Program Directors
Our wilderness canoe camp is managed by a dedicated team of directors. While each director has specific areas of responsibility, we all share three major commitments.
Our first commitment is to safety. Beyond professional standards and accepted practices, each of us is a parent. We know how difficult it is for you to entrust us with your children and how important it is to keep them safe, both physically and emotionally.
Second, we are deeply committed to running absolutely the finest wilderness program anywhere. Each of us has been profoundly influenced by our experiences on the trail and so believe deeply in the power of our programs.
Third, we are deeply committed to the young people we serve. We measure our success in the feedback we get from young people and their parents. We often hear from participants years afterward that their experience with us shaped their development and character for years to come.
All of us spend our summers in Temagami and one or more of us will be in charge of and working directly with whatever program your son or daughter is enrolled in.
C.G. Stephens, Owner/Director
C.G.’s boyhood quest for wilderness adventure brought him to Langskib in 1975. After an incredible trip to the James Bay the next summer, C.G. hired on. He led trips for many years before becoming a director in 1984, and an owner in 2010. C.G. has a BS from Hartwick College and is a passionate student of experiential education and wilderness leadership. A consummate paddler, sailor, telemark skier and student of nature, C.G. spends the winters in the Adirondack Mountains with his wife Jodi Browning and their three children; Hudson, McKenzie James and Gracie Ruth.
Jodi Browning, Owner/Director
Jodi grew up exploring the lakes and woods of southeastern Ontario where her family has a summer home. Since 1986 she has worked in various capacities throughout the field of adventure based education including directing an outdoor center in eastern Ontario, leading extensive canoe tripping expeditions for youth at risk and directing courses for the Ontario Recreational Canoeing Association. She has paddled thousands of kilometers with young people through lakes and rivers in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba & Minnesota and led several expeditions to the Hudson Bay. She began working for Northwaters in 1996. A trained ballet dancer, musician & vocalist, Jodi has spent much of her life pursuing both the arts and the outdoors. In the winter she can be found cross country skiing and snowshoeing in the Adirondack Mountains where she lives with her husband, C.G. Stephens, daughter, Grace and two sons Hudson and McKenzie James.
Michael Jarvis, Langskib Program Director
Michael Jarvis lives with his wife Lynne and their two children in northern Michigan. He is trained as a therapist and works as a counselor, teacher and administrator at The Leelanau School a small boarding high school during the school year. He also teaches psychology, world religions, and a rite of passage course for the senior class. At the age of 17, Michael left the small town in northern Idaho, where he grew up, to attend the United States Air Force Academy. During the 11 years he was in the Air Force he graduated from the Academy with a bachelor of Science degree, flew helicopters with the Air Force, The Army, and the Coast Guard, taught aircrew survival, earned parachute jump wings, and worked with the Coast Guard on a night vision goggle research project. Michael left the Air Force in 1991 to work in Outdoor Education. He has been a certified high ropes and initiatives instructor and has worked with groups ranging from elementary schools, and church youth groups to corporate teams and adult retreats. He also worked with probate courts in several counties designing and leading wilderness experiences with adjudicated and other youth at risk.
Christine McKenna, Northwaters Program Director
Christine grew up camping, and spending time in the wilderness in Ontario and Quebec with her family. When her mother took her to a camp fair the summer before 9th grade she chose Northwaters as an experience she thought suited her sense of adventure. Although the canoe trip wasn’t exactly as romantic as she had imagined, this first trip was the beginning of a lifelong relationship with Temagami canoe routes. Christine took her passion for the wilderness into her studies completing a BA in Outdoor Recreation, and later a Masters of Teaching. Christine currently teaches at an outdoor education focused independent school in Toronto, Ontario. From that first trip in 1997, Christine has continued to seek out challenge; guiding many canoe trips for Northwaters and eventually becoming Program Director in 2009. Christine lives in Toronto with her husband Jason and their Australian Shepherd Buckley.
Cena Shaw, Program Administrator
Cena comes to her administrative role at Northwaters & Langskib via a career as a certified elementary teacher and outdoor educator. She has a B.S. in Elementary Education and a M.S. in Environmental Education. Throughout her years as a student, Cena traveled extensively throughout the US and spent her time at several nature centers as a Naturalist working with birds of prey and bringing conservation education to the public. After marrying Kevin in 2001, and attempting to be a stay-at-home mom, she fell into work as a part-time bookkeeper. She now works full-time, at the Northwaters three-season headquarters in the Adirondack Mountains of NY keeping the books and corresponding with camp families. She lives in Essex with her husband and two daughters, Thea and Edie, in a small off-the-grid home that they continue to build. They keep busy raising animals and vegetables at home, and getting out to ski, hike, and swim in the North Country. In 2005, Cena was co-founder and lead teacher at a farm-based, Waldorf-inspired preschool. Today, she continues her work at Lakeside Preschool in the administrative role of board president and as a preschool parent.
Jen Zahorchak, Program Administrator
Jen has spent most of her adult life teaching outside and playing with kids. After graduating with a science teaching certificate she taught outdoor and environmental education at camps and science centers across the states. Jen and her husband Gregg (an NWL trip leader) have traveled to all 50 states and 7 provinces together and have embarked on several domestic and overseas hiking and wildlife excursions. In 2005 Jen and Gregg moved their growing family to the Adirondacks, ultimately settling in an little farm house down the street from C.G. and Jodi and soon thereafter joined the NWL family. Jen enjoys playing outside, gardening, photography, reading and of course, playing outside with Gregg thier three ridiculously awesome kids- Wren, Luna and Otis.
