Gretchen Ostherr took her first Outward Bound course as a student of the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School's (HIOBS) sailing program when she was 16 years old back in 1986. This Downeast Sailing course, one of Hurricane's classic courses for teenagers, had such a strong influence on her life that Gretchen's dream was to become an Outward Bound instructor. Gretchen has fulfilled not only that dream, but has devoted much of her life to the Outward Bound community and teaching the philosophy of OB values to others. She took her first staff training in 1989 (again with HIOBS), and has been working for the Outward Bound family of programs since 1990.
Gretchen has been an instructor, course director and program director, primarily in the sailing programs in Maine and Florida and the semester programs that have traveled internationally. In the last year she has been working on writing the safety documents that will unify the policies and practices from all of the OB "Legacy School" Wilderness programs. Gretchen has recently returned to OB fulltime as the newly appointed Director of the Blank Read Training Institute. She is married to a fellow OB instructor, Todd Williams, and their family has expanded to include 2 young girls (future OB students and staff we hope). She has a MA in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University and has been developing curriculum for OB in her various roles. She and her husband make their home in Rockport, Maine where Gretchen shares office space with the National OB Professional Program and Todd teaches English at the local high school.