OUR TEAM
Meet the SheADV Leadership Team
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Shalmarie Wilson
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Inna Thorn
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Eva Rupert
Eva Rupert
Eva Rupert is passionate about two-wheeled adventures and bringing people together. She spends her free time riding her motorbike, cooking dinner and whipping up cocktails for everyone who shares her campfire. A skilled outdoorswoman with a diverse background, Eva’s resume ranges from experiential education to restaurant management.
A freelance writer and event planner, she is the Motorcycle Community Coordinator for Overland Expo, in addition to creating dozens of charitable events and adventure rallies herself. Eva purchased her first bike, a 1979 Honda CB750, on a whim in her early twenties and has been riding ever since.
She discovered adventure motorcycling when she rolled into Overland Expo on her vintage Honda with a bundle of camping gear strapped to the seat. For the first time, she saw riders standing up on bikes that looked like spaceships, with their gear neatly stowed in metal panniers (which seemed much more practical than her duffle bag and bungee cords!). She was instantly inspired and got herself a KLR 650 within the year.
Eva has traveled extensively in North America and dreams of someday completing a round-the-world adventure ride. Eva loves exploring on two wheels and meets the world with boundless enthusiasm, curiosity, and optimism. She makes her home in Bisbee, Arizona where she runs the Jonquil Motel with her boyfriend, Sterling Noren. The vintage motor lodge is just a few miles from the Mexico border and has plenty of motorcycle parking out front.
Inna Thorn
For the last decade, Inna Thorn has been at the helm of the Backcountry Discovery Routes® (BDR®) non-profit organization and currently serves as BDR Executive Director and Vice President of the Board. Raised in Moscow, Russia, Inna has always been a spirited soul. Helping others is her passion and she has dedicated most of her career to the nonprofit sector. Inna moved to Seattle, WA in 1998, where she worked for a local arts fundraising nonprofit while putting herself through school at the University of Washington.
In 2006, she met a guy who dreamed of riding motorcycles from Seattle to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. This quickly became a shared vision-turned-reality when they took off for six months on a pair of Kawasaki KLR 650 motorcycles, covering over 17,000 miles through 13 countries. By the end of the trip, they decided to make their adventure together permanent with an engagement to marry.
Once back in Seattle, Inna started a freelance creative agency and began consulting for motorcycle industry clients, including Ural Motorcycles and Touratech. Three years after the BDR was founded, the organization began to outgrow its volunteer workforce and Inna was recruited to become the Director of Operations. Since 2012, Inna has taken the operation to new levels with her energy, organization, and passion for inspiring others to explore the world on two wheels. When not hard at work, Inna and her husband like to share the wonders of nature with their two young children, camping and hiking in the mountains, and traveling the world.
Olivia Harold
Olivia Harold got into adventure riding the way many great things happen: through a friend and a well-timed nudge. During the dark days of COVID-19, a friend texted about the upcoming Touratech West Rally, adding: "I think there's a chick group that attends?" Knowing almost nothing about ADV, Olivia signed up for Shal's class, showed up for a full, grueling, rain-soaked weekend, and came out with a new obsession. She returned the following year to take the class again, and when a call went out for official SheADV team members and volunteers, she jumped on it. You can now find her working the booth, coordinating volunteers and Trailside calls, and keeping the team running smoothly.
Olivia rides two Yamahas: a Ténéré 700 ("Tenny") and a WR250. Her most memorable ride to date has been the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route. Within the first few minutes of the first section, she found herself thinking: why do I ever do anything else with my time? Seeing parts of the state that few people ever reach, being self-reliant on the trail while still bonding with your riding companions is an accomplishment and a joy that's impossible to find anywhere else.
Off the bike, Olivia works as a user experience researcher in Seattle, WA, making technology work better for the people who use it. Originally from Connecticut, she shares that home-state connection with fellow board members Eva and Erin. And while she'll take on mud, rain, and rough terrain without a second thought, heights are another story. Put her on a sheer cliff and she'll clam right up.
Erin Sanzone
Erin Sanzone is a proud product of the SheADV program who has spent the last four years training and coaching alongside head coach Shalmarie Wilson. She came up through the same classes that hooked so many others, and somewhere along the way the student became the teacher. She now serves as a SheADV board member, coaches at adventure rallies across the country, and is a regular guest and host on Trailside, the monthly Zoom gathering for women interested in the adventure motorcycling life.
What sets Erin apart is the unusual combination of expertise she brings to coaching. Her day job as a Physician Assistant in orthopedic trauma and surgery gives her a grounded, practical perspective on rider safety and injury prevention that most instructors simply don't have. Add a background as a former mountain bike racer, and she has a knack for weaving together lessons from both worlds in ways that stick. She's also living proof that bike size is no barrier: Erin is a small rider who handles big adventure bikes with ease, and she makes a point of showing her students the same is possible for them.
Off the bike, Erin lives in Connecticut and runs a Christmas tree farm in the holiday season. Whether she's working with brand-new off-road riders or helping experienced riders sharpen their skills, her enthusiasm for helping women ride with more confidence is hard to miss.
Shalmarie Wilson - Founder / Emeritus
Shalmarie Wilson (better known as Shal) teamed up with TouratechUSA to found SheADV in 2015. She has been the Project Manager, lead instructor, and a contributor ever since. She got started in adventure riding after a near-fatal motorcycle crash in 2011, when she went to replace her totaled Yamaha FZ6. When the salesperson asked what sort of riding she liked to do, Shal said that she liked to load up her bike with camping gear and go into the backcountry.
Though she knew nothing about adventure riding at the time, when the salesperson showed her an orange (her favorite color) Suzuki V-Strom 650, it was game over! Shal bought the bike without another thought and promptly signed up for a multi-day Adventure Rider Camp with Bret Tkacs of PSSOR. She now teaches both on- and off-street courses all over the country and makes her home on the road. Shal has ridden most of the Backcountry Discovery Routes, many of which she uses as an outdoor classroom while leading students on Immersion Training Tours.
A fun fact about Shal, though she fainted twice while getting her first tattoo, she has since added seven more. One of her most memorable experiences was on a 15-month motorcycle tour of North America when she and her traveling companion were deep in the backcountry, near Hatcher Pass, Alaska. With no one else in sight, the 360-degree view of nothing but mountains is a sight that will forever be etched in her memory.
Our Story
The mission of SheADV is to inspire, celebrate, and help women pursue their adventure motorcycle travel dreams. As an inclusive effort, SheADV provides energy and opportunities for which other female-centered riding entities will benefit. To accomplish the mission, SheADV facilitates events, training, tours, this website, and other means to help women ride. SheADV is proudly powered by Touratech USA.
