About Us

Courageous Staff

At the core of Courageous' success are the enthusiastic and professional efforts of the management and instructor staff. About eighty percent of the Summer Youth Program instructor and instructor-in-training corps grew up through the program. At Courageous, safety is paramount, and many staff members are US Sailing certified, and all are First Aid, and CPR trained. Our staff is customer-focused, with a mandate to make sure kids and adults alike enjoy their every experience on the water.

Mary Yntema, Executive Director
Mary joined Courageous in the spring of 2003, with the responsibility for general management and development of the Courageous Sailing Center. She brings to this role a wide experience in nonprofit and corporate management. A resident of Moscow, Russia for over seven years, she worked there as vice president of a corporate training company and in institutional equity sales. During that time she held various leadership positions on the board of United Way Moscow. Earlier, Mary worked for United Way International in Moscow, founding and running its Russian program.

She holds an A.B. from Harvard College, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. A Boston native, Mary learned to sail on the Charles River, at Community Boating, Inc. Mary is proud to be a member of the LeadBoston Class of 2007, a project of the Boston Center for Community and Justice, www.bostonccj.org.

Bryan Peugh, Associate Executive Director
Bryan is the Associate Executive Director of the Courageous Sailing. Bryan creates and implements strategies to deliver Courageous' value proposition to children, adults, and corporations. Bryan works with numerous constituencies, including the City of Boston, Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), Carroll Center for the Blind, Special Olympics, Boys and Girls Club of Boston and The New England Aquarium.

During his tenure at Courageous, Bryan has launched two highly successful fundraisers to benefit its youth program: the Courageous Challenge Corporate Regatta and the Make a Mark Gala Charity event. Bryan's other achievements include engaging headline sponsors for the program and creating the Rhodes 19 Junior National Championships.

Prior to joining Courageous, Bryan held program management positions at San Diego Yacht Club and Cape Cod Sea Camps. He is a US Sailing certified Instructor Trainer, and accomplished sailor and windsurfer who has competed in national and international regattas.

Bryan attended San Diego State University, where he majored in speech communications.

Michelle DuBois, Administrator
As Administrator for Courageous Sailing Center, Michelle plays an important role in the fiscal health of the organization, while assuring that human resources and programmatic administration run smoothly. Michelle manages the Courageous website, as well as creating most of our printed material.

Michelle is personally motivated by the Courageous mission because she enjoyed learning to sail as a youth through a similar program. She is most supportive of the access to sailing that Courageous offers to children who would otherwise not learn to sail or enjoy Boston Harbor and Jamaica Pond in such an interactive way. Michelle values how Courageous opens up different world views for youth and broadens their life choices.

Michelle received a B.A. from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, where she majored in Philosophy. Her professional experience prior to Courageous was in the field of non-profit development for Boston area homeless shelters and the YWCA Boston. She is currently a City Councilor in Brockton, Massachusetts and is active in the state political arena.

Kate Preissler, Director of Programs
Kate graduated from Bates College in 2003. She has an extensive background working in youth environmental education with MassAudubon. She spent time after college working with troubled youth, helping them to learn the life and job skills necessary to keep them from “slipping through the cracks.” Kate helped to develop two important youth program curriculums: With WARM2Kids, Inc she co-developed the “Whole Student Program” which aims at using the internet to help teachers bring Social, Emotional and Physical learning to their students. With the Family Violence Prevention Fund, she co-developed “The Coaching Boys Into Men Playbook” aimed at helping high school sports coaches foster healthy attitudes towards women and violence in their male athletes and is used by thousands of coaches around the U.S. She was most recently the Director of Nonprofit Partnerships at WARM2Kids, Inc. Kate grew up sailing in a little town on Buzzards Bay, and went on to race in high school and college.