Accreditation Council
Integrity
Competence
Impartiality
Viristar’s Accreditation Council oversees the integrity, quality and operations of Viristar’s Adventure Safety Accreditation Program.
Members of the Accreditation Council guide applicants as they work their way through the accreditation process. The Council receives the reports compiled by accreditation reviewers who conduct site visits. The Council votes to grant or withhold accreditation status to applicants whose self-study and site visit have been completed.
The Council upholds the ethics and impartiality of the accreditation process, and works to ensure the accreditation program meets high standards for effectiveness, responsiveness to complaints, confidentiality and competence.
The Council is composed of experienced adventure professionals with demonstrated governance capacity, a reputation for high standards of ethical conduct, and extensive expertise in outdoor education, adventure tourism, outdoor recreation, or associated disciplines.
See the Accreditation Council Member position description to learn more about the role of members of the Accreditation Council.
See position description
Accreditation Council Members
Chris Cartwright, Chair
Chris Cartwright is the Director of Experiential Education at Keystone Academy in Beijing, China.
He has been professionally involved in outdoor and experiential education since 1986, including leading school and youth leadership and team development expeditions in over 60 countries, summiting Kilimanjaro 16 times, and creating adventure tours in New Zealand, Nepal and Mongolia.
Chris served as the CEO of the Mongolia Institute of Outdoor Learning, as the Experiential Education Consultant and Round Square Representative at International School of Ulaanbaatar, and as the co-owner and Director of Expeditions and Training of Go Wilderness Mongolia.
An avid paddler, Chris has canoed and kayaked many of the world’s most wild and remote rivers, with first descents in the UK, Alps and Himalayas, and was the National Coach and Team Manager at the Mongolian Canoe Federation.
Chris acted as Senior Trainer and Safety Officer at The Hollowford Centre in Derbyshire UK, and as Chief Instructor with Quest Travel in Cumbria, UK. He served as Technical Advisor for a number of the UK’s leading school adventure operators.
Emma Bartlett, Secretary
Emma Bartlett is Trip Safety Manager with UWC South East Asia in Singapore, overseeing risk management for a complex series of professionally guided and student-led experiential education trips and expeditions in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Wales, India, Nepal, Australia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Maldives, and more.
In this role she manages over 800 overseas and local trips each year.
Emma was an Education Outdoor Teacher with Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne, and Outdoor Education Teacher with Gippsland Grammar in Australia.
She holds a Middle Years Diploma of Education, an Education Graduate Certificate, and a BA in Outdoor Education from La Trobe University.
Emma has led and managed trips on six continents, including multi-week expeditions and term-long outdoor programs.
She has more than two decades of experience in leading outdoor trips, risk management and bringing the classroom outdoors.
Lisette Gachanja
Lisette Gachanja is an experiential trainer and adventure therapist with Urbanite Camps in Kenya.
Lisette co-founded Urbanite Camps, which provides outdoor education programs for schools, corporate training and development, youth camps and adventure therapy.
She previously served as International Director with Global Leadership Adventures, Program Coordinator at Learn With Dragonfly in Hong Kong, and with corporate training, youth, and adventure programs in Australia, the USA, Ghana and around East Africa.
Lisette has a double major BA in Psychology and Community Development, a Certificate III Outdoor Recreation, Outdoor Education from Anglican Youthworks in Australia, and two Master’s degrees: an MEd in Advanced Teaching and an MEd in Curriculum and Instruction.
Samanta Chu
Samanta Chu is the Director of Wilderness Medical Associates International–Brasil.
Samanta also leads experiential education and environmental learning trips for youth, and instructs wilderness medicine courses in Brazil and internationally.
She is formerly a professor at the Centro Universitário das Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas (FMU), Centro de Pós-graduação, in São Paulo, Brazil, teaching the Mountaineering course at the Adventure Sports Postgraduate Program.
Samanta served at Technical Director with the São Paulo State Mountaineering Federation (Federação de Montanhismo do Estado de São Paulo, FEMESP), teaching rock climbing and mountaineering courses, and running climbing technique workshops and clinics, in support of mountain safety and incident prevention.
She was the co-owner of Mares e Montanhas, developing and leading sailboat-based tours in the Rio de Janeiro area; wilderness leader with Camp Manito-wish YMCA in the USA, where she led a 45-day sea kayaking expedition to Alaska’s Inside Passage, and Guide Manager and Guide with Northern Lights Expeditions in Port McNeill, Canada.
She holds an Adventure Tourism diploma from Thompson Rivers University in Canada, and completed post-grad work in the Psychology of Development and Learning at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.
Aiko Yoshino, Ph.D.
Dr. Aiko Yoshino is Associate Professor at San Francisco State University, Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism, where she teaches undergrad and graduate courses in outdoor recreation and adventure experience facilitation, and leads multi-week field-based wilderness expeditions in Nepal. Her research includes the psychological resilience gained through extended wilderness-based programs, as well as nature-based interventions for marginalized communities.
She served as Safety Director, Senior Program Adviser, and Operations and Program Director with Outward Bound California, and instructed sea kayak, canoeing, backpacking, and rock climbing courses and served as Lead Safety Reviewer with Outward Bound.
Dr. Yoshino serves on the State-wide Advisory Council influencing California’s Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP), the Outward Bound USA National Safety Board, and the East Bay Regional Parks District Multicultural Advisory Committee. She is a certified NSP Instructor with Wilderness Education Association, and received a Teaching Award from National Taiwan Sports University for teaching multiple international outdoor leadership expeditions.
She serves as Advisory Council Member for Chrysalis Girls Adventures and served on the External Advisory Panel of Youth Outside.
Dr. Yoshino has a B.A. in Health, Physical Education, & Primary Education from Hokkaido University of Education, and an M.S. in Recreation Management and a Ph.D. in Outdoor Education and Psychology, both from Indiana University Bloomington.
