Joe Mornini has spent a lifetime going from adventure to adventure. He holds a master's degree in Environmental Education from Goddard College and has been involved in outdoor education for almost four decades. A Special Education Resource Teacher and counselor, Joe is the coordinator of a program for seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD. For 30+ years, Joe’s stress-buster has been whitewater kayaking after school on the nearby Potomac River.
Always the environmentalist and adventurer, Joe has motorcycled across the country three times, walked across Ireland, walked across the state of Maryland and paddled rivers around the country.
In 2004, Joe and kayaking buddy, Mike McCormick, recruited friends and local paddling businesses to support their idea to teach whitewater kayaking to wounded soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. They named the program Team River Runner (TRR) and the goal has been to provide hope, health and healing. Working in partnership with The Wounded Warrior Project and Disabled Sports USA, TRR is a non-profit volunteer organization that now provides adaptive, therapeutic and leadership training programs for OIF/OEF veterans on a national level.
