersection of representation, equity, and inclusion in all her endeavors. She serves on the board of the Laura works in youth development as Program Manager for National Women's Sailing Association and the Diversity, Equity, Brooklyn Boatworks. Despite a fear of water and being a poor and Inclusion Committee for Tallships America. swimmer, she keeps finding herself back at or on the water. She spent five summers working as a Yeoman aboard the sea-going TS Empire State VI, a 565-foot training ship for SUNY Maritime Ann Loeding College, and currently manages programming for Brooklyn Boatworks, a youth development organization that uses wooden boat building and maritime exploration to inspire young people in NYC to learn and grow. Laura earned her B.A. Ann Loeding started working as a deckhand on tugs in NY in Psychology from CUNY Hunter College. She is a maker, Harbor in 1991. She worked her way up to Captain as a beginner sailor, and always curious to learn just a little bit more. hawsepiper, and has sailed coastwise between Maine and Virginia, in the Great Lakes, on the NYS Canals, and on the Yukon River and Bering Sea. Since 2005, she has been running the restoration of large historic vessels, and still takes towing Maura Hackett jobs that are unusual or interesting. Maura Hackett is a licensed captain (100 Ton USCG Master Elizabeth McCarthy Near-Coastal with Sail endorsement) and sail training professional who has been working aboard historic and educational vessels for more than 14 years throughout the US, Great Lakes, and New Zealand. Most recently, she sailed as the Elizabeth McCarthy has been working in the maritime Lead Captain of the 1930 tug W.O Decker at South Street profession for over 20 years, since her graduation from SUNY Seaport Museum and Relief Captain with Bayshore Center at Maritime College. She sailed on the Great Lakes and all over Bivalve aboard the AJ Meerwald. When she is not sailing, Maura the world with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric is the Director of Operations at NEO Philanthropy Inc., a social Administration on research vessels. Elizabeth earned her USCG justice grantmaking and fiscal intermediary organization based license, Second Mate Unlimited Oceans / 1600 Captains in New York City. License. She came back to shore and began working as an analyst and attending law school at night. She became a member of the NY Bar and took a position as a Lecturer at SUNY Maritime College. She is currently an Assistant Professor Chase Jackson at SUNY and Adjunct Professor at the US Merchant Marine Academy. She lives in Great Neck with her husband and three children. Chase Jackson is an aquaphile, originally from Norfolk, VA now living in Cape May, NJ. She holds a BS in accounting and certification in arts administration. She has 30+ years in non profit arts management. Sailing came late in life while quasi- Deborah Mellen retired and she found her way to the Schooner A J Meerwald. A few years later, she was hired as program and grants manager When she was in her mid-thirties, Deborah Mellen had a Spinal for the organization, the Bayshore Center at Bivalve. She has Cord Injury, so she now uses a wheelchair for mobility. Soon been bare boat cruising in BVI, the French Polynesian Islands after her injury, she moved to Miami and found Shake a Leg, a and the Netherlands. Chase is an avid tall ship lover and marina and water sports organization for people with and advocate. without disabilities, where she learned to sail and found an emotional and visceral freedom that she no longer felt while combating design obstacles on land. Because getting on and Amali Knoblach off Shake-A-Leg’s 18 foot keelboats required help, and time aboard was limited, Amali Knobloch is the Sail Logistics Coordinator at the Hudson Deborah began to dream of a bigger boat and getting salty with River Sloop Clearwater and has worked as an environmental friends and family. In 2013, she found a 60 foot catamaran for sale in England that had been designed from the hulls up to be works as the Photo Editor at a small newspaper on Martha’s wheelchair accessible, she inspected it, and she fell in love with Vineyard before joining Oakcliff as the Media and PR manager. After the boat. college, she sailed her first open Snipe World Championship, a great learning experience she hopes to repeat in 2021. At Oakcliff, she Deborah brought the vessel home to Shake-A-Leg in Miami and looks forward to improving her skills on the high performance boats, created a non-profit organization, “Impossible Dream,” whose especially the 49er. When she’s not sailing, you can find Lexi behind mission is to bring like-minded people together as they the camera or doing aerial dance, her other love. You can see more experience the empowering sensation of living and crewing on of her work on her website. the Impossible Dream in a barrier free environment. Each year, during its summer tour, Impossible Dream travels the East Coast from June until October. She sails from Miami to Maine with guest MJ Reiss crew members, people with disabilities with and without sailing experience. HRMM has hosted the Impossible Dream for the last 5 years, so that's how she became involved with the MJ Reiss grew up racing dinghies on Long Island Sound, culminating Riverport Women’s Sailing Conference. in winning the Junior Women's Championship and teaching at a local yacht club. Her interest in boats grew with spending 2 years at the Apprentice Shop in Bath, Maine, building traditional wooden boats and being first mate on their Tancook Whaler (a 32 ft double ended, Amy Nelson gaff rigged schooner). The lure of the Maine islands continued as she pursued her USGS Captain's License to captain for Hurricane Island Outward Bound both in the Maine Islands and Florida Keys. Amy earned a degree in Marine Biology from UNCW then spent three years sailing internationally in the Western Pacific and the When settling in the Kingston area, she found teaching for Myles Caribbean Sea. While away from the Sloop Clearwater, Amy has Gordon's Great Hudson Sailing a worthy occupation for over 7 led marine science expeditions on the Salish Sea and captained years. However she then realized getting a degree in Environmental research vessels off the coast of Maine. Amy spends part of the science to teach Earth Science at Kingston High School a worthy year living in Burlington, Vermont, where she skis, plays frisbee, pursuit for her family's economic well being. In addition to sailing and has worked on nearly every boat on Lake Champlain. and coaching ski racing at Belleayre during the winter months, her passion is teaching the Happiness courses that include yoga and breathwork. Sarah Olivieri Ayme Sinclair Sarah Olivieri grew up sailing on the Hudson with her dad out of Kingston. She currently enjoys racing as the skipper of a J80 with the Kingston Sailing Club and introducing people to sailing Ayme Sinclair is the Vice President of the National Women's Sailing through the Kingston Sailing Club’s Women on the Water Association and the CEO & Founder of Sinclair Social, a leading program. On land Sarah is a nonprofit business strategist, #1 communications agency. Nominated for many prestigious awards International Best Selling author, former Executive Director, and is including the Bill Gates Foundation Goalkeepers Award and the the creator of the Impact Method™ - a framework that helps United Nations SDG Media Summit Leadership Award, she is also the CEO of Women Who Sail, the largest online group of women nonprofits simplify their operations, build aligned teams, and sailors in the world. make a bigger impact without getting overwhelmed or burning out. An African-American woman, Ayme has been sailing for the past 5 years racing competitively on the J109 Sweet Caroline, and also participates in races all over the world including the eastern coast of Lexi Pline Africa. There, she formed the first women’s sailing team to compete in a race held in Lamu, Kenya. Lexi Pline grew up in a sailing family in Annapolis, MD. Starting Her sailing adventures have been featured on CNN’s Great Big Story, at a young age, she sailed Snipes (a two person dinghy) with her Essence, Sail Magazine, and numerous other publications. She's passionate about issues of diversity and equality which carries into parents, eventually competing in multiple US Women’s Nationals the work she's done both on and off the water. Recently, she worked and two Women’s Worlds with her mother, Lisa Pline. Lexi began with the United Nations to produce a welcome flotilla of 18 boats interscholastic sailing in high school and went on to intercollegiate that met Greta Thunberg as she sailed into NY harbor for the UN sailing as a member of the Boston University Sailing Team.