{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Rockstar Launcher @ The Intersection Of Law & Business","title":"Kari-Ann Melendez, President & Founder of Adapt-Able Scuba","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1831,"description":"Kari-Ann Melendez, President & Founder (https://adapt-ablefoundation.org/board)\nAdapt-Able Scuba (https://adapt-ablefoundation.org) is a 100% volunteer 501(c)(3) organization focused on making scuba accessible to people with physical, emotional, developmental, and cognitive challenges. They provide adaptive scuba experiences and travel and also train adaptive divers, adaptive buddy divers, and professional/instructor buddy divers. A big part of what they do is bring the adaptive and able-bodied communities together rather than treating adaptive diving as something completely separate.\n \nKari-Ann served in the US Navy and retired from Civil Service with the Federal Aviation Administration in an Air Traffic Control Executive management position in 2014.  During her career, while raising her family, she earned her BS from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Professional Aeronautics and her Private Pilot License.  Utilizing her management skills she co-founded an Aviation Explorer Post for youth age 14-20; helped to create and teach an Aviation Science Course for the local Lakota Sioux Reservation, and served as a mentor to youth in several Inner City Science/Technology Career Development Programs throughout the central US.\n \nAfter her retirement, Kari-Ann had a chance to live out a childhood dream of learning to Scuba dive.  She earned her first certification in 2017, and is now a Master Scuba Diver and Divemaster.  Her continued desire to serve led her to pursue advanced training in Adaptive Scuba and start assisting others to experience the wonders of Scuba and the excitement of doing what they might not ever had thought possible!  She earned her Diveheart Advanced Adaptive Dive Buddy, Handicapped Scuba Association Professional Buddy, and PADI Adaptive Techniques Specialty to support her desire to serve others.\n\nValerie Yanaros is a partner at Fulton Jeang PLLC (https://www.fultonjeang.com/valerie-yanaros/) and a seasoned intellectual property and commercial...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/JilCDSAKCqgWy1ZHNAT6urEcymv-y1u4pu8dYe-sNpo/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8xYmYw/YjJhMmExOTA5Yjhk/NmQwODhmNTFjNmFk/N2UwOS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}