Coaches
Aaron Stern
Aaron started playing in 2000 at UNC-Greensboro and has been coaching since 2009 for teams at all levels, including a national championship U16 Boys team in 2011. His coaching emphasizes the development of the whole person, not just the ultimate player, and he was a 2015 Double-Goal Coach Award Finalist from the Positive Coaching Alliance. Ultimate Peace has been a second home for him since his first time as a UP coach in 2012, and he is thrilled to be returning to camp, once again, in 2019....
Abe Chiswick
Abe began playing ultimate, as many people did, at summer camp. His first organized competitive ultimate was for NYU’s Purple Haze in their inaugural seasons. After moving to Israel, Abe searched out the local ultimate scene and has been deeply involved ever since. He helped found Haifa’s Hucking Crazy club team, which ten years later is one of the most stable and long lasting teams in the country. He has worked and volunteered with the Israeli Flying Disc Association running...
Amy Broome
Amy started playing ultimate in 2005 at St. Johnsbury Academy in her home state of Vermont. She has since played co-ed club at Wheaton College and both mixed and women’s club in Boston, MA. She now lives in Austin, TX and plays in the Premier Ultimate League team with the Austin Torch. She began coaching with UP in 2014.
Amy Smith
Amy Smith is rejoining the UP family after a couple of summers away. Having been around the world and back again spending the last 7 years Venezuela, China, Indonesia as a middle and high school mathematics teacher (and Ultimate Frisbee coach and player!), Amy has repatriated to her hometown of Atlanta, GA. She is still teaching and also developing her budding photojournalism career. While she coaches year-round, Amy is excited to hop back over the pond to regroup with the UP Fam as part of the...
Anna Glass
Anna started playing Ultimate in 2012 at the Paideia School (Atl, Ga) and went on to play in college at Emory University. She says that Ultimate has brought her some of the most amazing opportunities, including international travel, close friends, and a connection to the worldwide frisbee community. She started with UP in 2013 as a CIT (now the LIT program), and has since worked through every coaching position at camp. After a summer away, Anna will be back for her 6th UP camp and can’t wait!...
Anna Iglitzin
Anna has been playing ultimate since she was a freshman in high school and loves how many people she has been able to meet through the sport, and especially through Ultimate Peace. Growing up in Seattle, she was fortunate enough to have many opportunities to play ultimate and meet inspiring coaches and mentors who introduced her to the program that could take her to Israel to coach through the spirit of the game. Currently studying at Middlebury College in Vermont and interested in starting to...
Anthony Erlandson
Anthony started playing Ultimate to follow in his dad’s footsteps. His junior year of high school he played in his first summer league in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He went on to captain his team at Butler University for four years. After graduation, he moved to China, living there for two years, fostering a small community of Ultimate Frisbee at Zhejiang Normal University in Jinhua, Zhejiang. He also played with the club team Jiangnan, based in Hangzhou. Since then, Anthony has been living in Washington...
Ava Schein
Hometown: Peacham, Vermont.
Ava started playing Ultimate her Freshman year of high school at St. Johnsbury Academy, and has been hooked ever since. Continuing to play all four years, Ava became captain and helped her team achieve the Vermont State championship title in 2012. Currently, she plays for Columbia University’s women’s team, NYPD. This is her third year at UP, and she can’t wait to once again be a part of the amazing UP team and family.
Avi Fine
Hailing from Seattle, Washington, Avi was super excited to be involved with Ultimate Peace camp in 2011! Upon just graduating from Carleton College, Avi moved to Israel for a year to study Ulpan and take other classes at Tel-Aviv University. Already being in the area and having frisbee experience from Carleton, as well as having a passion for working with kids and spreading peace, Camp UP was a perfect experience for Avi. He loved being at Camp and is excited to see where it’s heading. Avi...
Ben Spears
Ben is from Atlanta, Georgia, and started learning about the Middle East in high school. He joined the ultimate team at George Washington University – the Hippos. Ben then began playing club ultimate for Chain Lightning in 2005 – won a national championship in 2009. He has coached youth, juniors, and college ultimate… meanwhile getting USAU certification in coaching and observing....
