Meet our team
Meet the individuals who are passionate about making Inspired Adventures a life-changing experience for all involved.
Justine Curtis
CEO and Founder
Originally from the UK, Justine founded Inspired Adventures in 2004, motivated by her own experiences in both travel and philanthropic work.
Justine believes in fostering positivity in our social impact on the world and is driven by a genuine belief in the betterment of the planet. Justine leads the team to deliver personable, professional, and trustworthy end-to-end service.
Dr Michael Bonning
Inspired’s Chief Medical Officer
Michael is a General Practitioner in Sydney, having spent many years as a medical officer in the Royal Australian Navy. He was deployed to the Middle East, Mediterranean, southern Indian Ocean, South East Asia and the Pacific. His specialty areas of practice include high altitude physiology, diving medicine and emergency management in remote environments. An avid bushwalker, trail runner and cyclist, he has worked with Inspired Adventures and other organisations to take hikers to the highest peaks on multiple continents. As Chief Medical Officer he assists Inspired Adventures in planning exciting, safe itineraries and oversees clinical governance for all IAs’ doctors.
See our Staff | Team Leaders | Team Doctors
Staff
Our team work closely with charities and fundraisers to create a seamless experience and successful adventures. Meet the friendly faces making it happen behind the scenes!
Jenny comes to Sydney by way of Chicago, where she studied Global Public Health and Applied Psychology at New York University. She has found a happy home at Inspired Adventures, where she gets to motivate people to change the world and challenge themselves. Jenny has been lucky enough to travel to over 30 countries and six continents, plus all 50 of the United States. Highlights include hiking the Inca trail and watching the sun rise over the Serengeti. She cares deeply about education, environmental causes, LGBQT+ rights and gender equality. She enjoys exploring Sydney’s impressive beaches, attempting elaborate cooking projects, and hopes to learn to snowboard one day.
Jenny believes wholeheartedly in the potential for adventure to transform and inspire. She feels lucky to work with the committed and inspiring team at Inspired Adventures who are equally as passionate about doing good and making a difference.
Kelsey has had the pleasure of working for Inspired Adventures since 2019. After reading Chapter One by Daniel Flynn, Kelsey was inspired to transition her career and work for a social enterprise. With a passion for travel and social impact, Inspired Adventures has been the perfect fit!
Kelsey was born & raised in Canada and moved to Australia at the age of 18. Since then, she has seized every opportunity to travel. From backpacking through Europe, Asia & South America, doing humanitarian work in Sri Lanka to hiking in the Dolomites in Northern Italy.
With the absence of travel in recent years, Kelsey took the opportunity to complete her Yoga Teacher Training. You can often find Kelsey practicing yoga (of course!), baking vegan treats, gardening and going for long walks enjoying her favourite podcasts.
If you've enquired about one of our adventures, you've most likely spoken with Paris. An active thru-hiker and multi-day hiker, Paris feels a strong connection to Inspired Adventure’s adventures and the self-growth that team members experience through challenging themselves and reconnecting with nature.
Paris is a strong advocate for being curious and challenging yourself. After working with thousands of participants, he knows there are many barriers and ideas that people have about themselves that stop them from exploring. If you are interested in making a difference for a cause you care about but don't know if you can do it, then Paris encourages you to give him a call and ask any and all questions.
Eleni, born and raised in Sydney, caught the travel bug when she was 16 after organising her first solo trip to the US. Since then she studied Marketing and Psychology at the Australian National University and in between her studies travelled to Asia, Europe and America. Highlights from her travels include swimming with dugongs in Belize, watching the sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park, hot air ballooning in Cappadocia, Turkey and sailing in Croatia.
Most recently Eleni spent the last 2 years in California, working at an Outdoor Education School. She enjoyed working with kids and teaching them science, leadership, and about our natural world. However the need for a beautiful beach always brings her home to Australia. Eleni is excited to be part of the Inspired Adventures Team as she can combine her passion for travel and empowering people.
Sam loves to explore new places, tackle big adventures, and support good causes. She first fell in love with the charity space after volunteering in Nepal for 4 months. During this time she taught English, fundraised, and helped to build a library for the kids of Chitwan. After seeing the impact that charities have on communities, Sam knew this was for her.
