TONJA LESMEISTER
Tonja and her husband are the founders of TAP. She went on her first service trip to Jamaica in 2008 and has done over 30 service trips since then. Tonja is a Social Worker that worked primarily with youth during her career. She is passionate about building community and providing opportunities for people to serve others. Aside from social work, she enjoys the outdoors, gardening, kayaking, traveling, and spending time with her family and friends. Tonja along with her husband, Troy, and youngest child, Neyo, are full time travelers living in their RV when not traveling to other countries.
TROY LESMEISTER
Troy and his wife are the founders of TAP. They went on her first service trip to Jamaica in 2008 and have done over 30 service trips since then. Troy is a pilot for a commercial airline and on his days off he likes to build, plan and make anything using tools. In addition, he enjoys the outdoors, biking, kayaking, and traveling in their RV. Troy and Tonja credit their travel bug to all the people they have met along the way. TAP has allowed them to expose more people to travel in a respectful and responsible way.
KRISTIN FRYMAN
Kristin joined her first TAP trip in February 2019, after reading about the opportunity through the Delta Airlines pilots’ group. She currently lives with her family in Bishop, Georgia. Kristin has worked professionally as a speech-language pathologist for over 20 years and recently opened her own practice. She enjoys traveling, photography, reading, being outdoors, and spending time with family. Having lived in almost 20 different cities, towns, and countries, being a military child and spouse allowed Kristin to learn about and respect various communities and cultures. This respect for culture while providing support to people in need drew her to TAP’s mission.
Karri Colberg
Karri joined the board following her first TAP in 2023. She became involved with TAP through a partnership with the University of Wisconsin-River Falls(UWRF) providing teletherapy speech-language services to children at Robin’s Nest and Melody House. Professionally, Karri is a speech-language pathologist and Clinical Associate Professor at UWRF. Throughout her career, Karri has always had a passion for helping children and adults with significant communication challenges, with special interest in serving the needs of children with autism spectrum disorders. During her first TAP trip, Karri had the opportunity to to visit the Montego Bay Autism Center and immediately felt called to use her skills to help support the needs of the children and families at this school. Karri has since expanded the UWRF teletherapy services to include children and families at the Montego Bay Autism Center. In addition to this work, Karri is active in her community, volunteering and advocating for the needs of individuals with disabilities. She enjoys spending time with her family, her dogs and being out in nature. Karri is excited to be a member of the TAP board of directors as she looks forward to fostering relationships and serving others on a global level.
BETHANY MEACHEN
Bethany took her first TAP trip in February of 2020. Since then, she has been volunteering with all things marketing, communications, social media and leading trips to Jamaica. Bethany lives with her husband and two teenage children in western Wisconsin. As an aviation family, they are very thankful for the opportunity to travel and explore the world. As parents, they believe it is very important for their children to experience other cultures, locations, and lifestyles that are encountered while traveling. TAP holds a special place in her heart as brings together traveling the world and volunteering.
CARRIE BROWN
Carrie Brown is one of the founding members of the TAP board and currently serves as the board Vice President. She first visited Jamaica in February 2019, and has jumped at the chance to return several times since then. In addition to her work with TAP, Carrie is a long time volunteer with Horton’s Kids, a tutoring and mentoring program in Washington, DC and volunteers as the Director of Operations for Allied Airlift 21, a non-profit helping to evacuate Afghans who worked with the United States and whose lives are in danger because of their work. Carrie lives in Virginia and works as an IT Project Manager.