Celine Sledge
Celine started playing ultimate at Emory University in 2005 and instantly fell in love! Since 2008 she’s played on various Atlanta club teams; Ozone, Bucket, Alloy, and Outbreak. But coaching has proven to be more rewarding than any national championship game could hope to be. She coached several high school teams in Atlanta before finally finding her way to Ultimate Peace in 2014. After a brief hiatus for school and work, Celine will be joining us back at CampUP this year! She currently...
Charles Tetelman
Charles Tetelman began to play Ultimate with his High School team John Jay Air Raid where he won the USA Ultimate New York State High School Championship in 2011 and 2012. He is a freshman at Skidmore College majoring in Government and International Affairs with a minor in Arabic. Charles currently plays Ultimate with the Skidmore Ultimate Club.
Christopher Panna
Originally from New Jersey, Chris began playing ultimate at the University of Scranton and later joined the Philadelphia club team Rage. When he moved to Israel in 2012 to teach at the American International School, he was introduced to Ultimate Peace and has been coaching since. No matter what the culture, he believes in the power of sports (especially ultimate) to bring us together and challenge us to be our best selves.
Dan Curme
Dan started playing ultimate at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, MN in 2004. He promptly quit all other sports and focused solely on ultimate. He went to play for Carleton College – CUT and co-captained his team to a DI national championship in 2009. Due to 4 ultimate-related surgeries, Dan has stopped playing competitively. From July 2014 to May 2015, he bicycled from Seattle WA to the coast of Maine and then from Charleston, SC to San Francisco, CA. Now, he is finishing up his...
Dani Glass
Dani has been a part of Ultimate Peace since camp of 2010 and has loved watching the organization, campers, and CITs grow into the amazing operation we have today. She recently graduated from Lawrence University, where she played varsity soccer for four years as a goalkeeper as well as club Ultimate for four years. Dani is looking forward to becoming a high school teacher, and plans to use teaching as a tool through which she can travel to many different regions to learn about the languages and...
Erin Curme Jacobs
Erin Curme, representing half of the dynamic Curme-sibling-duo with brother Dan Curme, is a seasoned UP coach and hopes to return to camp every single summer for the rest of forever. Her favorite parts of camp are dance parties, mealtime cheers, slip-n-slide, and spirit-filled games....
Jeff Landesman
After 40 years of playing, coaching, and teaching Ultimate, Jeff is still enamored with Spirit of the Game. It is the reason why he started playing Ultimate, and it is the reason why he keeps playing as often as possible. Jeff began his Ultimate career as a junior in high school in New York City. His team won the New York state championship, and Ultimate has been a major part of his life ever since....
Jim Levine
I began playing in the late 1970’s at Tufts University. In the early 80’s seven members of the Tufts team joined with players from other teams to form the Hostages, a Nationals level club team that played together for four years and was regarded as a team that was way more than the sum of its quirky parts. In the late 80’s I played on the University of Michigan’s college national team, and then bounced around playing for ever more low key teams, winding up in the Mercer...
Joe Gara
Joe Gara has been a Ultimate Peace coach in the Middle East every summer since 2010. He caught the Ultimate bug in 1994, started the team at Salisbury University making Nationals twice. Joe lives with his UP coach wife, Becca Tucker, their 3 year old daughter, 6 goats and 120 chickens on a farm in New York near one of the best disc golf courses in the country. He knows a good disc golf course when he sees one,...
Joey Shapiro
Joey Shapiro has been playing ultimate for 14 years, first learning to play at Princeton University. After playing on Clockwork Orange from 2000-2003, he played for the Chicago open teams Stonecutters and the Aldermen, Weapons of Mass Destruction (mixed) and New Noise (open) out of Boston, and Illinois’s top mixed team ELevate in 2013. He also played on Harvard University’s Redline in 2005-2006 when they won their first Regional tournament and competed at College Nationals in Columbus,...
Jonathan Masler
Jonathan has been playing, coaching, and living Ultimate for over the past 12 years. He was first introduced to Ultimate at an overnight summer camp, and understands how special the space is that Camp UP provides for youth to learn from one another and grow as individuals; he strives to make each summer the best experience possible for everyone involved....
