Urban Diversion is dedicated to providing our members with a comfortable and fun way to meet one another, while participating in a wide variety of activities they love. We organize and host professional quality events centered around our members. Also, we provide a clubhouse that is enticing, friendly, and feels like home. Finally, we built an environment based on fun, creativity, warmth, respect, and reward for both our employees and our members.
We are a group of people who are dedicated to creating a real community where everyone feels at home and that they are part of something bigger.
We are friends and friends of friends - people too countless to name, who have helped us put Urban Diversion together.
We are investors, large and small, who believe in our dream of a national organization.
We are people like you - our members, who by participating, and sometimes hosting events themselves, make the club what it is, the fastest growing activities club in the area.
Urban Diversion Bay Area is Northern California?s premier outdoor adventure and social activities club. The Urban Diversion team is a group of people dedicated to creating a social community where people can come together in an environment based on fun, creativity, warmth and respect. The essence of our club is to create great experiences for our members and we pride ourselves on our excellent reputation for service and innovative events. We organize and host quality events centered around our members. The UD team doesn't just organize the events, we participate and have fun right along side you!
The staff of Urban Diversion is here to make your experience the best it can be. Get to know each of your staff members as you get to know everyone in the club:
Lance Evander - CEO and Adventurer
Lance is Urban Diversion?s illustrious founder and sovereign leader. Lance grew up in Minnesota and did his masters study in Germany after visiting a friend and forgetting to come back. He is our technology guru and in a former life he was a java architect for NATO and an IBM employee. Lance has traveled the world and always invites you with him on his new adventures. If it?s wild and crazy, Lance has probably done it! Lance is unmistakable at most events - he is the guy who is usually having the most fun! We urge caution when spending time with Lance ? his adventurous and fun-seeking spirit is contagious! |
Larissa McClowan - Club Relations Manager
Larissa is our festive sprite who hails from across the pond...England. She found herself in San Francisco after her stint at Oxford University where she majored in biochemical engineering. She did two semesters abroad at an Antarctic station doing science. Upon graduating, she took to traveling across the globe, until she landed in San Francisco and never looked back. After witnessing what California had to offer, she decided she had enough of the ol' country and her ol' life & jumped into a new career. She pursued her dreams and took acting classes at A.C.T. She performed in multiple theatre productions, such as Andrew Lloyd Weber's Jesus Christ Superstar and Wicked, to name a few. After her brief hiatus in the theatre, she took an interest in jumping out of planes and flying through the air on a trapeze. Although she was loving her life, Laressa soon realized that she missed her biochemist days and began to pursue a new path: to combine science with fun....and voila, she found Urban Diversion...where she could mix business with pleasure! |
Rhiannon Anderson - Marketing Manager Extraordinaire
Rhiannon migrated to San Francisco after being emancipated from the Great City of Salt in Utah. She drove through the Sierras and survived the treacherous Donner's Pass in her trusty Honda Civic del Sol. She spent her glory days living in the fabulous Tenderloin while pursuing her Masters in History at San Francisco State University. After completing her degree, she promptly enrolled into photography courses and traveled across the globe. She's kissed the pyramids of Giza, frolicked with dolphins in the Bahamas, and has nibbled corn on the cob in Istanbul. However, her all time favorite place away from home is Italy and Tokyo. She can not live without her essential "three c's": cheese, chihuahuas and candy-corn. |
Shannon Woods - Assistant Marketing Coordinator
| Shannon is proud to declare herself a Bay Area native, despite taking a leave of absence to get educated in the Pacific Northwest. She studied Communication Studies and Theatre Arts at the University of Puget Sound and found herself longing for the Bay more and more each year. After completing her degree, she promptly returned and thrust herself into marketing in the Silicon Valley. When she?s not glued to her computer playing with various programs, she loves to hit up parks with a good book, watching theatre, going hiking or bouldering, and dancing. She finds herself DJing and teaching Lindy Hop and Blues around the Bay Area on a semi-regular basis. Shannon is also proud to label herself a geek ranging from computer games, console games, board games, and pen and paper games! She is currently working with a game company, but continues to serve on as an adviser to the Marketing department. |
Julene Rafael - Event Manager
| Bio coming soon |
Athena Du Bois - South Bay Event Coordinator
| Athena moved to the Bay Area 5 years ago after graduating from the University of Arkansas with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. She is deeply passionate about acting, traveling, and enjoying as much sunshine as she can possibly get. Although Athena has called Arkansas home since she was 7, she has also enjoyed traveling the world with her family and friends, spending time in India, Italy, Mexico, and Singapore and can't wait to add more amazing places to the list. Athena is excited to start exploring all of the fun things to do in the Bay area with Urban Diversion! If you haven't tried something at least once, it's time to try it! |
Danbi Song - San Francisco Event Planner
| Danbi is a new transplant to the Bay Area, who was born and raised in Jinju, South Korea. After graduating with a degree in Travel & Tourism management she moved to San Francisco for new adventures. As evidenced by her major, she loves to travel amd explore while meeting new people along the way. Not only is she an explorer, but Danbi is also a talented musician. She used to sing in a band and can play more than five instruments! She also loves art, history, and stufying different cultures.
She loves her life in San Francisco and ready to have so much fun with UD members! |
Pedro Castro - European Event Coordinator
| Born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, Pedro started off by studying Economics and then specialized in Events Management. While studying, he always found time to pursue his hobbies, organizing and hosting private parties, studying foreign languages (English, French and Spanish) and practicing Karate. His passion for discovering new cultures and his open-minded spirit led him to move and study in Paris for a year, and then England for two years. Experienced traveler, he went twice on Interrail across Europe and has already set foot on four different continents! Extremely passionate about music, Pedro started Djing by the age of 14 and ever since has played in several bars, clubs and private parties in Lisbon, Paris and London. Last year he began producing electronic dance music, under the alter ego Beiss (youtube.com/pedrovcastro). |
Lavania Bortis - Membership Representative
| Bio Coming Soon |
Chet McNeil - Tahoe Ski Cabins Manager
Chet is our wonderful Ski Cabin Manager who is responsible for our ski cabins in North Shore and South Shore of Tahoe. He first joined a 60 Member ski cabin in NH in 2000 And has been running ski cabins since 2003. Chet joined UD in 2007 shortly after moving to California from Boston and has been managing Urban Diversion's Tahoe area Ski House operations since the 2007-2008 Ski season. Chet is actually a terrible skier, but watch out when the snowboarding begins! He even taught snowboarding in the 2001-2002 season and still teaches some UD guests. So if you're an avid skier / snowboarder or you're planning on learning, Chet's your man to speak to for accomodation and tips (well, perhaps just snowboarding tips!) |