Before finding her way to Inspired Adventures, Sam completed a degree in media and jetted off around the world to places like Morocco, Switzerland, Hawaii, and Myanmar. She also hiked multiple trails from the Annapurna in Nepal to Mount Rinjani in Lombok. After returning home, she decided to combine her 2 passions of traveling and doing good, and eventually made her way to the Inspired Adventures family. In her spare time, you might catch her at the beach, second-hand vintage shopping, or on a hiking trail.
Lauren is originally from the UK and has been living in Australia for nearly two years. She has been working in fundraising and the charity sector since she graduated university with a degree in English, and has supported many organisations in achieving their fundraising goals, even taking on challenges like the Paris Marathon herself! In her spare time, she loves to read, experiment with baking, go to judo training and of course travel whenever she gets the chance. Her aim for the next year is to finally get to see Uluru in person, but her favourite place she has visited so far has definitely been exploring Japan.
Holly is born and bred in Australia with a love for all things outdoors. Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Science, she was keen to put that knowledge to work in a humanitarian field, looking for a way to give back to the community. Inspired Adventures was the perfect fit, allowing her to use the skills she developed to work alongside charities nationwide to really make a difference.
Holly has also trained as a Ski Instructor and worked in both Perisher Valley here in Australia, and Whistler Blackcomb in Canada. She has a real fondness for the mountains, hiking and skiing being two of her favourite pastimes. If she’s not in the snow, Holly will be at the local coffee shop, an art gallery or the cinema.
Danielle is part of the fundraising team, and joined Inspired Adventures to combine her passion for not for profit missions and fundraising, with her love for adventures. She came from a media background, and graduated university with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism.
She has a history of volunteering for many charities and wants her work to reflect her strong sense of justice, morals and values, for humans, animals and all manner of life.
Danielle has always lived between Australia and the UK, and has taken every opportunity to travel to countries near and far between. She loves to explore and experience the different cultures that each country has to offer, their history and their way of life. Danielle immerses herself in nature daily; whether it be a 30km trek, or a coastal walk across Sydney’s beaches, she loves the outdoors.
Steph came to Inspired Adventures in 2021, motivated by her desire to contribute to something meaningful. She loves to communicate with people from different walks of life and this is what inspires her as a fundraising coordinator – being able to build purposeful connections with so many incredible individuals. Steph discovered her passion for charity through community service as a long-time volunteer in the aged care sector. She believes every person can make a difference, and we all have the power to change the world for the better. Outside of her passion for charity and travel, you can find her reading books, baking cakes and bushwalking in national parks.
Jessica is a Management and Tourism Graduate born and raised in Sydney. She began with Inspired Adventures as a Travel Operations Intern in early 2020, just before the pandemic, and loved everything about the company and making a difference for people. She has a strong interest in learning about sustainability and eco-travel in the ever-growing tourism industry. Outside of work, you can find her spending time with my family and friends, on long walks, reading, or enjoying food and drinks on a nice sunny rooftop. Jessica aspires to encourage people around her to do more good for other people and be more conscious of the planet.
Michelle has been a part of the Inspired Adventures team since 2018, heading up our travel team before moving into the marketing space. She loves that her job means she can support hundreds of worthy causes, and make a real difference in the world. Michelle loves to travel and explore new places, having visited nearly 30 countries and living in three of them. Her favourite travel experience was visiting Lapland in Sweden, but anywhere snowy has her captivated. In her spare time, she loves spending time with family and friends, planning where to travel next, and hitting the dance floor.
Based in Melbourne but working globally, Justin is an award-winning content marketing strategist, journalist, and photographer. He’s previously hiked to fight Brain Cancer and done his sporting best to grow a mo’ in support of men’s health for Movember. His love for purpose-led adventure travel and conservation meant he was a natural fit for Inspired Adventures.
Justin’s travel career was jump started after winning $10,000 from Lonely Planet, and he hasn’t looked back, pivoting from his past life as a lawyer to travelling the world and working to improve the future of our planet. At Inspired Adventures, Justin helps guide the marketing team’s communication strategy and shares all the wonderful stories of our participants on social media.
Hannah first joined the Inspired Adventures family in 2011, where her love affair for travel and for purpose work took hold. Working first in the fundraising and then the campaigns teams, highlights of her first 3 years with Inspired included summiting Kilimanjaro, trekking the Great Wall of China, cycling in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. And, of course raising millions of dollars for important causes across the country.
