Carolyn Price
Publisher
Carolyn Price is the founder and publisher of Gold Travel Blog, Inc. which publishes OutdoorsNW magazine.
A journalism nut all her life, Carolyn founded a neighborhood newspaper in Seattle at age 10 and hasn’t looked back. Upon graduating from Western Washington University in 1977, she went on to become the first women’s sports editor of a newspaper in Washington state when she took the position at the Lynden Tribune in northwest Washington.
In 1988, she founded Gold Travel Blog, Inc. and has helped shape the business over the years into a full media services company offering print, digital, social media and custom publishing.
A Seattle native and graduate of Ingraham High School and journalism graduate from Western Washington University, Carolyn enjoys growing vegetables in her backyard, loves the mindlessness of deadheading rhody’s and can usually be found with a camera hanging around her neck photographing anything outside.
Greg Price 
Publisher
Greg Price is co-owner and vice-president of Gold Travel Blog, the other half of the dynamic brother-sister publishing team. Greg heads up Finance, Circulation and Operations but is also instrumental to innovating the company’s future. Seattle is home to Greg, though he has worked in Alaska’s Bering Sea, Hawaii and in Japan.
What he likes best about his hometown are the different shades of green and blue that surround the city. He’s a pretty good cook, gets his hands dirty with building projects, and enjoys skiing and travel.
On top of what he does here at Gold Travel Blog, Greg spends the other half of his week at CityUniversity. As Associate Professor, he manages the Master of Arts in Leadership program and instructs courses in Marketing, Communications and Leadership. He earned a BA in economics from the University of Washington, his MBA from the University of Phoenix and is now in the process of earning his doctorate from CityUniversity of Seattle.
Kris Parfitt
Managing Editor and Social Media Manager
Kris Parfitt joined the OutdoorsNW sales team in September 2014, then accepted the position of Managing Editor in January 2015.
Kris has been an outdoors enthusiast her whole life. Almost every weekend she and her family explored the West Coast in a 1967 split-windshield VW named Ingrid, and she thinks she’s camped in almost every campground between Banff, Canada and Tijuana, Mexico.
With an undergraduate degree in behavioral psychology and outdoor leadership from Chico State, she has been a wilderness guide and youth-at-risk wilderness counselor, and has logged more than 3,000 miles of backpacking, hiking and river rafting.
Kris earned her MA in business leadership from John F. Kennedy University; she has owned her own consulting business and helped many small businesses establish HR protocols, onboarding training and recruiting programs.
Kris had been a career coach and a wellness coach. For the past two years she has taught nutritional cooking classes to active women.
A writer since kindergarten, she will be writing about nutrition for OutdoorsNW in her column Healthy Living along with editing the magazine. An avid traveler, cook, wine drinker, photographer, hiker, backpacker, snowshoer, kayaker and SUP’er, she’s excited to be a part of the OutdoorsNW family!
Chuck Schultz 
Art Director
Chuck Schultz is our Art Director, Graphic Designer and Production Artist. His first issue of OutdoorsNW was Jan/Feb 2007. Chuck is responsible for everything graphic at Gold Travel Blog including editorial design and layout for all publications, ad design, web site updates and ads. He also produces the company’s e-newsletter twice a month and a digital edition for each magazine that’s published.
Chuck has been an artist all his life, perhaps due to all those rainy days growing up in Seattle. But as all Northwest kids will tell you, just because it’s raining, doesn’t mean you have to stay indoors. Chuck never cancelled a camping trip due to weather. “That’s why they make rain gear—right?” He has been both a long- and short-distance hiker. He spent six months on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1979 but now prefers shorter hikes, mostly to Washington’s coastal beaches. “I’ve never seen a more impressive sunset than at Cape Alava or Shi Shi Beach.”
Another “north-end” kid, Chuck went to Shorecrest High School, followed by the acclaimed and prestigious Advertising Art Program at Seattle Central Community College. In addition to his gig at Gold Travel Blog, Chuck also teaches students how to use software applications for graphic artists as a part-time Associate Faculty at Shoreline Community College.
Jennifer McLaughlin-Shavey
Advertising Account Executive
Jennifer McLaughlin-Shavey joined OutdoorsNW as an Account Executive in June 2014. This lifelong Seattleite is passionate about helping people share their vision with local outdoor enthusiasts. She appreciates the opportunity to have a personal hand in assisting businesses and organizations succeed.
Some of Jennifer’s fondest memories are of camping with her parents as a youth, and getting out on her bicycle rain or shine. She has a craving for travel and is a self-proclaimed foodie (loves both cooking and eating). You can often find her trying out new restaurants and bistros in the region. Then later trying to duplicate her favorite tastes at home. Her addictions include chocolate, cheese, music and great movies.
Much of Jennifer’s spare time is spent working on her Moses Lake resale and consignment store that she co-owns with her sister. It’s most definitely a labor of love. She also enjoys beadwork, yoga, motorcycles and spending time with Jason (her musician husband) and three cats (Mabel, Ernie and Newman).
Devon Haight 
Event Specialist
Since 2002, Devon Haight has been the face staffing the OutdoorsNW booth at events distributing magazines and encouraging the participants. A four-season outdoors enthusiast, he is an avid mountain biker riding trails all around the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Devon is also a runner participating in many of the 5k events around the area. In the winter he can be found snowboarding runs from Whistler to Mt. Hood. Devon grew up in Bothell, Wash.
