Our team is made up of a rotating group of international volunteers and interns who
enable us to realize our mission. Their full time dedication, enthusiasm, and creative
thinking play a critical role in our identity as facilitators of intercultural exchange and
international goodwill.
Alison Healy
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CEO
Alison Healy has a proven history in the field of special events, marketing, and public relations. Before transferring her attention and skills to the maritime industry she owned and operated Creative Celebrations, a catering and special events firm which received national recognition and the prestigious "Best of Boston" Award.
Alison got her first taste of international friendships created thru tall ships by assisting with a Soviet-American sailing exchange on the HMS Rose. Soon she knew she had to try sailing herself and signed on as a volunteer deck hand, learning enough to know she wanted more. Later she worked as deckhand onboard the Californian and subsequently became the ships volunteer coordinator and trainer for Northern California.
Her other maritime accomplishments include producing the National Maritime Museum's annual Festival of the Sea, Serving on the Board of Directors of ASTA as well as the Advisory Board of the Tall Ships Semester for Girls and Golden gate Tall Ships Society. Alison championed the San Francisco Gold Rush Race in 1999 and SSF! 2002. Since then she has sailed with and forged personal relationships with many foreign naval tall ships enabling her to bring a unique insight and experience to the planning of tall ship events as well as a new understanding of other cultures.
Alison is the founder of Pacific Rim Foundation, and its daughter organization Sail San Francisco. SSF also has year-round programs for visiting tall ships and training ships.
Nyla Rodgers
PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Nyla Rodgers received her undergraduate degree at the University of California: Santa Barbara in Global and International Studies. During her senior year at UCSB she did an internship at the International Peace Bureau and UNESCO's International Bureau of Education in Geneva, Switzerland. Here she did an independent research project on Peace Education in Post Conflict Societies. Upon returning to Santa Barbara she got a position as the Administrative Assistant at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
After graduating from UCSB, Nyla taught at Nature's Classroom in Connecticut. Here she created and taught peace education lessons for two years.
Nyla then pursued a Masters Degree at the European University of Peace Studies in Austria. During her Master's program she had a graduate research position at Education for Peace International in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Ms. Rodgers is also a member of Transcend; an organization of international Peace Researchers dedicated to bringing about more peaceful world by using action, education/training, dissemination and research to handle conflicts creatively and nonviolently.