Josh Seamon
Josh has been playing, coaching, and organizing Ultimate for more than 25 years. After playing in High School in Amherst, MA, where he was on the inaugural HS national championship team, he migrated west and played in Claremont, CA. Two months after graduating from Pomona College in ’02, Josh found himself teaching HS Math at St. Johnsbury Academy in the northern reaches of VT, far away from large groups of organized Ultimate....
Julie Sadofsky
Julie Sadofsky was first introduced to ultimate her first year of college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2010. Once she caught the ultimate fever, Julie became a leader of her team the Cuddle Raptors, and began coaching youth at local after school programs and camps in the effort to build a foundation for ultimate and SOTG. In 2012, she was honored to coach youth in small communities in Israel and Palestine in preparation of Camp UP. Camp UP has been the highlight of her ultimate career...
Laura Karson
Karson began playing ultimate frisbee her freshman year at Carleton College. She played for the women’s team Syzygy all four years and loved every moment of it. Karson is a sailor, a bicyclist and a nomad. She brings a frisbee everywhere she goes and found that it is the best way to make friends.
Leah Tsinajinnie
Leah was introduced to ultimate frisbee in Atlanta at Georgia Tech in September 2008, with the UP-famous Ben Spears as her first coach. She began coaching in 2010 at the high school and college level. She coached the W.D. Mohammed High School Girls, a team uniquely comprised of young women that identify as African American Muslims (2013-2015). She also coached Grayson HS Boys (2010-2012) and Georgia Tech Wreck (2013-2014)....
Louie Cohn
Louie started playing Ultimate in 1979 with Wellesley Ultimate Frisbee. After playing with open teams she founded Boston Ladies Ultimate where she found herself as an athlete. This led to her working with other women of the era in establishing the women’s division. She continued to play with various teams in New England, Belgium, New York and New Jersey until the birth of her third son. Choosing to focus on mothering during the childhoods of her four sons she played a lot of catch. Having...
Luka Faradsch
In 2008 Luka first fell in love with the flying plastic during a semester abroad in Colorado. Her host family got her addicted to the sport immediately and with a growing Ultimate community in Germany she was lucky enough to continue playing when she returned to her home country. Since then she has played in different teams and tournaments all over the world. In Germany, she coached her university team, participated in national championships and has played various tournaments in Belgium, France,...
Matthew Zemel
Matty learned to play frisbee in high school in Colorado after to a bone-crunching skiing accident that kept him off of the baseball field that spring. He hasn’t looked back since. Matty has played, captained, and taught frisbee at many levels ranging from youth to college to club to professional. He’s now immersed is a frisbee-centric world where everything can be spun on a finger and where success is measured by amounts of “big hucks” and “big skies”. Most...
Meredith Tosta
Meredith has spent many years actively involved in youth ultimate growing and managing youth education programs, overseeing the Junior Nationals teams, and coaching youth teams. Meredith’s playing career started in college at the University of California, San Diego and continued in Seattle and Denver over the past decade.
Mickey Pearl
Michal (Mickey) Pearl was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. When she started high school, her family relocated to New York City. She fell in love with Ultimate in college, where she played for the Brandeis University women’s team. Mickey has been a summer camp coach in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. She was a UP fellow and spent the 2012-2013 year in Israel working with three communities and establishing the LIT program. Since then she has returned to New York, graduated from law school, and...
Mike Arenson
Mike lives in Atlanta and grew up in the perfect city of Minneapolis. He began playing Ultimate at Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisconsin at a young age. He joined his high school ultimate team, Hopkins HUrt, as a sophomore and has been playing competitively ever since. At the University of Minnesota, he helped Grey Duck make their first two college nationals appearances. He has played at the elite club level in both open and mixed divisions, and has coached elementary, middle, high school, and college...
Mike Grant
From the moment Mike picked up his first disc, it never left his hand. He fell in love with the sport of Ultimate Frisbee the summer after grade 11, and never looked back. After playing competitive soccer, basketball, football and baseball through most of his youth, discovering ultimate unearthed a passion in Mike that took his life by storm! Pestering his friends to throw his new toy with him everyday after school, Mike ignited his passion in others and started his school’s first ever ultimate...
