Alison grew up backpacking in the Sierra Mountains in California. She enjoys rock climbing, backpacking, triathlons and mountain biking and understands the importance of each activity in not only building physical skill but also mental agility and leadership skills for life. An engineer after her undergraduate training, Alison worked at the Ford Motor company and then went to graduate school at MIT for her MBA and MSME. For 7 years, she ran successful businesses in fitness training and scuba diving. She started her career in the non-profit world as The Director of Knowledge Transfer for the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT. Now Alison is the Executive Director at NPower Seattle, a nonprofit that specializes in helping other nonprofits use technology to better serve their communities.