MEET OUR TEAM

Deb credits her interest in travel to her grandfather Ernest Flanders and her passion for music to her parents.  After her first European trip, she spent a year abroad in Vienna studying German, sang with the Wiener Jeunesse Chor and worked as hotel receptionist.  Now settled in her native Vermont, Deb spends her time planning group tours, and performing and volunteering for the arts community in Burlington.  She currently sings with of Bella Voce Women’s Chorus of Vermont,  and performs folk songs from the ballad collection of her great-aunt Helen Hartness Flanders.  She has recorded two folksong CDs, Mother Make My Bed and the The Female Highwayman. 

In the summer she produces an annual folk concert at the Old West Church in Calais, Vermont. 

Mary Clare developed a love for travel after visiting Nicaragua her sophomore year in High School. Her passion for travel has taken her to Central America, Europe, and Asia and she can't wait to check off more countries and continents in the coming years. With a sense of adventure, Mary Clare has enjoyed planning herself unique  trips that often involve volunteering, home-stays, teaching, and staying at hostels.   

With over a decade of experience in the hospitality industry and customer service, she is excited to join the Goodspeed team  where she can combine her interpersonal skills with her organizational ones to plan group tours with Goodspeed.

She loves the outdoors and currently resides in the beautiful state of Utah with her husband and two cats where you can catch her camping, running, hiking, or snowboarding in the nearby Wasatch and Uinta mountains. 

William is a raconteur par excellence. His wide knowledge includes opera history, which is why he was a regular panelist on the Saturday matinee Opera Quiz at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Raised in the South, William has lived in Europe and traveled the world, sharing champagne with the King and Queen of Spain and breaking bread with Ukrainian farmhands. As the director of PRM, Public Radio in Mississippi, he introduced audiences to great music. As a lecturer at the Hot Springs Music Festival and at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, William is on the cutting edge of the cultural scene. He speaks several languages and currently hangs his hat in New York.

Matt spent his university years participating in archeological digs in the Andes and in Europe as part of his anthropology research. He also pursued his other interest, German literature, by visiting great literary sites behind the Iron Curtain at a time when it was severely restricted to Westerners. In his spare time, he obtained his pilot’s license and became an Outward Bound mountaineering instructor in the Berchtesgaden Alps, forging relationships that continue to this day. While working on his doctorate in maritime law in Washington, D.C., Matt took every opportunity to crew on a German tall ship in the Baltic Sea, working his way up from deck hand to boatswain’s mate to executive officer. Even when the ship was in dry-dock, Matt took his navigation skills and restless spirit across the Sahara Desert with an off-road convoy of European researchers. When it became apparent that travel was his real passion in life, he is now planning and implementing tours and events around the world.