Mike LoPresti
Mike began playing ultimate as a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh on a fledgling team that developed into a nationals qualifier by his final two seasons. He currently lives in Maryland where he coached for several years with the University of Maryland women’s team and, in 2013, won his first National Championship with DC Scandal. In 2014, Mike is diving into the world of youth ultimate, coaching the DC-area’s first U19 club team and joining Ultimate Peace.
Nadav Pearl
I was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel in 1992, and moved to the states in 2003. At 12 years old I discovered Ultimate in summer camp, completely fell in love with the sport and have been playing ever since....
Paul Corbett
Paul learned how to play ultimate from his cousins who were playing for their college teams. As it grew into a family reunion tradition to play, he fell in love with the sport and never looked back. After captaining his high school team, Paul moved on to play for UNC-CH Darkside and eventually captained that team as well. While at UNC he not only played for his college and various club teams, but also started and coached a local high school’s team that has since developed into a thriving...
Phoebe Shambaugh
First introduced to ultimate at a sleep-away camp, I quickly found the local pickup game downtown and started learning throws. Moving from Vermont to study history and the Middle East at the University of Chicago, I discovered the ultimate team and never looked back. Now, graduating in the spring as a captain of two years, I’ve made friends through ultimate on three continents, and would love to make it a fourth.
Rachel Winner
Rachel started playing ultimate in 2005 when she joined the Dickinson College Jive Turkeys as a freshman. She captained her senior year and dabbled in international play in Argentina, Brazil, China and Mexico. She played mid-level club in Tennessee and North Carolina and capped her competitive career with Cahoots from Asheville, NC before moving to the Middle East for a change of scenery. She joined UP as a volunteer in 2014 and as a staff member in 2015. She is the director of the Leaders-in-Training...
Sarah Afromowitz
Sarah first started playing ultimate seriously in high school at University Prep in Seattle. Her junior and senior year she co-captained both the coed and girl’s teams. For her senior year of high school, the girls’ team placed 3rd in state. Sarah plays in the adult summer league in Seattle and last summer she co-captained the YCC mixed team, which placed 2nd. Sarah is currently a student in the class of 2016 at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and playing for their...
Scott Graber
I’ve been playing and coaching Ultimate since middle school, when my cousins taught me to play. Bringing it back to Tenafly, NJ, I taught it to anyone who would listen, joined the the Tenafly High School Really Good Tigers and ended up captaining for 3 years. I then went to Carleton College and played for the Karls and the Gods of Plastic, which I captained my senior year. I also co-founded the Bergen County Ultimate Disc League in North Jersey in 2012 and I’ve played for Ultimars...
Sean Parker
Sean found out about ultimate during high school cross country practices and began competitive play at the University of Iowa his freshman year in the fall of 2006. Searching out ultimate wherever it could be found, he participated in summer leagues in Chicago and Iowa City and even started an ad-hoc league in his hometown of Naperville, IL with a longtime high school friend. Sean has always searched out the most competitive venues, playing in nationals at the collegiate and club (open and mixed)...
Steph Wong
Steph started playing Ultimate Frisbee for Andover’s High school where she discovered a love for a sport that is fueled by high spirit and the simple joy of play. She continued to coach, captain, and play competitively through college and across the country. She has worked with both local and pro-ultimate leagues. Steph lives just north of Boston where she plays Ultimate, works as an Athletic Trainer/EMT, and encourages education and growth outside of classroom walls to the young and the...
Stephanie Malcher
From Melbourne Australia, Steph has been playing Ultimate since she was introduced to it at University in 2007. She’s since played with Melbourne club team, Honey, captaining in 2013 and 14. She has represented Australia on their U23’s team in Florence 2010, the women’s team at the World Championships in Japan 2012, and at the World Games in Colombia 2013. Steph is looking forward to sharing the enjoyment she gets out of playing Ultimate with everyone at UP!
Stu Downs
I have enjoyed the sport of ultimate since 1979 when I joined Dartmouth College’s nascent band of misfits. I was lit up quickly by the energy, ease and enjoyment of a game of ultimate. Furthermore, I fell in love with the model of spirit of the game and the amazing humans I witnessed upholding this spirit routinely in competition. What followed was 15 years of open division play for Atlanta’s Chain Lightning, a few years of Master’s fun, some coaching at the University of Georgia,...