Hannah left Inspired Adventures in 2014 to pursue her own adventures around the world and worked in the charity sector in the UK for several years before returning to her roots in New Zealand, where she now lives with her partner and growing family. Since 2018, Hannah has been working closely with the Inspired team on strategy and projects, and it’s no secret she loves to get stuck into data to understand the ‘why’.
Team doctors
George graduated from medicine in London in 1986, where he completed his General Practice training. He spent two years working at the Royal Perth Hospital, then spent a year working in a country General Practice before returning to Perth, where he runs a small family medical practice. He has an interest in travel medicine and has travelled widely in South East Asia including trekking in the Sumatran Rainforest and participating in an expedition to the Hindu Kush in a medical capacity. George also writes regularly for medical magazines on environmental health matters, reviews clinical information on herbal medicines and is on the national committee of Doctors for the Environment Australia. Outside of medical and family life, he is a keen musician and plays keyboards in the Perth-based rock band "80's inc.".
Brooke is a general practitioner hailing from Far North Queensland whose career has taken her to nearly every corner of Australia – from metropolitan Western Australia to the remote Northern Territory, where she currently works as a clinic doctor in an Aboriginal community. A keen nature enthusiast, she has trekked around the world, including to countries such as Iceland, Peru, Borneo and Tanzania. When not enjoying the great outdoors, her hobbies include playing the piano, flying planes and photography. Brooke is thrilled to work for Inspired Adventures – to be able to play a role, however small, in raising money for good causes as well as sharing in the sheer brilliance of nature with others.
As a doctor and author, Claudia has devoted her career to medicine involving nature, cultures and areas where life’s most important philosophies are at the fore. This has included Emergency, Intensive Care and General Practice medicine in (outback and urban) Australia, and overseas locations for employment, fundraising, fitness and research, the most recent being Antarctica. Her book titled the ‘The Mystery Gut’, co-authored with Professor Kerryn Phelps, was released in 2018 on the threshold of the major revolution on the way we think about the gut and its relevance to our health. Claudia believes that nature is our most powerful teacher in life that takes persistence and bravery, so therefore jumping into the ocean with her family (husband and son) and friends is her greatest joy.
Rob works in rural and remote general practice, a very Australian medical specialty, which has taken him through regional NSW, central Australia, Antarctica and now to Tasmania. Based on Tassie's wild west coast, he tries to balance the climate controlled and fluorescent lit environment of modern medicine with the more natural outdoor environment of planet earth. He is a big believer in the personal growth and discovery which can be found through the right mix of beautiful landscapes, psychological determination and physical challenges.
Hugh is originally from Queensland, where he trained in medicine and neuroscience. He currently works in Melbourne where he is training to be a neurologist. Hugh has been hiking for over 20 years and takes every opportunity to get away to the wild and wonderful corners of the world and at home in Australia. He has hiked in South East Asia, New Zealand, Nepal, and Africa, as well as the Americas, from Canada to Chile. In 2012 he undertook a particularly memorable 3000 kilometre, five month long bicycle trip from San Francisco to Guadalajara in Mexico (he can now give excellent recommendations for comfortable bike seats). The only thing Hugh enjoys more than solo adventures, is combining his passion for hiking and the outdoors with medical work, which he gets to do at Inspired Adventures.
Jon relocated to New Zealand in 2015 from the United Kingdom and started working as a helicopter doctor around rural New Zealand. With just a small medical kit in his backpack, the transition into expedition medicine shortly afterwards was a natural one. Since then, he’s visited five continents on trips with Inspired Adventures. When he’s not travelling, Jon works in Intensive Care in Auckland as well as on New Zealand's national aeromedical retrieval service. In his spare time he enjoys mountain biking and long walks on the beach.
Callum is an emergency medicine doctor currently working in Sydney. When not working, he and his girlfriend. Genevieve, are at the beach with their dog Arlo or researching their next holiday destination. Growing up on the east coast of Australia, he was taught to love the outdoors from a young age. He has both personal and professional experience in austere environments, having trekked to Everest Base Camp, Mount Kilimanjaro and even to Norway's Trolltunga during a snowstorm! Callum has also completed subspecialty training in wilderness medical skills.
