MEET OUR STAFF
Administration Team
Trish Alexander
Executive director
Trish Alexander began ice skating in 1972 and was competitive in both singles and pairs events. In 1994, at the age of thirty-four, she took up inline skating and fell in love with it. In 1996 she became a certified skate instructor, and in 2002 she became an examiner for the International Inline Skate Association’s Inline Certification Program (IISA/ICP). She co-wrote the Fitness Inline Training (FIT) manual and taught marathon skating for seven years. She was the director of the MS Skate Marathon for four years out of its eleven-year run. She also took over the Skate Instructors Association (SkateIA) in 2009 and increased membership from 60 people to 270 by 2020. SkateIA now teaches 170,000 classes annually.
Trish started Skate Journeys Skate School in 1999 and it has since become the largest school of its kind in the world. The school offers instruction to both children and adults, including six levels of classes from Beginner to Advanced, as well as specialty classes like slalom and pairs. As the director, Trish has transformed Skate Journeys from a for-profit company into a non-profit organization which serves the community. With the help of the tireless Board of Directors, she continues Skate Journeys’ goal of providing low- and no-cost lessons and equipment to children and adults in the local community who may otherwise not have the opportunity to learn skating.
Cindy Pearlman
Volunteer bookkeeper
Cindy enjoys artistic, trail, and slalom skating on her inline skates and hopes to try quad skates in the future. She enjoys meeting people with diverse backgrounds and sharing the common experience of skating with them. She looks forward to helping make skating more accessible to people of various ages, ability, and walks of life. Outside of skating she likes weekly visits to the Farmer’s Market and daily Nordic walking trips to coffee shops with the neighborhood dog Benny, who had his first bus ride recently.
Tamara Sherry
hr Manager
Tamara has been an avid skater since childhood. Her first memory as a child in Oregon was of her mother skating on wooden wheels and with no toe stops. She started skating with Skate Journeys in 2011 and has worked a variety of positions here, including front desk, HR, and teaching weekend classes. She was also certified at the Skate IA conference in 2012 and has worked with several groups, including the Seattle Derby Brats and the Meridian School’s Summer Quest Camp.
Tamara enjoys the moment of freedom she gets with each glide on her skates. She is excited to see participation in Skate Journeys have a positive impact on the community. She also enjoys all aspects of art.
Marissa Peterson
Programs Manager
Marissa is our Skate Programs & Project Manager. She lives in Durham NC with her Rottweiler named Mowgli. She has been skating for almost ten years and loves urban skating in the city, long distance trail skating, and aggressive inline skating. She wants to pursue a skating career and joined Skate Journeys to learn ways to skate for a living. She’s excited about Skate Journeys’ potential to bring skating to people and places that may not have the opportunity to discover the sport. She particularly enjoys how skating makes her feel: it’s her top stress reliever, her favorite way to exercise, and the highlight of her day.
Joe Walker
Social media & Graphics
Joe Walker has been a SkateIA instructor since 2005, and is certified in Level 1, 2, Skate Park, and Slalom. He particularly enjoys working one on one with students, carefully analyzing and adjusting form to help students quickly reach their skating goals. And he makes it fun!
Priyanka started skating when she was ten years old but, didn’t continue it. Seeing her daughter’s skating skills improve at Skate Journey as well as her husband’s passion when he joined the skating apprentice program has motivated her to start skating again. Her other hobbies include painting, travelling, and gardening.
Debbie Sumner
Technical Support
Debbie Sumner grew up working for her family’s travel agency and business accounts while developing her many other skills in the sports and
fitness industry. She is a level three certified professional ski instructor (PSIA) and specializes in training, developing, and certifying instructors in both the skiing and inline skating industry (IISA-ICP, SKATEIA).
She is also a Yoga and Nordic Walking Instructor.
Debbie studied at the California Design College (CDC) and earned certification in computer aided design. She has been applying her skills in the development of marketing materials, power point presentations, email blasts, and website design to many small companies. She worked directly with the Air Tahiti Nui website design company to create and implement their new website and fulfill vision bringing them into the 21st century.
As a partner and Senior Manager at The Travel Group, Debbie is responsible for all marketing, advertising, and creative design in addition to working with clients, travel suppliers and advertisers. Her passion is to work with her consumer base and sports industry clientele to create a worldwide, special-interest travel group. Debbie also created the Dog Inclusive Lifestyle Facebook group to document her travels and adventures with her Dog Cassie.
Debbie says she loves working with Skate Journeys because, “I have the flexibility to create my own schedule and that a community is created with staff. We get listened to and acknowledged and can be who we are.