Tim Lee
Teem grew up in the Tien Shan foothills of Kyrgyzstan. Born in South Korea, Teem lived and studied in nine different countries before moving to Israel for medical school. His first encounter with ultimate was as a freshman at Knox College. Since then, he has played ultimate around the world and currently bounces around a few teams in Israel. He is currently very busy trying to become the next camp doctor.
Yuval Pearl
Yuval Pearl, better known as UV, was born in Tel Aviv Israel but now lives in New York City. He has played ultimate for over seven years learning how to play in summer camp. He is currently playing in the New York City High School League captaining the Heschel Heat, and is a member of the New York City YCC team, Little Pony.
Yuval "Zolo" Zolotushko
Yuval’s first encounter with a frisbee was back in 2005 in the “Hashomer Hazair” youth group. After a few short months he heard about the “Bula Flow” (First international event in Israel) and immediately joined the volunteer crew. Since then, he got “infected” with the frisbee bug and hasn’t stopped playing ever since....
CITs
Hallie Dunham
Hallie started playing ultimate in 4th grade for her school team. Currently a high school junior, she captains the Lakeside girls team, which took second in states this year. Hallie also plays on Fryz, a high school club team in Seattle, and has played for the DiscNW YCC mixed team the past two summers. She spent the majority of last year in Australia and played for the Australian U23 team in Toronto last summer. This summer, Hallie will be playing in Italy on the US U19 team. This is Hallie’s...
Hosa Roman
Hosa or Muhammed is from Ein Rafa and started playing Ultimate in 2010. He began as a camper in the first UP camp. He graduated in 2015 from the CIT ( coaches in training) program to become a UP coach....
Jesse Marquisee
Jesse has been playing ultimate since 2005. In high school Jesse played YCC and for Edina High school’s Green Lantern ultimate team. In 2014 they won the MN High School Ultimate for the first time in school history. That summer he was an LIT at Ultimate Peace. Jesse loves meeting new people. Besides Ultimate and Peace, Jesse likes traveling and learning about airplanes, trains, ships and graveyards. Jesse is currently working on his Masters in Cognitive Systems Engineering at the Ohio State University....
Keanan Albrecht
My name is Keanan and I’m a senior from Bellingham Washington. I started playing ultimate around 7th grade when my older brother dragged me out to play with him and his friends. I soon fell in love with ultimate and couldn’t seem to play enough of it. There was no youth ultimate around town so I had to play with adults just to get my Frisbee fix. I started an ultimate team at my high school freshman year and have been playing that for the past 4 years. I also am a part of Fryz Ultimate Frisbee,...
Sam Sherman
Sam has been playing ultimate for the last few years while at Highland Park High school in Illinois and during at Camp Horseshoe in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Sam loves the spirit of the game and is totally excited to be a C.I.T at UP this summer.
Shadda Daburii
Shadda Daburii is from an Arab town in Israel she is 18 years old.
She joined UP and started playing ultimate in 2012, she is finishing high school this year.
She played with the national team of Israel for two years
Gratuated from the CIT (coaches in training) program in 2015 to become a UP coach.
Now she is a leader in the LIT program,
And assistant coach in Tamra practices.
Ultimate and Ultimate Peace has changed her life in many good different ways.
Outside...
Thomas Williams
I started playing Ultimate in the winter of 2012 for my school team East Chapel Hill High. I played on NC-Hammer a youth club team that played at the Youth Club Championships in 2013. I play and teach ultimate as much as possible because I love and enjoy the sport.
Yonatan Ben Haim
UP is part of my life since 2010,where I’ve been to the first ever camp as a 12 years old camper. Since then I’ve been through the coaches-in-training program and became a coach, accumulating countless experiences:...
Staff
David Barkan - Camp Director
David lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. He also volunteers year-round for Ultimate Peace, and is the Director of Camp UP in Acco Israel every summer. David has led many Ultimate teams over the course of his thirty-year career to compete at the highest national and international levels of the sport. He has coached youth Ultimate for over 30 years on 4 continents, won a world championship as a player in 1995, and was inducted into the USA Ultimate Hall of Fame in 2010....