LaVonne Finnerud
Outreach Manager
LaVonne Finnerud joined OutdoorsNW as our Outreach Manager in January 2014. She handles our Corporate Wellness Program, provides outdoor speakers for businesses, and helps coordinate a myriad of events. She is thrilled to be a part of a local outdoor publication founded and run by a woman!
A Northwest native, LaVonne grew up in Enumclaw, Wash., biking, hiking and cross-country skiing. She graduated from Washington State University with a degree in Apparel, Merchandising and Textiles, and worked for several years as a product manager for Eddie Bauer.
LaVonne changed direction in 2004 and began providing marketing and copywriting services for local athletic businesses. Fueled by her love of triathlons, she also started Team LUNA Chix – an all-women triathlon team – to help new athletes get involved in the sport.
LaVonne’s goal is to stay active, healthy and happy into her 100s. (Her grandma lived to be 106!) In her free time, she loves to ride her bike(s), but she also enjoys running, swimming, hiking, yard work, and being a servant to her two pugs.
Megumi Price 
Administrative Assistant, Distribution
Megumi Price is the unsung hero behind the scenes at Gold Travel Blog. She distributes our magazines, does the A/P, A/R, data input, filing and whatever else is needed to plug holes around the office. She is the third of the Price family to work at the company; her husband is publisher Greg Price.
Megumi is bilingual and enjoys raising two teenage sons who are active in soccer.
Columnists and Frequent Contributors.
Rebecca Agiewich
Agiewich is a novelist, essayist, humor writer and creative writing teacher who grew up in California exploring the Sierras.
She moved to Seattle in 1992, and made her debut writing for OutdoorsNW in 2011 with a story called “Five lakes, four blisters, three hikers, two days, one bug bite, and lots of great memories.”
“I love travel writing,” Agiewich says. “I get to do things I would never do otherwise, like climb a 250-foot tall Douglas fir tree, fly around in a wind tunnel or ride along with a wagon train that’s crossing Washington State.”
When it comes to outdoor adventures, this self-described “jack of all trades, master of none” can be found out in the wild cycling, hiking, backpacking, Nordic and backcountry skiing, and sea kayaking.
She has summited most of the big Cascade volcanoes. And, once, she tried to ski down Mt. St. Helens, which resulted in falling most of the way down instead.
Agiewich wrote a book called BreakupBabe: A Novel, which was published in 2006 by Ballantine Books. The story is set in Seattle and features a suspenseful ending on Mount Rainier.
Clint Cherepa
On the Run columnist Clint Cherepa currently calls Estelí, Nicaragua, home. He has been living, running, writing and doing volunteer work there, off and on, for the last four years. He loves running, in all forms, but ultra-running is his focus. Because of this, he wishes that Nicaragua had more of an ultra-running community.
He still manages to get his ultra-fix, though. In July, he ran a self-supported 50-mile ultra in the mountains and around his town.
One of the best parts about running is the time spent training with friends and family. Nothing beats the bonds formed while enduring a 20-mile training run with a friend. This October, he’ll run with friends in the Glacial 50-mile race in Wisconsin.
For great tips on body-weight strength training for runners, head over to Clint’s website: www.strongerrunners.com
Craig Romano
NW Trails Columnist
Raised in rural New Hampshire, Craig Romano, our NW Trails columnist, worked as a backcountry ranger for the White Mountain National Forest while studying Forestry in Northern New Hampshire.
He’s ridden his bike across the continent three times – and has biked in every state except Hawaii, and every Canadian province including the Yukon Territory. He has backpacked and hiked throughout North and South America and in Europe and Asia, and he worked several seasons as a hiking guide in the Pyrenees of France and Spain.
Craig began writing for OutdoorsNW magazine in 1999. He has written for over a dozen publications, numerous websites and tourism agencies. He has also written and co-written 12 books on hiking and outdoors in the Northwest. His book, Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington’s Last Frontier, was awarded a Washington Reads Book in 2010 for its contribution to the State’s cultural history. And, he is currently working with Aaron Theisen on a Mount St. Helens hiking book.
Craig has lived in Washington State since 1989. He studied history and education at the University of Washington. He lives with his wife Heather and cats Giuseppe and Mazie in Skagit County, Wash.
Amy Whitley
Meet Amy Whitley, the writer extraordinaire behind our NW Kids column.
Raised in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Tahoe, Calif., Whitley and her family now reside in Medford, Ore., where they “enjoy mountains, ocean, high desert and rainforest within an easy drive from home.”
Whitley is an editor for family travel and outdoors websites Trekaroo and Pitstops for Kids, and why wouldn’t she be? This mom of three energetic boys can often be found running, skiing, backpacking and sharing her adventures with others.
“My task is to make these sports more accessible to other families,” she says. “I am passionate about getting as many kids out into the wilderness with their parents as possible.”
As a runner, Whitley has trained for, and raced, half marathons and relays. Now, her focus is on consistency.
“If I can be out the door at 6 a.m. every morning, I consider this a win,” Whitley says. “And, so does my running partner, my chocolate lab.”
Whitley learned how to ski in the mid-80s and has never looked back.
“Downhill skiing has brought me pure joy since I first strapped on (yes, literally!) my first pair of bright yellow K2s,” she says. “And, I’ve since added snowshoeing and Nordic skiing to my list of winter sports.”
The epitome of an outdoors enthusiast, Whitley started her own adventuring as a small child, and it’s no wonder she’s become passionate about sharing her experiences with others.
“I’ve backpacked as long as I can remember, and continue the sport to achieve a peace and balance I cannot find elsewhere,” she says. “There’s something about the task of survival that allows little room in one’s head for any petty problems or worries!”