As a general practitioner with interests in travel medicine and preventative health, Paula believes in the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and feeding the mind and body with nourishment from the natural world. She has crafted a portfolio career combining general practice with health leadership and medical education, which allows her to nurture her love of the great outdoors. An avid hiker, Paula has been fortunate enough to travel the world enjoying incredible trekking opportunities. She loves sharing these experiences with others and enjoys being able to give back and make a difference by working with the Inspired Adventures team.
Team leaders
When you choose to travel with Inspired Adventures, you can be confident you’re in the best hands. As well as an expert local guide, we send an Inspired Adventures Tour Leader on most adventures and Doctors where required, to make sure you have the very best experience while away.
Kyle is an Inspired Adventures alum, having worked at IA from 2010-2012. He has led more than 20 adventures on almost every continent. His wanderlust is insatiable. Kyle has lived on four continents and travelled and worked in over 100 countries. He has run the London marathon, swam an open water marathon in the English channel, trekked to Everest Base Camp and summited Mount Kilimanjaro not once, but twice! He has personally fundraised over $50,000 for various charities. Kyle grew up in Southern California and has been an "expat" for over 15 years. He loves travel more than anything, followed closely by politics and Ru Paul's Drag Race. He recently took up knitting and ticked off the top item on his bucket list – an expedition to Antarctica – which is the last place he went before COVID-19 struck.
Travel allows Barbara to get out of the ‘everyday’ zone and be challenged in a new environment. She enjoys learning about different cultures and meeting new people, sharing time and wonderful experiences with them. South East Asia is Barbara’s preferred travel destination, having undertaken many hiking and biking trips in Vietnam with Inspired Adventures. She also loves Iceland because of the spectacular scenery that helps remind her that nature is much bigger and more powerful than humankind. But the most fun she’s ever had was sailing and biking around the Croatian Islands, because the people are great storytellers and the food is amazing. Barbara originally hails from New Zealand, but worked in both Asia and Australia before returning home to live, where she enjoys mountain biking or running in the Tararua Ranges with her dog, Bella.
Bianca is born and bred in Melbourne and travels often. Her love of globetrotting stemmed from running marathons around the world. Bianca is passionate about setting goals and celebrating them, which makes her the perfect person to lead a team with Inspired Adventures. In her time with IA, she’s led treks and cycling adventures in Vietnam and China, which she does alongside her corporate communications career and side hustle of teaching fitness classes. On top of this, she’s passionate about learning more about the charities supported through IA, as it makes for really meaningful work with the inspiring individuals she enjoys getting to know during on adventures.
Dave first became involved with Inspired Adventures in 2011 when he participated in Rainforest Rescue’s Orang-utan Adventure Trek in Sumatra. He loved both the adventure and the idea of making a contribution to a great cause. Dave has since joined IA as a Team Leader and has led groups to the forests of Borneo, trekked Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa and the Inca Trail in Peru, walked the Great Wall of China and supported domestic trips around Australia. When Dave isn’t travelling he lives on the northern coast of New South Wales, where he works as an ecologist, making use of his degree in Zoology. He runs his own business, restoring areas of native vegetation and educating people on biodiversity conservation and sustainability. Dave is passionate about climate action and works with his community to support environmental causes.
Dior is originally from Brisbane, though she has spent more of her life abroad and adventuring than she has sitting still. Between working in Human Resources and studying, she has always found her true happiness lies in vagabonding in the natural world. Last year she spent most of the year diving in Indonesia, and the highlight from the year before was a 100 day hike across the top of Nepal. Dior has run up mountains, been swimming in streams, and camped in the wild in more countries than she can list. Nepal, Mongolia and Norway are some of her favourite adventure playgrounds of the world. Dior loves being a Team Leader for Inspired Adventures and helping others to realise that these adventures are possible, and how much the world offers you when you step outside.
Lou loves the outdoors, a good long walk and has been very fortunate to spend her life working in and travelling through communities all over the world. She started life as a farmer, before getting into project management and leading expeditions. Nowadays, as well as being a Team Leader for Inspired Adventures, she works with an international NGO to provide medical care to populations in need. In between projects, Lou is fortunate to be able to travel to places like the Pembrokeshire Coast Path in Wales, Tiger Leaping Gorge in China, the Cordilleras in the Philippines and undertaking a 1000 kilometre bike ride down Australia’s east coast. Lou is thrilled to be part of the IA team, sharing her love of travel and the outdoors with likeminded people who want to use it as an opportunity to give back.