Karym Barhom - Director of Operations
In 2009, Karym was introduced to Frisbee at Ultimate Peace’s first event in Tel Aviv. From 2007-2011, Karym studied and received his Bachelors of Arts in Informal Education at Beit Berl College in Kfar Saba. Karym’s extensive background in playing and coaching soccer was a natural fit for Ultimate. His work experience includes coaching many kids and young adults in Soccer, which he continues today. He also worked for five years as an Activities Director for Noar HaOved in Tel Aviv...
Nancy Melrose - Director of Educational Programs
Nancy has been an avid follower and supporter of Ultimate for over 20 years. She oversees and creates the daily schedule and programming for our campers! She also supervises staff, advises the youth leadership/CIT program, and serves as a key problem solver. Nancy resides in California but lived in Israel for many years where she received training in experiential/informal education and taught high school students and adults from around the world. This led her to designing and guiding trips...
Miranda Knowles - Director of Coaching
Miranda (Roth) Knowles found ultimate frisbee as a high school athlete and within in the following 3 years transferred all her hard work, athleticism, leadership and sportsmanship from basketball and soccer to be a full-time frisbee player. Once fully dedicated, she never looked back, winning junior worlds for the United States, the Callahan Award while playing for Carleton College and soon after 2 national championships with Seattle Riot and a World Games championship with the USA. Most recently...
Nancy Glass - Director of Coaching
An original member of the UP Team, Nancy started her Ultimate career in the early 80′s with Chicago’s Nemesis. She still lives in Chicago with her husband Mike, three children, two dogs and a fish. Nancy continues to play and coach both Ultimate and Hockey.
Game On!
Linda Sidorsky - Director of Mesurement and Evaluations & Director of External Relations
Linda lives in rural western Massachusetts in the small town of Shelburne Falls. She is one of the co-founders of Ultimate Peace along with David Barkan and Dori Yaniv. As an unpaid volunteer she devotes her time and energy all year to Ultimate Peace as the organization’s COO. She is also the Director of Operations and oversees “Measurements...
Adam Shimoni - Gear Coordinator
Born in Jerusalem, raised in the states. Returning and connecting with Israel throughout my life has always made me feel very connected with the Country and even more so with the People. Living in a country of Peace and feeling connected to a country of pain inspired me to want to bring people together from a young age. Began playing Ultimate in 2004 and falling in Love with the sport and the concept of Spirit of The Game. When I found out about Ultimate Peace and the AMAZING work it does to create...
Randi Glass - Gear Coordinator
I have never played Ultimate, but have been lucky to be surrounded by it through marriage for over 30 years! I joined UP in 2010 and am grateful to have been part of the Admin team since then. My daughter Dani has been to camp with me every year, and there are many more Glass family members who share in UP with us, always keeping that UP Glass half FULL!!
Dan Tapuach - Director of Media
Hometown: Tel Aviv, Israel
How long you have been playing frisbee: I’ve been playing Ultimate for 8 years.
With what community you work: Daburia, Kfar Tavor, Buena Nujidat, Tuba Zangaria
Brief history of playing experience: Playing ultimate since 2003. Have been playing in different club teams around Israel along the years, and some competitive ultimate in the States. In 2011 became a coach for the Israeli national youth teams and flew as a coach to EYUC 2011 in Poland....
Danie Proby - Videographer
Danie Proby is known for despising free-time. She co-founded the only Ultimate Frisbee Academy in Canada (Elevate Ultimate), is a high school physical education teacher, and is pursuing her masters in High Performance Coaching and Technical Leadership at UBC. Finding creative ways to teach the sport to young people is her life passion....
Paolo Chiappin - Photographer
Paolo has been involved ever-increasingly with Ultimate over the past 6 years, when he and friends started a college team in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. As often as possible he’s found ways to engage in the sport beyond the borders of his country, participating in camps and tournaments world wide at least once a year, since his International debut at WUCC in 2010. His drive has been to learn as much as he could about the sport tactically, culturally and structurally, and bring that information...