Ann McCollum Consulting, LLC, specializes in review and development of risk management practices and policies for experiential programs in schools such as wilderness/outdoor, trip, and international travel programs. Our goal is to facilitate the achievement of excellence in a school’s experiential education program by assisting the program to ground itself in solid management of risk. Our cooperative effort includes program assessment, evaluation, and community education based in outdoor industry and school best practices. Ann McCollum works personally with school faculty, administrators, business managers, and program leaders to understand and develop a culture of risk management. She is available for review and evaluation as well as program design and development.
Ann McCollum has been a school and outdoor educator for the past 20 years, serving in both day and boarding schools, and leading students in backcountry endeavors such as backpacking, climbing, whitewater rafting, kayaking and Himalayan trekking. She holds a M.Ed. in school counseling from the University of Virginia, a B.A. from Middlebury College, a New Mexico teaching certificate, and is a certified Wilderness First Responder. In addition, Ann has served on accreditation review teams for the Independent School Associations of the Southwest and Colorado (ISAS and ACIS), for the Association for Experiential Education (AEE), and has been trained in the accreditation standards of the American Camp Association (ACA). A graduate of the NOLS Instructors and Alaska Mountaineering Courses, Ann continues to be active in the outdoors by teaching beginning whitewater kayaking, leading students in backpacking trips around New Mexico, doing service work in Guatemala, and training on her road bike. Over the years Ann has developed programs, written policy manuals and consulted for accreditation reviews for schools and camps across the country.