Throughout her life, Meg has seized every opportunity to explore new countries and cultures, from backpacking around Europe for a year, to living in France, volunteering in Greece and working in India. Meg has been an Inspired Adventures Team Leader for two years and loves working with teams who are passionate about using responsible travel to raise vital funds for charity. Meg has previously worked with an education social enterprise in rural Indian communities, a destination she adores along with neighbouring Sri Lanka and Nepal. She’s passionate about food sustainability and permaculture, and dreams of one day running a small permaculture farm or organic vineyard. Meg also runs a small knitting project called Neighbourhood Knits, creating beautiful handmade garments for the community. You’ll often find Meg pottering around the garden, making cultured butter, or enjoying a glass of natural wine.
Michelle has a long history of volunteering, fundraising and coordinating events for multiple charities, earning her the title of Newcastle Citizen of the Year in 2020 and a nomination for Australian of the Year in 2016. She has personally raised over $175,000 for charities over the past decade, and it all began with an Inspired Adventures trek along the Great Wall of China back in 2011. Her first trek as Team Leader was along the El Camino in Spain in 2017. Michelle’s ‘obsession’ with giving back to the community came from the loss of her first child after spending four months sitting in an intensive care nursery and witnessing the wonderful, caring nature of the hard-working medical staff and the need for charities to assist with research and support.
Scott led his first Inspired Adventures team in 2014 on a trek up Kilimanjaro. Since then he has led more IA trips including the Larapinta Trail in Australia and the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. He has travelled widely through Asia, Europe, Canada and New Zealand, often with a trekking focus and always seeking out mountains. Scott currently lives on a patch of land in Cobargo, New South Wales (one day to be a proper farm) with his wife and two girls and as well as leading for IA, works with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service as a caretaker at Green Cape Lightstation. He is also endeavouring to run his own land management business and is involved in community projects in Cobargo such as the Triangle Tool Library.
Suzy has a passion for everything outdoors – whether it be a stroll on a beach with her dogs or climbing a mountain in -15 degrees, she embraces every adventure. Suzy’s love of trekking has taken her to countries including Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Tanzania, China and New Zealand. The Larapinta Trail is one of her favourites in her homeland of Australia, closely followed by the Thorsborne Trail, which is practically Suzy’s backyard in North Queensland. She has competed in the international Coast to Coast adventure race in New Zealand, cycling, trail running and white water kayaking over 243 kilometres and coming third in her category. As well as being a Team Leader for Inspired Adventures, Suzy is a fully qualified fitness leader and enjoys seeing first-time trekkers fall in love with the challenge, thrill and beauty of trekking.
Growing up in Scotland meant that Tara had to hike, ski, fish and shovel snow just to get to school. She moved to Australia in 2000, and immediately immersed herself in the outdoors before becoming an Interpretive Guide and travelling around the country. She really enjoyed the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and share incredible stories and experiences. Tara has also worked as an expedition leader for school students, leading trips to Vietnam, India, Cape York and the Kimberley, navigating a host of challenges on the way. Personally she’s travelled to Europe, Canada, Africa, Asia and New Zealand. As well as being a Team Leader for Inspired Adventures, Tara creates images of threatened and endangered wildlife to bring awareness and support to their causes. She’s passionate about all things remote, wild and geared towards conservation.
Timmi was originally from Melbourne, but has spent the majority of the last 13 years living in a motorhome. The last seven of those years he’s worked as a hiking, four-wheel drive and expedition guide, residing mostly in the Northern Territory. While a lot of his time is spent going between the desert sands of Alice Springs and the tropics of Darwin, he also enjoys guiding in Tasmania. No matter where he’s based you’ll find him teaching people about the environment, Aboriginal culture and Australian history. Timmi delights in time spent outdoors being active, or under a tree reading a book. He loves new places, adventures, meeting new people and seeing them push themselves outside of their comfort zone and achieving things that make them proud of themselves, which is why he loves being an Inspired Adventures Team Leader.
See yourself working here? While we’re not actively hiring, we’re always interested to hear from talented individuals. Feel free to tell us a bit about yourself at recruitment@inspiredadventures.com.au
Want to stay inspired?
Subscribe to our monthly dose of inspiring adventure stories, travel tips and useful musings about the road ahead.
We’re a certified B Corp, committed to using business as a force for good.