Employees

The Collette Foundation is an employee run organization. Employees apply to become part of the Collette Foundation and when selected become part of a destination task force. Each task force is responsible for researching their destination and developing relationships with potential partners. Once their project is chosen they propose the funding needed to complete the project. Through constant communication the teams benchmark the progress and update the Collette Foundation Community.

Our employees are truly tremendous people! They give so much of their time and energy to these projects, we are very proud of them! We’d like you to take this opportunity to get to know them better.

Contributing Employees

I’m Carol Wright, the employee Ambassador for Kenya and the Payroll Accountant/Administrator for Collette, 2010 marks my 14th year here! My own inability to have children has given me the drive to help these children in Kenya. It has not been easy but it’s been an unbelievably life changing three years. An experience that I would not change nor give up for anything. Now every time I see their smiling faces it reminds me why I need to keep pushing myself—they have so little but are so happy. Even when things go bad around me I think about them and those things do not matter anymore. What has amazed me the most is among all their basic needs for food, water, etc., there is such a strong thirst for knowledge from the children of Tenderfeet. All they really want is to learn. It has been an honor and privilege to help them find a new permanent school…

I’m Siobhan Siedzik, Ambassador for Cambodia and Operations Supervisor here at Collette Vacations. I have been with Collette for six years and am so glad to be part of the Collette Foundation.

Our partnership with Journeys within our Community has been such a joy for me. To see the lives of the local children improve so greatly from the community center has been so fulfilling! To think, before the center was built many of the children had never experienced a shower with running water before, now they are able to use the facilities at JWOC whenever they need. It is so wonderful to be part of making these lives better through access to clean water and education! Whenever we recieve photos of the kids I am reminded that we really can make a difference.

I’m Patricia Grady-Lopez, Ambassador for Northern Ireland and Product Specialist – this year marks my tenth year with Collette Vacations!  Born in the UK of staunchly Irish parents, I travelled around the world from a young age.  My father joined the British Royal Air Force as a young man when there was nothing else in impoverished Ireland.  Stationed in Belfast he met my mother, born and bred in Belfast.  Northern Ireland was going through turbulent times when I was growing up and although I had little exposure to it, my mother, who grew up there and whose family still lives there, made sure I understood the injustices and inequality being perpetrated at the time. Educated in England, I also received an alternative perspective of the “troubles”.

 I married a US citizen of Hispanic descent and relocated to the US and started to work for Collette Vacations.  It was a privilege for me to be able to work for the foundation.  The Product Department travelled to Peru on the first foundation mission and it was an overwhelming experience, to witness poverty and disease amongst children in poorly developed countries.   I travelled to Culturlann in November 2009 and as a mother, it is meaningful to be able to give back not only to the foundation project that is meaningful from a personal level, but also to be able to give back to unfortunate children around the world and for our clients to be able to give back on tour.

I am Pam Strand, District Sales Manager for Eastern Massachusetts. I am so glad to have been involved with the Collette Foundation in a volunteer capacity since 2007.

Having traveled extensively, I have seen both the great need around the world and the great work that the Collette Foundation has accomplished. It was wonderful to be a part of the Hippo Water Roller delivery and celebrate wtih the people of Kgautswane – their lives will truly be impacted. I have been inspired to do more myself!

I’m Dawn Lein, Ambassador for the Fiji/Australia Foundation and currently work in the air department as an Air Reservations Agent.  I have been with Collette since July 2007.  I was raised in the great state of Wyoming and came to Rhode Island when I was 18 to attend college. I fell in love with Rhode Island and decided to make it my permanent residence. 

I have been an active volunteer in the community, servicing those with special needs.  I am currently a member of the  Easter Seals Event Committee and prior to that served on the Best Buddies board.

It is important to me to help children around the world as they are/or hold our future.  What we do today in the lives of these children will have a great impact in their lives tomorrow!  My goal with the Australia/Fiji foundation is to spread awareness of the help that is needed in these locations.  Most people associate these destinations with paradise however have no knowledge of the realities of growing up in Fiji.

Hello.  My name is Chris Alestra, Ambassador for the Collette Foundation supporting projects for children at the Lhasa Jatson Chumig Welfare Special School in Tibet.  I have been at Collette since 1995.  I am the Director of Partnership Marketing, overseeing all of Collette’s cooperative relationships and managing the integration of partnerships into the company’s marketing plans.  I love my job because of the people I meet and the places I have had the pleasure of visiting.  When not traveling I work from my home in Atlanta, GA.  My passions beyond travel include serving as a disaster volunteer for the Red Cross, participating in long distance fundraising walks, photography and raising my two young boys with my husband.  As the ambassador for Tibet I get to fulfill all of these passions – giving back, helping children, and making a difference.  The children at the Jatson School are the ones in greatest need – either orphans, physically challenged or from very poor families.  Jatson Chumig gives them a stable supportive environment for them to live receive a great education and receive the skills to give back to their community.  We have supplied the kids with much needed uniforms and our next project is to build a kindergarten room for the little kids.  I hope to get to visit the school myself in 2011.  Just seeing their faces in pictures has been so rewarding and they are so incredibly thankful for our support.  I just can’t wait to meet each of them in person!