Program Directors
Our organization is managed by a team of directors. While each director has specific areas of responsibility, we share 3 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, Administrator/Program 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. 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, Administrator/Program 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 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, Program Director
Michael Jarvis lives with his wife Lynne and their two children in northern Michigan. He is a licensed therapist and works as a counselor at 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 is 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.
From 1995 until 2001 Michael worked in the Youth Services Department of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, located in Northern Michigan. While with the Band, he created programs for Tribal youth aged 5-18. Many of these programs were outdoors and wilderness based experiences.
David Knudsen, Founder/Director
At the age of sixteen David worked on a Danish freighter bound for Argentina and two years later worked as a cowhand in southwestern Colorado. He founded Langskib in 1971. He was a science teacher for six years and directed an Alternative school for ten years. He taught, wrote curriculum, counseled and three times won an Outstanding Educator of America Award. David is the co-director of “The Temagami Experience” and Adult Leadership Program and also the co-director of “The Temagami Vision Quest,” a training endorsed by the C.G. Jung Center of Chicago. He has led hundreds of workshops, trained with numerous Native elders and in 2000 he was the executive producer of a film documenting adolescent rites of passage. He has canoed many thousands of miles including five major expeditions to the Hudson Bay. His expertise is in helping young people cross the bridge to adulthood. When not working you can find him on the other end of fly rod.
Cynthia Knudsen, Director
Cynthia first realized her love for the wilderness while backpacking with her brother through the parks of western Canada and the US after graduating from high school. She came to Northwaters in 1991, bringing ten years of teaching experience with students from middle school through college. She has a BA in literature from William and Mary and a M.Ed. from Penn State. In 1995 she created Northern Lights, a wilderness program which empowers girls during their transition into adolescence. She is a strong advocate for meaningful rite of passage experiences for young women today and is a facilitator for Girls Star, a high school mentoring program. A potter and artist, she is especially interested in the relationship between the creative arts, healing and the natural world. David and Cynthia have raised two sons and a daughter and share a love of canoeing northern rivers, travel, and time with family and friends.